Interview: The Perfect Storm


Armstrong Economic Blog/Armstrong in the Media Re-Posted Mar 26, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

To Check out the video click here to view my most recent interview with Outer Limits: “The Perfect Storm.”

Commentary from Ryan McCormick:

Legendary economic forecaster and pro-freedom advocate Martin Armstrong once again appears on the Outer Limits of Inner Truth Podcast to discuss: The neoconservative agenda and the likelihood for war with Russia, Political corruption in Ukraine and the impact on global perception of the United States, And why the 2023 Financial Crisis is colliding with important cyclical targets regarding war, which may result in a two-prong panic of unprecedented significance. Marin also shares his perspective on Alan Turing's groundbreaking work on the mathematical order behind Morphogenesis and offers an updated outlook on how the US will breakup.

Chaos & the Secret Order to Everything


Armstrong Economics Blog/ECM Re-Posted Mar 18, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Economics is the ONLY field where cycles are denied. Moreover, people do not even comprehend how COMPLEXITY emerges. Alan Turing was a brilliant mathematician who is probably the father of computers for he built the really first computer to break the German Enigma Machine. The man was Alan Turing. He invented the computer and broke the German Enigma Code. You can watch the movie The Imitation Game to get a general idea of his achievement.

But Turing did something even far more astonishing. He had a theory that within nature, what appears to be chaos was just a mask that hides a natural order. He was the first to think that there might be a mathematical order that defines nature. There is a mysterious aspect of Morphogenesis. All the cells in an embryo are identical. Then the cells begin to clump together and actually become different from each other. The mystery was how identical cells know to form different things such as skin, eyes, brain, or bone. There is no central command center.

Turing 1952 Morphogenesis

The phenomenon of Morphogenesis is what is the essence of mystery. This process becomes self-organization. Before Turning, absolutely nobody had any idea of how this process even worked. It was also a great mystery of life itself. It was Turning who published on March 15th, 1952, the Ides of March 3.14, his mathematical explanation of Morphogenesis. Turning’s formula was revealing for it uncovered a secret order behind the mask of chaos. Despite being one of the most brilliant minds ever and all his contributions even breaking the German code, because he was a homosexual, a judge order him to prison or subject him to hormone injections to cure him. He committed suicide on June 7th, 1954 because of the abuse of the government which ignored all his contributions.

What Turning discovered in nature, was that there is a hidden order in which identical cells then change and become specific parts of the end result without any specific coding. What would appear to be simplistic formulas, suddenly emerged into a complexity that baffled the human mind. This is what I discovered in economics. A secret cycle that defines the complexity which we also cannot see with the naked eye.

This is why different cycles unfold in all the sectors such as metals, commodities, share markets, currency, bonds, etc, and when they align that is when we get the superposition events. I will explain more in my forthcoming book on the Economic Confidence Model. One bubble will be in the real estate markets, such as 1792 and 2007-2009. Other bubbles took place in commodities such as in 1919. Still, others took place in currency markets and capital concentration such as the 1989 peak in the Nikkei in Japan or the 1929 bubble in the USA.

In 2020, we warned that this cycle would be a debt crisis wave, but also a commodity wave with rising inflation and interest rates into 2024. We must understand that each bubble is different for it all depends upon the cyclical aspect of that particular sector and does that line up with others to produce a super-wave that becomes the bubble.

Right now, we have a crisis in banking because far too many banks have just listened to the mainstream media and failed to understand that interest rates would be rising – not declining. Since 2020 we have been warning that interest rates were at a 5,000-year low. A simple bounce to just 5% would be devastating. Many banks attend our conferences because they are sophisticated and do not make hedging decisions based on the latest headline on MSNBC.

I am working hard on having Socrates articulate the complexity. I hope to roll this out this year – ASAP. My personal interpretation is generally on point, but not always. What looked to be dominated by geopolitical events in April, appears to be combined with the banking crisis, and in all honestly, I could not imagine that the FDIC even considered not covering 85% of the deposits. I should not have had to even explain that doing that would mean that small businesses have systemic risk in all banks. I actually had to explain there would be a major banking crisis in April that would make the Great Depression appear like a dress rehearsal.

As such, this banking crisis does not appear to be finished. It will still move into April 10th or so. Then the ICC issued a criminal indictment for Putin when they have no such jurisdiction by their own authority. They have become yet another political tool of the Neocons determined to create World War III.

