GameStop Update


Armstrong Economics Blog/Stock Indicies Re-Posted Mar 15, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

Gamestop has rallied back during the week of March 8th after all the hoopla. Cyclically, it was 13 years down and it was due for a bounce. Even our pattern recognition models picked up the rally starting in August 2020. Quite frankly, this has all the hallmarks of manipulation, but not what you may think. The classic manipulation is to pump up a market touting some player but the pros have already been in the market. This is how the Buffet manipulation of silver was done in 1998 and even the entire Hunt Brothers silver rally back in 1980.

I knew the Hunt Brothers were buying silver from the early 1970s. At the end, their name was attached to silver and the claim was they were taking it to $100. At that time, the exchange pulled the same maneuver and made it a fraction in margin to go short but 10x that to go long. The Hunts were trapped and could not sell anything without everyone jumping in front of them,

Melvin Capital, which was a small hedge fund lost 53% of its capital in January on GameStop. Not sure how that was possible unless the bet was purely a gut-trade rather than quantitative. The four largest asset managers in the world together own 39 percent of GameStop shares, according to regulatory filings. Those stakes, which are mostly held for years in passive index funds, have collectively gained roughly $1 billion in value since the beginning of this year. The hype of a huge short-squeeze seems to be exaggerated. One hedge fund, Senvest Management, recently boasted to clients that it made more than $700 million from a bet on GameStop in September, the Wall Street Journal reported. Certainly, our model was long, not short and I cannot see even a trend-following-model that would have been short. Melvin Capital to lose 53% does not seem to be very professional to lost that much on a single stock. The long-term is not over in this stock.

The End of Paper Money – the Digital Revolution


Armstrong Economics Blog/The Hunt for Taxes Re-Posted Mar 5, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

The assumption in governments has always been that WE ARE THE PROBLEM – not them! They have really believed that if they could tax the underground economy they would have balanced budgets. We all know that in reality, no matter how much money they collect, they will always spend more. This idea that digital currency will wipe out crime is rather absurd. I was talking to a young person who buys their weed, like so many these days. They make a phone call, it is dropped off in their mailbox, and they pay by some cash transfer application. So they never even see the person anymore. So the move toward digital transactions has not eliminated the underground economy, it has actually improved it making it more efficient.

Meanwhile, the criminals have to learn now how to code in order to hack into systems. It seems that this trend is forcing criminals to become much more professional in their endeavors.

Dorsey Moves into Banking as Promised to Overthrow Trump


Armstrong Economics Blog/Banking Crisis Re-Posted Mar 3, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Mr. Armstrong, I thought you were wrong on Bitcoin and that it was a store of value. I can see now that it is only a trading vehicle as you have said. But what made me write to you is I just read that Dorsey is opening up an online bank. You got that right too. It is interesting when I read you and compare to others, you are the one who comes out correct in the end.

My humble apology for being a doubting, Thomas.

GP

REPLY: I know for a fact they have allowed Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to exist in order to condition people into accepting the end of paper money. I cannot understand people who think I am wrong and somehow cryptocurrencies will overthrow the dollar and governments. Really? Does anyone really believe that governments will just relinquish power willingly?

We are headed into a wave of inflation, but one that is constructed on shortages. One need only look at the systemic problems behind the shortages created by a planned economy during the communist era. A goods shortage was the norm. Those under communism were confronted with chronically empty store shelves. When the shelves were replenished on rare occasions, there were long lines that would form outside the stores for blocks. I had a Russian girl who worked for me as a programmer. She said the number one problem coming to America was having to make decisions in the store. She said they had only one type of toilet paper. There are so many here. She didn’t know how to buy anything for each purchase involved a choice and decision.

Even in China, there were ration coupons that became the norm. Just about everything was rationed. This is what takes place when the government is in control of production be it directly, or through what we are beginning to see, outrageous regulations – lockdowns which are hailed by Schwab’s World Economic Forum.

