Tag Archives: GREXIT

Jul 25 2020

Trudeau Brand Analysis


What does the Trudeau brand really stand for? Privilege, Arrogance, Disdain, Self-Promotion, Indifference, and Failure. Image over substance

Ken Grafton image

Re-posted from the Canada Free Press By  —— Bio and Archives—July 24, 2020

 The Salmon Arm Salute – Jenn KovachikThe Salmon Arm Salute - Jenn Kovachik

With the Prime Minister facing yet another investigation by Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion, his third since taking office in 2015, Canadians need to take a hard look at the Trudeau brand.

How does brand promise contrast with operational reality?

What does the Trudeau brand really stand for?

The Trudeau brand values were Young, Hip, Smart and Liberal. Image over substance

In order to understand the Trudeau brand, it is necessary to travel back through the mists of time to a different age; the turbulent 1960s. Hippies, Pot, Acid, the Counterculture, Carnaby Street, Andy Warhol, the Grateful Dead, Timothy Leary, the Vietnam War, Civil Rights, rioting in the streets, Martin Luther King…Bobby Kennedy was running for President…the Beatles were still together…it was an exciting time to be young and alive.

In this atmosphere of social revolution, a little-known lawyer from Montreal named Pierre Elliott Trudeau was appointed Minister of Justice and Attorney General by then Prime Minister Lester Pearson. In April of 1968 Trudeau won the Liberal Party leadership and became Prime Minster in the June election. The first celebrity politician in Canada, his campaign ran on personality and generated an intense emotional energy amongst supporters that was dubbed “Trudeaumania”, due to the hoards of screaming female fans that drew a parallel to the hysteria of Beatles fans.

Against Conservative Robert Stanfield, the stodgy scion of a prominent New Brunswick family; the witty, charismatic, socially-liberal 48-year-old bachelor Trudeau cleaned up easily with 154 seats.

Despite being a middle-aged lawyer, Trudeau dated attractive movie stars, drove a Mercedes 300 SL, and sometimes wore denim. Somehow, he could pull it off. His initials were PET. Overnight, Canada was suddenly cool.

This was the genesis of the Trudeau brand. Forged in the psychedelic, drug-fueled, rock and roll, colour TV, FM radio atmosphere of the late 60s.
You had to be there.

The Trudeau brand values were Young, Hip, Smart and Liberal. Image over substance.

He was friendly with Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro—Bragged He Was A Communist

While Trudeau had charmed Canadians in 1968, the love affair didn’t last. Winning only a minority in 1972, he was defeated on a vote of non-confidence in 1974, which led to another majority win in the resulting election. He was defeated by Conservative Joe Clark in 1979, who was also brought down by a vote of non-confidence, and then defeated by Trudeau in the 1980 election. Facing dismal poll numbers, which had dropped to 25% by 1982, Trudeau resigned in 1984 and handed over to Finance Minister John Turner (making 70 unpopular backroom patronage appointments as part of the deal).

His time in office was fraught with controversy.

Feb 16th, 1971 Trudeau was accused of having told opposition MP’s in the House to go forth and multiply. This became known as the “fuddle duddle” incident. In a CBC interview (CBC Digital Archives, 1971) Tory MP, Lincoln Alexander “He mouthed two words. The first started with the letter F, the second word the letter O.”

During a vacation trip in 1982, the PM extended a middle finger to local BC protestors from the borrowed Governor General’s railcar, in an incident famously recorded in history as the “Salmon Arm Salute”. Visitors can view the preserved railcar (National Post, 22 Aug 16) and pose with a cardboard Trudeau at a resort near Craigellachie, BC.

He was friendly with Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro and praised the Soviet Union (Maclean’s, 28 Feb 18) during the Stalin years, bragging that he was a communist.

The Reality Behind the Image

In 1970 he deployed the military on Canadian streets under the War Measures Act.

In 1971, the 51-year-old Prime Minister married Margaret Sinclair, the 22-year-old flower-child daughter of Liberal MP and Cabinet Member James Sinclair of Vancouver.