We have entered the period of COMPLEXITY where we are not looking at a single sector in a bubble. We are looking at a really dangerous contagion of COMPLEXITY and the Neocons could care less about the economics. They have control of the White House and this is their chance and they are NOT backing down.

God help humanity!

Markets & Starlings


Armstrong Economics Blog/Understanding Cycles Re-Posted Mar 1, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Hi Martin,

Your blog, “Model & the 1991 Collapse of the USSR” for me was a major thought process change. I believed in the Random Walk down Wallstreet, not any more.

The chaos model example of the Dow Jones reminds me of the migration of the starlings – link attached.

I had a pet Starling, a very smart bird, who loved my computer and even pecked on my keyboard and accidentally sent an email one time.

I have even observed butterflies flying against the wind on a windy day by navigating within the calm currents of the wind.

Thank you for showing the pattern of the market.

Ernie

REPLY:  It is truly amazing but there are so many aspects within nature that confirm NOTHING is random – there is a cyclical nature to everything thing. Here are the five Brain Wave patterns. If there is no cycle in your brain – you are dead. So I am always astonished by people who do not believe in cycles and think there really is such a thing as random walks. We need those people because they are the fools who are easier to separate from their money. They love to buy the high and sell the low. Thank you very much. Keep believing it’s random and the government is really Santa Claus.

And for those flat-word folks who didn’t believe that the earth actually was in a cyclical orbit around the sun, how absurd, don’t forget to put a mask on when you drive alone or when you sleep alone make sure you also put on a condom just to be really safe.

Model & the 1991 Collapse of USSR


Armstrong Economics Blog/Understanding Cycles Re-Posted Feb 28, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Marty, I remember your 1991 conference when you said Russia looked like it would collapse by the end of the year. I think it was December 31st when Gorbachev resigned. But I also remember how we were talking about how key reversals were still reappearing but migrating to different time levels. You never talk about that today. You had said that the migration of reversals would often hint at the next crash or slingshot. That was what we got in 1991 when Russia collapsed. Do you see anything like that again?

I am glad you are still at this. You have great insight as a trader.

If Scotty wants to beam you up, please say not yet!

DZ

ANSWER: Only for you Dave. Your memory is better than an elephant’s. OMG, how black was my beard. I also had some hair back then. Yes, you are right. I probably have not written here about the strange manner in which markets do move. Yes, the USSR collapse by the end of that year. There was the August 1991 coup against Gorbachev.

The Quarterly Array back then picked the 4th quarter of 1991 and the 4th quarter of 1992. The first was a Panic breakout to the upside and the second was a Panic to the downside making the reaction low the week of October 10th, 1992. The reversals were clearly fractal in nature and key reversals will reappear and migrate through the various time levels. That was something which was very fascinating. I promise I will find the time to express more detail on that phenomenon. It was indeed another aspect that the model revealed that I never expected. There is such a hidden order that lies behind the mask of randomness.

People who talk about random walks are simply incapable of forecasting for they cannot see the order behind what they think is chaos. Just as Einstein said, he cannot believe that God plays dice with the universe. I discovered the same thing when it comes to market activity. There is no such thing as random walks. There is a secret order to everything.

When I went to economics class, they said there was a business cycle but it is not regular and cannot be predicted because it was random. Then I went to physics class and they said nothing is random. I came to the conclusion someone was lying. It turned out to be the economics professor. Larry Summers still maintains that view. Hence, economists can manipulate society if it is random – not predetermined.

In plotting what Lorenz thought was random weather data, what emerged was a hidden order that we could not see otherwise. This even disproves the entire nonsense of Climate Change. It has always changed and there is a pattern to the movement – it is not random and we have not altered the climate cycle. Again, it is the same type of people who cannot see the patterns in markets so they say it is a random walk.

I ran markets through our Chaos models and patterns of regularity emerged – not random walks. Again, there is far more order to markets and that is why personal opinions will never cut it when we are trying to forecast the future.

I have on my bucket list to do the next book on the ECM – my gift to posterity. Hopefully, one-day people will wake up and understand that there is a hidden order to everything – NOTHING is ever random. When the USSR collapsed, the capital again fled to the USA in the face of a new level of uncertainty. The New Yorker ran the article on me in 2009 and called it  – The Secret Cycle.