This is NOT really a question of I TOLD YOU SO. This is not a contest of my opinion v someone else. I really have to wonder if some of those mouthing these absurd forecasts are not being made as deliberate misinformation to move people toward a digital currency on behalf of the powers behind the curtain. They defy all reason and show either sublime stupidity or cunning devious misinformation to manipulate society to pull off this Great Reset.

I warned back on January 21, 2021, that BigTech sees the power to overthrow the banks. These powers have declared that they want everyone in the banking system worldwide to end paper money, which is over 1 billion people (just read the IMF). This is why Dorsey, Facebook, YouTube, and Google along with Microsoft were blocking Trump and funneling money to the Democrats who bribed them with the dream of controlling international banking. If governments take Schwab’s solution and default on all its debt, then they NO LONGER NEED THE BANKERS to sell their bonds. Branch banking will come to an end and these people think they will move to a controlled economy with no private debt. They are out of their minds!

I know what I am talking about. I have shaken the hand of Schwab. Have any of these people claiming Bitcoin will overthrow the dollar ever talked to anyone in authority?  I have met with board members of the IMF. There are those who are so desperate to convince people not to listen to me because they are part of the entire scam against We the People. I have been approached many times to join these globalists. They preach the Fourth Industrial Revolution is coming, but post comments on YouTube to try to prevent people from looking at Socrates because it forecasts their demise. Sorry Schwab, but Socrates says you fail!

Schwab and his cohorts think locking us all down and destroying the economy and production is a good thing. I cannot see how ANYONE takes a position against me who is not really working against our freedom and human rights. They are so desperate to stop people looking at Socrates or the media to ever cover what Socrates is doing, all in their quest to conquer the world.

So it is not I TOLD YOU SO, this is not a matter of opinion. This is a serious global effort to redesign the world economy and Socrates stands in their way.

The Outage at the Federal Reserve


Armstrong Economics Blog/Central Banks Re-Posted Feb 27, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

The outage of the National Settlement Service and the Fedwire Securities Service, which provides issuance, settlement, and transfer services for Treasuries and other government securities, was down and this has caused some concern and then conspiracy theories mixed in. The Fed made progress reversing the shutdown within a couple of hours, however, this has illustrated that a long-term outage of the Fed’s online services could cause intense chaos across the world financial system, preventing banks and businesses from finalizing transactions and impeding basic banking functions.

The Federal Reserve said an outage of its key financial services on Wednesday was caused by a maintenance mistake and it is taking steps to prevent a recurrence. The official statement read:

“The incident was caused by an operational error involving an automated data center maintenance process that was inadvertently triggered during business hours,” a Fed spokeswoman said. Such tasks are normally performed after-hours, she said, adding, “This was human error.”

“Our technical teams have determined that the cause is a Federal Reserve operational error,” the Fed said on Wednesday on its website. “The Federal Reserve Banks have taken steps to help ensure the resilience of the Fedwire and NSS applications, including recovery to the point of failure.”

There was no power-outage so it does appear that the Federal Reserve was honestly calling it a disruption due to an ‘operational error’. This raises the issue of concern surrounding digital currency. Indeed, solar flares and other solarmass ejections that travel through space can overwhelm Earth’s atmosphere and generate powerful electric and magnetic fields. These magnetic storms can occasionally be intense enough to disrupt the operation of high-voltage electricity lines. A digital currency system could be brought to its knees with an EM attack.

(see report)

We do have an EMP Task Force on National and Homeland Security which issued a report on China’s ability to conduct an Electromagnetic Pulse attack on the United States. China now has super-EMP weapons and could engage in a first-strike attack that could blackout the entire country. China could actually launch a surprise “Pearl Harbor” type attack that could produce a deadly blackout of the entire country. Indeed, China has built a network of satellites, high-speed missiles, and super-electromagnetic pulse weapons that could meltdown the electric power grid, fry critical communications, and even takeout the ability of our aircraft carrier groups to respond. All of this is possible today using EMP weapons rather than nuclear.