The March 21st, 1977 cover story in Maclean’s featured a photo of Margaret Trudeau and Mick Jagger, with the banner “Margaret and the Rolling Stones” which detailed her exploits with the bad-boy rockers.

At a state dinner in Venezuela, she honored the country’s first lady with an impromptu song instead of a planned toast, and later admitted that she had taken peyote (Bazaar, 17 Mar 16) beforehand. The press had a field day.

In 1978 Margaret Trudeau, then separated from her husband, appeared in a High Society Magazine cover story entitled “Margaret Trudeau – Caught With No Panties!”. The photo, which showed Canada’s first lady seated on the floor of notorious New York disco Studio 54 sans lingerie, was auctioned in 2017.

She hung with Andy Warhol.

Not unlike say Paris Hilton officially representing Canada abroad. Viral quality clickbait potential definitely, but embarrassing for most Canadians.

Three decades later, in a new age of post-truth and social media, all that remained in the minds of a majority of Canadian voters was brand recognition. Succeeding generations and a large immigrant population were unaware that the Trudeau brand had tarnished since it’s introduction in 1968. Celebrity had become the key value in political contests, and almost seven-million Canadians looked no further than the Trudeau name and tinsel-town allure at the polls in 2015.

Since then, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has continued in the family tradition, with scandal after scandal keeping Liberal spin-doctors in a state of perpetual angst.

Justin Trudeau’s List of Scandals

Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, these include:

  1. Lavalin-gate
  2. Aga Khan Gate
  3. Embarrassing Indian Costumes and Bhangra dance
  4. Indian Terrorist Invited to Trudeau Reception in Delhi
  5. Elbow-gate
  6. Black Face x 3
  7. Vice Admiral Mark Norman Trial
  8. Various Cash for access scandals
  9. Praise for Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro
  10. Castro serves as pallbearer with Justin Trudeau at Pierre Trudeau’s funeral
  11. 20,000 Missing Public Works Projects
  12. WE Charity Scandal.

Pierre Trudeau tripled Federal spending between 1969-79 (MacDonald Laurier Info Wars Debate, 27 Sep 11) and plunged the country into recession in 1982, almost bankrupting it. His National Energy Program (NEP) nationalized foreign oil interests and repelled investors. Wage and Price controls contributed to the economic nightmare. It took thirty years to repair the damage done. He gutted the military, polarized parties through evoking the War Measures Act in 1970, and alienated English Canadians through his blatant favouritism of Quebec. As author Bob Plamondon wrote in his book “The Truth About Trudeau”, “No prime minister did more damage to national unity.”

Justin Trudeau has also virtually destroyed Canada’s economy, gutted the energy sector

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Since 2015, Justin Trudeau has also virtually destroyed Canada’s economy, gutted the energy sector, failed to win a UN Security Council seat, ditched his promise to create a proportional electoral system (which would have meant a Liberal loss in 2019), flooded the country with controversial refugees, inspired Quebec voters to elect a separatist party to Parliament, inspired a Western separatist party, and alienated just about everyone in the country without a special-interest lobby (and some who do). Disunity now threatens Canada’s future.

What does the Trudeau brand really stand for?

Privilege, Arrogance, Disdain, Self-Promotion, Indifference, and Failure. Image over substance.

Edmonton artist Jenn Kovachik captured it all in “The Salmon Arm Salute”. It would make a great logo.

Jul 25 2020

Milton Friedman Myths v Reality


Armstrong Economics Blog/Economics

Re-Posted Jul 25, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

 

Jul 23 2020

The Coming Coin Shortage


The Federal Reserve also established a U.S. Coin Task Force

Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh image

Re-Posted from the Canada Free Press By  —— Bio and Archives—July 22, 2020

The Coming Coin Shortage

As if the global economic disaster caused by the Chinese Covid-19 viral pandemic was not bad enough, the looming global “coin shortage” and the “unknown pneumonia” (Covid-20?) in Kazakhstan are here.

Why exactly do we have a coin shortage?

