Armstrong Economics Blog/Armstrong in the Media Re-Posted Dec 18, 2022 by Martin Armstrong
Click here or on the above video to watch my latest interview on the Wiggins Sessions.
Tag Archives: Klaus Schwab
The Tax of ETFs
Armstrong Economics Blog/The Hunt for Taxes Re-Posted Dec 17, 2022 by Martin Armstrong
Interactive Brokers has published a specific list of what is taxable and what is not. If your brokerage house does not understand that ALL ETFs are not taxable, then you really have to find another broke.
MAJOR BLACKOUTS In Odessa, Ukraine
The Dive With Jackson Hinkle Published originally on Rumble on December 16, 2022
The Ukraine is in deep trouble
Ukraine HIT HARD, Bakhmut BATTLE Ensues
The Dive With Jackson Hinkle Published originally on Rumble on December 15, 2022
You will not find this material in the corrupt national news
January 1st, 2023 Tax on ETFs
Armstrong Economics Blog/The Hunt for Taxes Re-Posted Dec 16, 2022 by Martin Armstrong
QUESTION:
Hi Marty,
Please help as I invest in mostly ETFs from Australia.
I was getting USD exposure but now looks to be ending by Jan 1st, 2023.
I was Informed 2 days ago.
Could you do a post about this and any potential workarounds as I’d take a guess a lot of International clients would have a similar issue.
The US Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) has issued a new provision under Section 1446(f) of the Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) that primarily impacts non-US Persons who invest in US PTP Securities. With effect from 1 January 2023, non-US Persons will incur a 10% withholding tax on gross proceeds from sales or trading of US PTP Securities.
Regards Dean
ANSWER: This is once again the Biden Administration hunting every possible dime it can find while handing endless billion to Zelensky who may be on track to become the richest corrupt politician in the entire world. This is the notice going out to all foreigners investing in the once land of the free and home of the brave which has been downgraded to the land of the absolute fools without the hill. One bank has sent this to their clients trading in US ETFs.
Dear Customer,
Withholding Tax of 10% – Publicly Traded Partnership Interest (PTPs)
With effect from 1 January 2023, a 10% withholding will be imposed on sales and certain distributions associated with PTPs or exchange traded funds (ETFs).
PTPs trade like stocks on major U.S. and global exchanges and are often indistinguishable from equities, ETFs and other commonly traded instruments. It is critical that you understand these tax implications when you hold such PTPs and you should seek the appropriate professional advice if you are unsure of the contents of this email.
Background:
The Internal Revenue Code Section 1446(f) issued by the US Internal Revenue Service imposes rules relating to withholding of tax on transfers of Publicly Traded Partnership Interest (PTPs) and will take effect on 1 January 2023. The new rules consist of the following:
· All PTPs, including non-U.S. PTPs, are subject to the new requirements if they have gains that are effectively connected with a trade or business within the United States.
· 10% withholding will be applied to sales and certain distributions associated with PTPs. (Please note that where there is any existing withholding tax being applied today, for example to other distributions, those will continue to be applied with no change/ no reduction)
Please visit _____ official website > Notices for more details.
If you have any further questions, please email us or call our Customer Service line.
Section 1446 (see link) is part of a segment of the Code that governs withholding on nonresident aliens and foreign corporations.
Section 1446 itself deals with withholding on foreign partners who have income that is effectively connected with the US through a partnership. Section 1446(f) adds a withholding requirement that applies to the disposition of partnership interests, but it does not apply if the selling partner provides an appropriate affidavit:
“No person shall be required to deduct and withhold any amount under paragraph (1) with respect to any disposition if the transferor furnishes to the transferee an affidavit by the transferor stating, under penalty of perjury, the transferor’s United States taxpayer identification number and that the transferor is not a foreign person.”
I.R.C. § 1446(f)(2)(A).
I doubt that section 1446 applies here, as my understanding is that ETFs are taxed as registered investment companies, not as partnerships. But I am not an accountant or a tax lawyer. My reading on this text suggests that this turns on the definition of an ETF which is clearly not a partnership.