Major Media is Never Interested in Forecasting


Armstrong Economics Blog/Press Re-Posted Feb 7, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Marty, it has become obvious that the media promotes everyone but you. I have attended your WEC events and have met central bankers and people from all the major investment banks both in Hong Kong and at your Berlin Conference. The media avoids you like the plague. But everyone of any substance attends your events. Obviously, the media avoids you to suppress the truth when those in power listen to you. Very interesting.

Can’t wait for Dubai

FW

ANSWER: What I do know is that the major media needs its talking heads. It is irrelevant if what they say is right or wrong. It is only the content they need. They do not want someone like me telling the world what you preach about interest rates is not just wrong, it hurts a lot of people.

I was doing a TV spot I think in 1983. It was FNN that became CNBC. I was doing an interview with Walter Bressert. I gave our forecast that the British pound would fall to par by 1985. The pound was near the $2 level at the time so it was a 50% drop. The host was shocked. He turned to Walt and asked – “What do you think about that forecast?” Walt and I were good friends. He replied, “I would not bet against his computer.”

That was the last time I was on FNN. They want the standard BS. They do not want real analysis, especially long-term which our computer has been the best at compared to anyone. So, I’m not sure it is some conspiracy plot. I think it’s just self-interest. Major media will occasionally cover our forecasts, but generally only after the events.

Barrons had reported our forecast from 2010 that the stock market would make new highs, only when they thought it was a joke. When it happened, they never reported that we were the only ones with that forecast.

Major media is not interested in actual forecasting. They only fill content. They just need the talking heads. They do not care if they are ever right. They are selling content – not real analysis. Even the BBC wrote about the economic forecast at DAVOS on how they are always just wrong. They wrote: “There is just one problem: economists have a poor track record for getting it right.” Why? Simply. When people forecast they are expressing an opinion. They are influenced by the current trend and as such, they can never see in advance the change in that trend.

Our computer is usually correct on the long-term trends. It has never missed a shift in the business cycle that I can recall. The media is just not interested in something like that. They want the controversy and personal opinions for they themselves form personal opinions just as they have bought into Climate Change and now they are promoting World War III.

Can Forecasting be Infallible?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Socrates Re-Posted Jan 30, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Do you think that Socrates will ever achieve infallibility?

KJ

ANSWER:  I have only shown our Global Market Watch model at conferences. It is a pattern recognition model that is learning every day. I have pointed out that nothing is infallible but if anything can achieve that, it will be this model. Right now, it’s not too bad, but it is still in its infancy. What has shocked me more than anything is that it has identified over 80,000 patterns. This is incredible to me. However, it explains why it is impossible for a person to actually forecast correctly. There are so many subtle variances that something may not be what we think is unfolding.

Eventually, it is theoretically possible that we reach some limitations of the pattern variances. If that can be achieved, then and only then would you be able to forecast infallibly.

Yet there is something else of tremendous importance. Socrates has been virtually infallible on the long-term trends and events. What I have come to understand is that there are so many possible variations in the day-to-day trends, but it does not alter the long-term. It projected a financial panic in 2008 10 years in advance. How do so many events unfold to the very day of the Economic Confidence Model? All I can say is that these events, which have nothing to do with my personal opinion, confirm that there is a hidden order of complexity that the make human eye cannot possibly see. There are just way too many events that unfold precisely on the very day of a target to be just coincidence. There is a far greater order that exists and people will disparage these forecasts because they think they only work because we have a huge client base.

Forecasting the Future


Armstrong Economics Blog/AI Computers Re-Posted Jan 27, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: So if I read you right, you never anticipated that your computer would also forecast war and geopolitical events. ChatGPT seems to be able to find things and answer questions. But it cannot forecast the future by itself. So what did you do that is even more impressive than ChatGPT?

DW

ANSWER: Being a programmer since my teens, was the key. Being a trader, I had experience in both fields, which enabled me to TEACH my system how to analyze. So Socrates is not going out to the web and collecting what everyone has to say. It is analyzing the data all on its own.

Because I was also a history buff, I saw how civilization rose and fell. There was obviously a  cycle to absolutely everything. Since even taking energy, we use to just burn wood, then oils, then whale oil, and then oil. There is a cycle to innovation. Not personally knowing if that will change to something else, I had to construct my system with my experience and then allow it to discover entirely on its own.