  • Banks tell us that the Fed are not releasing enough coins.
  • Armstrong Economics wrote that faith in governments has been eroded. It sees governments as promoters of the idea that money is dirty, and the solution is to eliminate coins and paper money even though physical money as a medium of exchange has been in circulation for centuries.
  • The U.S. Treasury reported a disruption in the coin supply chain and its velocity of circulation due to the lockdowns and the huge reduction in consumption in the last four months of forced lockdowns in all 50 states. People shopped mostly for food and avoided all other venues of direct commerce for fear of Covid-19 infection and because so many places were closed. Many shopped online or in large retailers like Costco, Target, Walmart, and Amazon.
  • Allegedly, the U.S. Mint has minted less coins to protect employees from COVID-19. It is an interesting issue to ponder since minting coins and printing paper currency are highly automated operations, with expensive computers driving the printing and minting presses and requiring very few employees, mostly in checking roles to make sure the machines run properly and the mint/print are done correctly, as well as controlling the quality of each batch that is bound and packaged for distribution and circulation.
  • Some central banks are sterilizing money with UV light to prevent the spread of viral infections.
  • The Fed purportedly quarantined for ten days U.S. dollars returning from Europe and Asia.

The U.S. Treasury sees the current coin shortage in U.S. businesses as a decrease in velocity of various coins in circulation. The Treasury estimated the value of coins in circulation in April 2020 of $47.8 billion as an adequate coin supply, larger than last year’s supply of coins by at least half a billion. But the closing of retail shops, many permanently, bank branches, transit authorities, and laundromats due to Covid-19 fears, eliminated the typical places where coins enter circulation.

Nobody knows exactly if people are hoarding coins on purpose or if the businesses that have closed temporarily or permanently have cleared out all their cash registers of coins and paper currency.

“The coin supply chain includes many participants, from the U.S. Mint who produces new coin, to the Federal Reserve who distributes coin on the U.S. Mint’s behalf, to armored carriers, banks, retailers and consumers, all of whom have a role to play in helping to resolve this issue.”

On June 11, the Federal Reserve announced the Strategic Allocation of Coin Inventories which was a temporary coin order allocation in all Reserve Bank offices and Federal Reserve coin distribution locations effective June 15, 2020.

The Federal Reserve also established a U.S. Coin Task Force in early July to deal with disruptions to normal coin circulation.  All interested parties participated – U.S. Mint, Federal Reserve, armored carriers, American Bankers Association, Independent Community Bankers Association, National Association of Federal Credit Unions, Coin aggregator representatives, and retail trade industry.

The Federal Reserve said that “it is confident that the coin inventory issues will resolve once the economy opens more broadly and the coin supply chain returns to normal circulation patterns, however, “it recognizes that these measures alone will not be enough to resolve near-term issues.”

Jul 20 2020

Hoarding Cash and the plan to Eliminate cash!


Armstrong Economics Blog/Economics

Re-Posted Jul 20, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

The reason there is a shortage of cash developing around the world is rather straight-forward. The trust in the government is collapsing. Italy has just lowered the legal amount someone can pay for anything in cash from €3000 to €2000. Australia made it a criminal act to pay for anything with A$10,000 or more (US$7,000).  In Switzerland, the limit on cash you can withdraw from an ATM is CHF5,000. In Germany, the limitation is typically €1000. Greeks abroad will be able to withdraw up to 5,000 euros ($5,800) a month.

In the United States, the US Treasury says the pandemic has significantly disrupted the supply chain and circulation patterns of US coins. Additionally, the US Mint has been printing fewer coins to protect its employees from COVID-19. The World Health Organization (WHO) has not advised banning paper money, but it has stressed the need for handwashing after touching cash, which is a subtle caution that money should be limited. Some central banks are deploying measures to sterilize paper money with heat or UV light. Even the Fed began a seven to 10-day quarantine for United States dollars returning to the country from Europe and Asia.

It is very clear that governments are trying to paint money as dirty, and the solution is to eliminate physical money, despite the fact that it has been in use since about the 7th century BC. All of a sudden, it is a danger after 28 centuries. This plays nicely into the Socialist’s dream to control everything!