Those who are being harassed by various banks should contact their legal departments and demand their interpretation as to why suddenly an ETF is a partnership. I would love to see what explanation they have provided to apply this tax. If there is some other code they are overlapping or how they are coming up with this or are they acting out of sheer overcaution? If they will not provide an explanation, I suggest you close the account ASAP or wire out all funds until you find another firm.
Growing 30,000 Babies in a Artificial Womb
Armstrong Economics Blog/Technology Re-Posted Dec 16, 2022 by Martin ArmstrongSpread the love
Schwab’s Fream coming true – eliminating families and growing genetic clones just as in Star Wars – the Clone Wars. Just think of the possibilities. No families. Cloned to carry out orders. The perfect total control of society – a dream come true. This scientific advancement can change society, although perhaps not for the good. Now the world’s first ‘Artificial Womb Facility’ is claiming that it can grow 30,000 babies in a year in an artificial womb or a ‘growth pod’. Of course, this facility does not actually exist just yet. Gates and Schwab might still object because they exhale CO2. Perhaps EctoLife can come up with a workaround for that. They are claiming it can help with the declining population in countries such as Japan, Bulgaria, and South Korea.
Biden Will Pay African Union Additional $2.5 Billion to Stop Africa from Developing Domestic Farm Fertilizer
Posted originally on the CTH on December 15, 2022 | Sundance
The G7 leaders have been debating the problem of African farming for quite a while. The issue surrounds the conflicts between the G7 climate change agenda and the need for Africa to develop fertilizer production to enhance their farming and crop yields.
As noted in a Reuters article from June, “the European Union is divided on how to help poorer nations fight a growing food crisis and address shortages of fertilisers caused by the war in Ukraine, with some fearing a plan to invest in plants in Africa would clash with EU green goals.” As the argument unfolded, “the EU Commission explicitly opposed” any effort to enhance African fertilizer development, “warning that supporting fertilizer production in developing nations would be inconsistent with the EU energy and environment policies.”
The energy development corporations, the source industry needed to create the components for nitrogen-based fertilizer, have been waiting to invest in African energy production pending the approval of western government decisions. Addressing the issue today, Joe Biden told the African Union the United States would send an emergency $2.5 billion in food crisis aid to offset the inability of Africa to feed itself.
In essence, instead of Western government policy supporting energy production in Africa that would lead to a greater farm yield, and by extension a greater level of food independence, the Biden administration would rather restrict energy/food development in Africa and send them food subsidies; because, climate change.
(White House) – […] President Biden announced an additional $2.5 billion in emergency aid and medium to long-term food security assistance for resilient African food systems and supply markets, which builds upon over $11 billion in U.S. humanitarian and food security assistance for this year alone. President Biden also launched a new strategic partnership on food security between the United States and the African Union.
Together, we will leverage the public and private sectors, along with multilateral development banks and international financial institutions to accelerate transformational investments in sustainable and resilient food systems to prevent food shocks before they happen.
The compounding impacts of the global pandemic, the growing pressures of the deepening climate crisis, high energy and fertilizer costs, and protracted conflicts – including Russia’s war in Ukraine – have pushed weak supply chains to the brink and dramatically increased malnutrition and food insecurity — particularly for African countries. (read more)
The Biden administration would rather people starve than be able to feed themselves in order to retain the climate change agenda.
This is globalism and elitism in its full glory. Western politicians, along with multinational corporations, in control of global trade and finance are deciding who lives and who dies according to their climate change ideology. This is how important their Build Back Better scheme is to them.
Liberalism or modern totalitarian leftism is on display as the great global cleaving continues.
The elites in western government think they still have the power to control the rest of the world. However, the absence of food changes things and creates a risk to their agenda.
Many people are starting to realize -through the farming aspect- that western ideology, as manifest in modern globalism, is dangerous. The Davos crowd is willing to kill millions if that is what it takes to retain their climate change ideology.
Keep watching this closely. The multinational U.S. media will continue burying the issue protecting the ruling class.
June 2022, Reuters Article
June 2022 – CTH Outline
December 2022 – White House Announcement
Retail Sales Drop 0.6% in November
Posted originally on the conservative tree house on December 15, 2022 | Sundance
Friends, in the late summer and fall of 2021 CTH warned of massive waves of price increases that would push inflation to record highs. We watched as each wave arrived almost on schedule throughout 2022, and as a direct result of Joe Biden energy and economic policy, prices necessarily skyrocketed.
