QUESTION: Hello Mr Armstrong. I read your blog daily, and i can t say thank you enough.
on interest rate, you say market rallied when they got the rumors of roosevelt devaluating the dollar creating a currency inflation. am i wrong when i understand they feared losing money so they bought tangible assets?
best regards from France

M

ANSWER: Correct. Tangible assets are always the hedge against a decline in the currency. This is why gold has been rising more so in other currencies than US dollars.

M

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; You seem to be the only person who distinguishes private interest rates v public. Has the marketplace gone insane along with Trump demanding 100 basis point cut by the Fed? I find it curious how they only quote the same people in the press who seem to preach the government position all the time. They constantly try to ignore you in the press and even Wikipedia distorts everything and fails to mention the banks pled guilty and had to repay your clients. Just so biased. Now they say deep negative rates are no problem. They only say what the government wants them to say. Will this all end very badly?

KN

ANSWER: There is ABSOLUTELY no historical evidence that negative interest rates will ever stimulate the economy no less are they even viable. This wipes out pension funds where many around the world are obligated by law to buy government paper. Social Security in the USA is 100% in government bonds. It is beyond comprehension where all these people cheer negative rates as if this is a good thing. The US share market declined with the rate cut, it did not rally.

People are convinced that an INVERTED YIELD CURVE foretells of a recession. They have no idea about capital inflows. Even in Thailand, which has benefited greatly from the China-US Trade War shows that its currency has been the RARE exception rallying against the dollar. That may change now if the dollar closes above the July high here at the end of August.

I am in Asia right now. The greatest fear is that China will send in troops to squash the protests in Hong Kong. Many fear this will be another Tiananmen Square. I would not go that far. The solution would be a political one and to repeal the extradition order. People do not fear that a wanted Chinese will flee to Hong Kong and be protected, but that they could be extradited to Beijing and put on trial for things they did or said in Hong Kong.

This is sending capital to the USA and the same capital flows from Europe and doing the same thing. That capital is now incentified to buy US debt looking for more rate cuts and their bonds will appreciate. It takes a sublime idiot not to see this trade. They are punting – not actually buying negative yields for the long-term. This seems to be coming to an end in 2020.

As I have stated many times, DO NOT EXPECT the official rates to rise outside the USA. All other central banks are trapped. They cannot afford to allow rates to rise and blow up government budgets. This will widen the gap between public and private debt. Back in the ’30s, as governments defaulted, smart money fled to private AAA corporate bonds. We will see the same trend here again, but at the same time, banks will look to the future with tremendous uncertainty and will NOT be lending so easily. Expect rates to rise on credit cards where they make their money and long-term mortgages. If the banks cannot resell the long-term debt mortgages, rates will rise widening the gap with the government.

Chairman Powell is not is a nice place. He cut rates NOT for the USA, but because the rest of the world is imploding and Europe shows no signs of reversing their policy. If Powell lowers the rates 50 or 100 bp, domestically people will be taking this as confirmation a recession is coming and the stock market will continue its decline.

Powell is in a no-win situation. This is the FIRST time in history the Fed cut rates at the top of a market and instigated a decline rather than cutting rates in response to a decline. This only proves the Fed’s actions are concerned NOT for the domestic economy, but primarily for Europe and Asia second.

This going to make for a HIGHLY unusual WEC this year. We are breaking historical ground. There no way for this to end but VERY badly. They do not want people to read this blog. They want to keep people accepting the government narrative.

Come September, Draghi at the ECB will make loans to Eurozone banks on a long-term basis at rates less than the short-term lending window. The objective is to encourage banks to lend money to businesses. Nobody thinks about letting businesses bypass the banks mainly because the banks are in such a vulnerable state because Europe never took the toxic assets out of the banks as did the USA. To do that would have meant that some countries would have been bailed out more than others so they cut rates and hoped for the best which never happened.

The world economy is crashing BECAUSE of negative interest rates. These insane people have REFUSED to consider that this entire idea of lowering interest rates to stimulate the economy will NEVER work. You are wiping out pension funds and the elderly who are a vital part of the economic base. They keep using the same theories that are decades old and have ALWAYS failed each and every time.