Jul 18 2020

Milton Friedman – What is America?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Economics

Re-Posted Jul 18, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

 

Jul 17 2020

Trend in Interest Rates


Armstrong Economics Blog/Interest Rates

Re-Posted Jul 17, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Marty,

Good morning. Repo rates have been creeping up ever so slightly and quietly. Points wise not much, but percentage-wise, numbers are getting bigger. Has everybody been lulled to sleep and looking the wrong way again?

Best,
E

REPLY: The shift from a Public to a Private wave is in full motion. We can see this in Moody’s AAA Corporate Bond Index. Note that the while chaotic swing in March ran right up to the top of the Downtrend Channel and then we have swung down and just closed below the bottom of the channel. We have an important turning point arriving in October. We show the next major turning point in the US 30-year bonds being September.

These governments imposing lockdowns again are acting political rather than in the best interest of the people. Locking people down results in a collapse of tax revenue. Many in the USA have been promised by the Democrats they will be bailed out if they win the White House right down to their pension funds. This is what is going on behind the curtain – cutting deals.

Clearly, these governments are not stupid. They have to realize how much revenue has collapsed and how much damage they have caused to the people and the economy. Our models are projecting HIGHER interest rates ahead and this reflects their high-risk gamble on trying to overthrow Trump. What they fail to grasp is that the private sector has lost all confidence in governments and as such, they have destroyed the old financial system of perpetual borrowing.

As fiscal mismanagement abounds, interest rates will rise to reflect credit risk. The central banks are powerless to prevent this rise. The Fed cannot buy all state debt any more than the ECB will be authorized to buy all sovereign debt in the Eurozone. We have reached the point of no return.

Jul 11 2020

Europe Exploding into Civil Unrest – The Start of Revolutionary Cycle – 2020


Armstrong Economics Blog/Civil Unrest

Re-Posted Jul 11, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

Politicians are about to be confronted with the harsh reality of their insane lockdowns in Europe. Germany now realizes there is building massive civil unrest and there is no doubt that this New Green World Order is out to end the car industry which is a major industry the will leave the workers without a future. The government is preparing for major civil unrest and out computer has been warning Europe is being pushed into civil war as tourism has been crushed.

Meanwhile, yesterday night demonstrators in Belgrade attacked the Serbian Parliament throwing stones and bottles at the windows of the parliament building. We are looking at serious civil unrest which can lead to revolution insofar as breaking up the EU as they push for this New Green World Order which will destroy the future of so many in Europe. Only elitists view that such a transition is no problem. They underestimate the economic damage and this is the END of perpetually borrowing with no intension of ever repaying any debt.

Jul 10 2020

Risk Seems to be Everywhere


Armstrong Economics Blog/ECM

Re-Posted Jul 10, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Dear Martin,

Thank you for your commitment to helping others through this unsettling time.

Long before I found you, I was fascinated with the capital markets and historical financial crashes, in particular. I spent many years on Wall Street (and LaSalle ST) building and marketing trading systems for the listed options industry.

Through the numerous currency failures, be they inflationary or deflationary, running to private assets has been a lifesaver for some clever enough to figure it out or those lucky to be serendipitously well positioned. Yet, it is always about timing. That is the subject of this question.

If the value of a currency is based on the productive power of the people behind the currency, it makes sense that Socrates is pointing to private assets going forward. It seems to me that the very best private assets would be businesses that enjoy productive power (not so easy to predict/choose in this environment). Whether we are denominating in dollars, rice, or seashells, it seems that a solid business will crank out currency units in whatever form and be a good hedge.

Hugo Stinnes emerged after WWI as an industrialist. Controlling coal, steel, electricity, and other fundamental businesses, he was able to profit as the currency collapsed. Stinnes continued this work straight through the introduction of the Rentenmark and Reichsmark seemingly not skipping a beat. He possessed productive power but was also very politically connected, which is key to this question. Later, The Third Reich was notorious for shutting down or nationalizing businesses. We look to be headed in that direction.