In essence in 2021 we were warning about the expenditure side of the ledger that all working-class and fixed income families would experience. We advised to take every proactive measure possible to avoid future price increases.
Now, unfortunately, we begin moving those same warnings to the other side of the ledger; because as a natural consequence of consumer checkbook pain, the financial pressure always transfers to the income and employment side of the economic dynamic.
Keep in mind, retail sales are calculated in dollars spent by consumers. November 2022 retail sales as reported by the commerce department today [DATA pdf], reflect a 0.6% decrease in spending vs October. November data includes Thanksgiving, Black Friday and the traditional early holiday shopping. 0.6% less dollars were spent, despite prices being double digits higher than the prior year.
When the prices you are charging for goods and/or services are 10, 20, even as high as 60 percent more than prior year, yet your sales are running flat to negative – that means consumer purchases of those goods/services are substantially lower.
If you were selling 100 widgets for $1 each in 2021, you gross $100. If your widgets now sell for $1.25 and you gross $94 in 2022 sales, you have sold 75 widgets.
In 2021 you sold 100 widgets, in 2022 you sold 75 widgets, a difference of 25 widgets.
Everything attached to the raw material, creation, manufacturing, distribution and sale of those 25 missing widgets is no longer part of the economic activity associated with your widget business. You are now telling your suppliers you don’t need as many widgets, because they are not selling. You have lost 25% of your business in this scenario.
Everything associated with the drop in consumer spending now begins to downsize. Downsizing means less labor needed. This process triggers the economic impact shifting from the consumer sales side of the ledger to the income side of the ledger for employers, employees and workers.
If this consumer spending trend continues, and there is absolutely no reason to think it will reverse, we are entering a phase of serious financial instability for the American worker, at a scale that will dwarf the 2006/’07 and ’08 recession.
I am not a doomsayer pundit on economic matters. I am a proactive planner on economic forecasts. With consumer credit costing more, with fed interest rates climbing, with import orders cancelled, with shipping costs dropping, with consumer spending contracting, with fewer units moving, with inventories climbing, all of the data only points in one direction.
Serious consumer defaults are looming.
Government policy has been hammering the demand side of the economy, proclaiming -falsely- that excessive consumer demand was the cause of inflation. This game of economic pretending is about to get very serious.
Consumer spending, as measured in actual units created and purchased in the economy, has been contracting since the third quarter of 2021 (started June, July, August ’21). Simultaneously, consumer spending as measured in actual dollars spent to purchase food, fuel and energy, has been skyrocketing. This is a supply side inflationary cycle with no soft landing.
(Wall Street Journal) – U.S. retail spending and manufacturing weakened in November, signs of a slowing economy as the Federal Reserve continues its battle against high inflation.
November retail sales fell 0.6% from the prior month for the biggest decline this year, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Budget-conscious shoppers pulled back sharply on holiday-related purchases, home projects and autos. Manufacturing output declined 0.6%, the first drop since June, the Fed said in a separate report.
The Fed on Wednesday raised its benchmark interest rate 0.5 percentage point to a 15-year high and signaled plans to continue lifting rates through the spring. Fed officials have increased rates at the fastest pace since the 1980s to cool the economy and bring down inflation, which is running near a 40-year high.
“Most households are acting strategically, planning for a road ahead that may be more difficult to traverse, with higher interest rates, the housing slump, and ongoing inflation—and the very real possibility of a recession,” said Craig Johnson, president of the retail consulting firm Customer Growth Partners. (read more)
Businesses are going to start cutting expenses in order to survive.
The number one expense for almost all businesses is the labor cost.
Non-essential and high wage labor is going to get removed first.
Twitter Exposing the Real Threat – Leftist Revolution
Armstrong Economics Blog/Economics Re-Posted Dec 15, 2022 by Martin Armstrong
The revelations coming from Elon Musk gaining access to Twitter demonstrate that the LEFT is the greatest danger we face to civilization and there is absolutely no reason still stand for the United States to remain as one nation. The hatred of the LEFT is so pervasive it is off the charts – but then again, the LEFT historically always seeks to oppress all opposition.