Just look at the Great Depression. Lowering interest rates FAILED to reverse the decline. The market rallied when the rumors proved correct that Roosevelt would devalue the dollar creating currency inflation. Lowering interest rates has NEVER worked even once, yet they keep trying the same theory over and over again because they cannot think of anything else to try.

COMMENT FROM UK: On the subject of Phillip Hammond and Brexit, this is just the latest in a long list of pro-elite politicians who are looking to protect their career interests by aligning with the globalist system.

Blair made hundreds of millions, Brown and Darling bailed out the banks and then went to work in the financial sector and failure that is Nick Clegg is now an exec at Facebook. Theresa May will no doubt have her payday coming. These politicians are selling out their country but seem to think they have morality on their side.

K

REPLY: All of these politicians who are for the REMAIN side, which included Theresa May, all have a self-interest which is counter-trend to their own country. They like the establishment of the political class to be left alone.

This is a chart that speaks 1,000 times that Britain has NEVER received a fair deal since joining the EU. This is data from your own government which I have not altered. The peak in GDP took place in 1973 just before Britain joined the EU. There was a major faction that believed joining the EU would create a global economy that would surpass the USA. That never happened because each member state can veto what any other state tries to do. There are 50 states in the USA. They have no say if Washington wishes to do a trade deal. If every state had a seat at the negotiation table as they do in the Eurozone, nothing would ever get done.

All I can say is the EU is a dictatorship for nobody at the Commission level ever stands for an election. As such, this is a politician’s greatest wish – power without accountability. And then they have the audacity to criticize China or Russia for a lack of Democracy?

The recent polls in Britain show that the people are MORE AFRAID of Labour and Jeremy Bernard Corbyn than they are about BREXIT!

The report that paints the darkest possible scenario for Britain without ever mentioning that 60% of its trade is outside the EU and that any attempt by the EU to punish Britain will destroy the German economy which is preparing for a very deep recession since Britain is its #1 trading partner in the EU particularly for autos.

This Yellow Hammer report leak is clearly a scaremongering edition and not serious research. It is just a propaganda piece for that purpose. It claims that transport disruption will be 50%-85% of lorries travelling across the Channel may not be ready for French customs. The EU is likely to harass Brits with immigration checks at border posts. Medicine supply chain may be disrupted for up to six months across the Channel. The supply of certain types of fresh food will decrease.

The EU will slap tariffs on British fuel imports so they forecast financial losses and the closure of two refineries resulting in about 2,000 direct job losses. And as far as Northern Ireland is concerned, the UK would impose the “no new checks with limited exceptions” but they report claim this will be unsustainable.

There is no mention that trade negotiations with the rest of the world cannot take place inside the EU because any member can veto a UK trade deal with anyone.

The British pound is still under pressure as the propaganda machine is in full force. A further decline in the pound into October will far outweigh any tariffs the EU could possibly impose. Everyone looks at the dire future for Europe while they fail to look at the EU. Germany is imploding economically. The German economic philosophy has always been the old-school Mercantilist view to sell more stuff to everybody else than you buy.

While Germany is all about austerity, it has over-taxed its people and has declined to create a domestic consumer market preferring the export model which has resulted in the German people having almost the lowest net worth in Europe. While the economy is #1 inside the EU, the wealth does not pass to the people. A no-deal BREXIT will hurt the EU far more than it will hurt Britain and that is the absolute TRUTH!!!!!!!!

QUESTION: What is the difference between asset inflation and hyperinflation? I believe you are saying that from Jan 2020 we will see inflation which I understand to be asset inflation?
Thanks
FL

ANSWER: Asset inflation is typically a reflection of a decline in the value of the currency, but this can be 50% over the course of one to two years. Hyperinflation typically occurs when confidence in the government itself completely collapses. This is usually in a peripheral economy or often in times of war or major domestic revolution, as was the case with the Continental Currency in the United States and the Assignats of the Revolutionary government in France. Asset inflation can be also caused by an investment boom concentrated within a single sector such as the Dot.com Bubble. The typical definition of hyperinflation is when prices rise by more than 50% per month over a period of time.

Then there is DEMAND inflation, which is typically one of two aspects. It can come in the form of a hot item like Pet Rocks, Cabbage Patch Dolls, etc. The second aspect is a shortage of something such as wheat or corn and the demand forces the price to rise.