For those accumulating profits in, for example, mining stocks during the commodity boom, or wheat contracts, or equities, the question is, how do we get out of those trades? What is the risk that we sell/trade at the right time only to have our assets seized? For example, do you foresee a day, here in the U.S., whereby the government liquidates a portion of an account’s common shares for a bail-in or wealth tax? If so, then illiquid private placements (productive real estate or businesses with durable Free Cash Flow) that are very hard to value (and liquidate) might be the only real safe haven.

The risk seems to be everywhere. The risk most concerning and most difficult to predict or quantify is Government Risk – even here in the U.S. I can understand why the very wealthy buy paintings and rare items. Such items represent a real possibility to function as a “time machine” to bridge this insanity.

I would love to hear your thoughts. Above all, Socrates is a lifesaver and I am humbled to have access.

With respect,
JC

Texas

ANSWER: Yes, I knew a client who bought up all the old coins for scrap metal. Then it turned out there was a shortage of metal so the old coins were deemed valid at a new exchange rate. He made a fortune. There are definitely commodities that will preserve wealth in times like this. We must be careful about the Socialists, for they will do the same as the Nazis and nationalize just confiscating assets.

I believe the best shot we have is Socrates — let it monitor the subtle shifts. The one thing you can count on is the greed of those in power. Just as I began to see the subtle shifts with the Repo Crisis last August 2019, thereafter the markets were showing something was not right. I stood up at the WEC in Orlando and warned that something was seriously wrong and that the market would undergo a serious correction with the turn in the ECM.

Historically, Socrates seems to pick up things we humans do not see because they are subtle. It is like playing chess. You have to come up with a strategy and play in your mind the next several moves. You will lose if you simply react on a one move at a time basis. This is what Socrates is doing. It is playing out strategies. It looks for the possible paths and then monitors the movements across the entire globe to determine the eventual path. This is why NOBODY can forecast the future with 100% accuracy. We cannot as humans see all the possibilities. Socrates is mapping out the future and it reveals the most likely path and course of action.

Things can change and we get cycle inversions. But it is always playing one region against another. This is why all of these pundits fail because they focus typically just domestically and never see the trends coming from external factors. Things are so bad in Europe and the politicians are deliberately blocking travel from the USA to Europe in an effort to overthrow Trump to further their New Green World Order. In the process, before year-end, they will bankrupt at least 20% of all small businesses and wipe out the tourist trade for Southern Europe. These morons think they can placate the public with minimal subsistence from Guaranteed Basic Income they are beginning in Spain.

They will NOT be able to defeat the Monetary Crisis Cycle no matter what schemes they come up with. This is totally insane. Nevertheless, we will be monitoring what markets we need to exit in advance to try to preserve assets. This is a game of survival of the fittest. We do not have to run around naked on some island eating bugs. But we may have to take precautions and move to safe havens outside of urban cities for sure.

Jul 5 2020

Stores Must Take Cash by Law


Armstrong Economics Blog/Rule of Law

Re-Posted Jul 5, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Dear Mr Armstrong,

Here is a softball question for the holiday weekend.

If US currency is legal tender, aren’t retail stores obligated to accept it?

This would seem to restrict the ability of retail stores to 1) demand electronic payment and 2) reject payment using $100 bills.

Happy 4th to you.

MB

ANSWER: You are correct. Stores MUST accept cash – that is what LEGAL TENDER means! Congress would have to pass an Act and the President MUST sign it to eliminate paper money.

Jul 3 2020

Trading is the Only School to Learn Real Economics


Armstrong Economics Blog/Economics

Re-Posted Jul 3, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: I noticed that all the economists who are not academics are the people who actually discovered something. The academics always advocate for manipulating society like Keynes and Marx. Why is that?

PD

ANSWER: If you look at the first analyst to establish supply and demand, it was John Law. Even Adam Smith used his examples in “Wealth of Nations.” Adam Smith actually investigated his work to come up with his invisible hand. There was David Ricardo, who also made a fortune as a trader. Those are the three greats and NONE of them has a formal economics degree, which was first taught as a separate course in 1902 at Cambridge.

Those of us who come from the real world of trading, do not have the luxury to come up with Utopian theories that sound nice. Unless you have traded, you will never understand that the market is always right. If you do not listen to the market, you will lose everything.