The outage at the Federal Reserve was not an attack, loss of power, or anything nefarious. It was indeed a human error. Nonetheless, this outage even for a few hours brought the economy to a halt. This is the system used by U.S. banks to execute some $3 trillion in transactions daily and the outage began around 11.15 am Eastern time on Wednesday, and remained down for more than three hours. Most of the key systems, including the backbone settlement services Fedwire and FedACH, were back online by 3 pm. Fedwire is the system for large transfers between banks which last year handled 184 million transactions totaling more than $840 trillion, or more than $3.3 trillion daily, according to Fed data.

Other affected systems included FedACH, the clearinghouse which generally handles smaller transactions such as paychecks, tax refunds, and utility bill payments. The National Settlement Service (NSS), used by depository institutions with Federal Reserve Bank master accounts, was also shutdown offline. Every other transaction service maintained by the Fed was also affected by the disruptions.

Fedwire Funds is the premier electronic funds-transfer service that banks, businesses, and government agencies rely on for mission-critical, same-day transactions. On a monthly basis, Fedwire handles more than 835,000 transactions a day on average, with a daily average dollar volume of $3.4 trillion.

CHIPS, a private-sector alternative to Fedwire run by The Clearing House, continued to operate normally. ET. CHIPS handles about $1.5 trillion a day, according to its website.

Is it Taxes or Debt Default Which Cause Revolution?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Revolution Re-Posted Feb 25, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Marty, do you agree with other analysts who claim debt defaults create revolutions? From reading your work for decades now, I think you would say it was taxes. Am I correct?

Hopefully, see you at the next WEC again

KL

ANSWER: You are correct. Rome never had a national debt nor a central bank. State debt is really a post-Dark Age phenomenon and there have been plenty of sovereign defaults and the vast majority never involved revolution. The Spanish sovereign defaults took place, turning the country into a serial defaulter beginning in 1557 followed by 1570, 1575, 1596, 1607, and 1647 ending in a 3rd world status. Greece defaulted on its external sovereign debt obligations at least five previous times in the modern era (1826, 1843, 1860, 1894 and 1932). Even Magna Carta cut off the king’s ability to use the courts to raise money, which was before taxing the average person.

Anyone who claims that a sovereign default will unleash a revolution has not actually done the research. It is probably more of a sales pitch to get business with scare tactics. Both the American and French Revolutions were over taxes – not sovereign defaults.

We are headed into a revolutionary period, but it is being caused by this global hunt for taxation which is undermining the entire world economy. The sovereign default comes because of the collapse in commerce which is set in motion by raising taxes.

Yes, we are trying to pick a date for the next WEC. I am trying to be optimistic that our international clients can fly in. Of course, it all depends if Biden does not try to put a blockade around Florida because we have become the best state in America by preserving our freedom and it is at least far enough south to avoid the dip in the Jet Stream.

Deep Freezing In The Heart Of Texas


Re-Posted from GrrrGraphics.com FEB 22, 2021 AT 9:52 AM

AOC “Thinks” More Wind Turbines Will Solve ALl Our Problems

In Texas, the cold snap and power outages have finally abated. For nearly a week millions of Texans suffered power blackouts during severely cold weather. Water was out as well. For awhile, Texas was plunged into the Dark Ages.

Part of the problem is America’s crumbling infrastructure. It is something President Trump addressed. He wanted to build new power plants, airports, bridges, and highways. Instead we have Biden carrying on Obama’s work of destroying America for the benefit of socialism and our enemy, China.

Biden’s regime did not want Texans to resort to emergency measures and burn more fossil fuels. Instead they had to rely on malfunctioning wind and solar farms, which proved ineffectual. It’s a bitter cold irony that Texas is rich in oil, yet the power still went out and for those who did get power, their electric bills skyrocketed.

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez said her new Green New Deal would have helped to prevent the blackouts in Texas. It’s illogical for her to believe that climate change, global warming, and white supremacy are causing blackouts, but logic isn’t illuminating the socialist mind of AOC.

—Ben Garrison