The LEFT has been the source of countless wars to dominate society. The 1848 Revolutions devastated most of Europe. The American Revolution which lasted 8.37 years and the French Revolutions were against Monarchy – not a LEFTIST philosophy, which rose again during the mid-19th century. What most people have no idea about is that this philosophy of suppressing human nature has been around for a very long time. The 1848 Revolution was precisely on time and our model on LEFTIST Revolutions begins with the birth of Sparta around 889 BC.
The very word “SPARTA” means self-restraint. As I have written before, Sparta NEVER issued any coinage. They lived under a rigid oligarchic constitution and this is when they hayed Athens and waged the Peloponnesian War against them for their capitalistic freedom despite the fact that it was Athens that defeated the Persians in 480BC. It was Sparta’s constant LEFTIST philosophy that led to the invasion of Rome in 146 BC and their conquest of the Peloponnese at the Battle of Corinth: The Romans under Lucius Mummius defeated the Achaean League near Corinth. Corinth was destroyed, and the Achaean League dissolved.
Just as the LEFT claimed that Putin interfered in the 2016 election and 70% of Democrats ended up believing that story, even the exposure of RussiaGate as a total fraud has not changed the minds of the LEFT – they just ignore the fact. Ironically, CNN went after Trump to remove him from office in 2020 because they were actually manipulating the news back in 2016 always giving Trump more time over 17 other Republicans because they thought he would be the weakest candidate and Hillary would win.
Now we have Musk dumping the Twitter files that reveal once again the LEFT interfered in the election. The latest release of Twitter files reveals that their employees did not believe former President Trump had violated Twitter’s policies. Nonetheless, they yield to the LEFT to ban Trump from Twitter to manipulate the election. This release shows:
“I think we’d have a hard time saying this is incitement.”
They added: “It’s pretty clear he’s saying the ‘American Patriots’ are the ones who voted for him and not the terrorists (we can call them that, right?)…”
Another staffer agreed, writing: “Don’t see the incitement angle here.”
“I also am not seeing clear or coded incitement in the DJT tweet,” was the comment written by Anika Navaroli, the Twitter policy official.
“I’ll respond in the elections channel and say that our team has assessed and found no vios for the DJT one.”
In fact, the LEFT rose up again in Paris for another Revolution. They created the Commune Movement in Paris where there was to be no property and everyone would be happy – i.e. Klaus Schwab & the WEF. Indeed, the very term “Communist” was coined there in Paris. Karl Marx was initially a socialist. It was the French who convinced him that all private property should be owned by the state creating a Commune.
Ironically, the last turning point of or Leftist Revolution Model was in 2009. It was at the WEF in 2019 that they release the Build Back Better slogan for all governments to use. The next one is actually in 2032 but it will start to accelerate from 2024. We can clearly see how polarized society has become. This is also the Sixt Wave so we are looking at a major attempt to suppress society under the same philosophy pf the Oligarchy that seized control of Sparta. The elites are behind this own and they always make it sound like they are doing this for us. But in truth, this is all about their power and total control.
Swiss Joining the Force Against Russia
Armstrong Economics Blog/Switzerland Re-Posted Dec 15, 2022 by Martin Armstrong
COMMENT: Just read your article on Poland building up a big army, just like Germany. Here in Switzerland they are also active and training their army as never before. … I would very much appreciate your take on this issue and your view on Switzerland and the Swiss Franc in this scheme.
Thank you (and I have forwarded your articles to my friends and they have woken up).
AdK
REPLY: We have an awful lot of clients in Switzerland. Because we have a major Panic Cycle in 2025, war is clearly in motion for Europe. The Swiss franc looks like death warmed over, as they say. I will try to get out a special European report ASAP after the 1st of the year. Suffice it to say, a break of 99 can send the Swiss down to 65 in the years ahead. They have abandoned their neutrality in finance and war joining the sanctions against Russian individuals. That was a HUGE mistake on top of turning over everyone who relied on Swiss secrecy which began to protect the Jews from the Nazis in 1934.
Centinel2012 