I have explained at conferences that we had a client, the Universal Bank of Lebanon, who found a ledger recording the daily prices of their currency back decades. They asked if we could create a model. The data was input and the system forecasted that their country would go into chaos in 8 days. I thought something was wrong with the data. They calmly asked – What currency would be best? They saw themselves the crisis coming and in 8 days the civil war began. The same took place with a Sausi client who was a big shipper. He wanted to know what gold was going to do for Iran was going to start attacking shipping in the Gulf the next day. I asked: Are you telling me a war will start tomorrow? Oh yes, he replied. So by 1998, it was clear that the computer was capable of projecting wars. That is when I stood up in our London WEC in June 1998 and warned that Russia was about to collapse in 30 days. That became the Long-Term Capital Management collapse with the Russian bond market.

So ChatGPT is cool and it will dazzle everyone. I wrote such a program during the early ’80s to teach my computer how to use natural language to communicate. I used my children as the input. The program I wrote was designed to have a conversation. It would retain a database of who you were so if it asked if you had a dog and you said yes, it would ask you its name and remember that. So the next time you came back it would ask you how is your dog. It had so impressed my daughter should bring all her friends over. I was working with Dragon Systems back then when it was hardware. So the computer would talk verbally to them and they thought it was alive.

We will release a portal where you can ask Socrates questions and it will respond. But this is focused on the economy, not the name of Lady Gaga’s dog. Socrates is totally different from ChatGPT.

The Biblical Widow Mites


Armstrong Economics Blog/Products and Services Re-Posted Jan 27, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Mark 12:41-44:
“And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and be beheld how the people cast money into the treasury:k and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had…”.


A lot of people are asking if I have any more biblical Widow Mites I could put together. The answer is yes, but I will have to see what I have left.  For those who want the unusual showpiece, we can frame a Widow’s Mite with a Roman Nail documented from the 1st century at the time of the Crucifixion. While most of the nails were retained by the museums after the discovery, a small portion was allowed to be sold privately.

Roman nails were made of iron. This hoard was buried to prevent others from finding them from which they would make weapons and shields. Iron was a valuable metal to many of the barbarian tribes. Hence, this hoard was a remarkable find from the 1960s. They finally allowed some to be sold only in 1999.

Those interested in such a unique gift, send an email. Obviously, we would need to know how many people really want to have them framed up.

The price would be $125 for a Roman nail and a Widow Mite framed

Why does Academia Always Resist Change?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Education Re-Posted Dec 23, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: I find it interesting that the Roman coin the academics said was fake has now been shown that it had been in circulation. Is this what you talk about how academics are always trying to reject anything that upset their established view of science or history?

SC

ANSWER: Absolutely. It does not matter the field. It is always the same. The Book Historia Augusta they swore was a fake and attributed it even to a monk a few years before.  Then there was Homer. They declare that was all fiction until Schleman set sail and discovered Troy, Mycena, Thebes and all the cities they said were fiction. Why this is the standard I cannot explain. They rejected Keynes until the politicians turned to the idea. They reject the existence of a Business Cycle to this very day. You have to beat them over the head with something to prove your point.

Sponsianus was aA second usurper from the Danube region, which today they claim is Ukraine.  Sponsianus appears to have come to power briefly in Dacia defending the area from an invasion of Germanic tribes of the Alamanni in 244AD during the early reign of Philip I (244-249AD) based upon coin finds bearing the name Sponsianus who was otherwise unknown to history. Like Historia Augusta, the academics immediately called the coin a fake. Anything that seems to upset the academic narrative they immediately reject regardless of the field.

In 1713, two gold aurei bearing the name of Sponsianus were unearthed in Transylvania, Romania together with coins of Gordian III and Philip I known as the Arab. This was followed by the suggestion that Sponsianus was a usurper during the reign of Philip I after he murdered Gordian III. Instantly, most academics declared them as forgeries. Simply because they found no written record mentioning this usurper, they conclude the coin must be fake.

However, this was the precise period when the Goths began to invade. We know that the Carpi began to invade Dacia no later than 246AD and within one year they were joined by the Goths to invade Moesia, which included the find site which was in Transylvania, Romania. We know of one other usurper at this time in the same region Pacatian (248AD), but in the end, he was murdered by his own troops.  There was yet one other usurper – Silbannacus who is known only from a single coin that now resides in the British Museum. Silbannacus most likely led a very short-lived rebellion during this same period on the Rhine perhaps about the same time period as Pacatian in the Moesia (Romania).

Silbannacus appears to have defended the region against the Alamanni during the first half of 244 AD was coins declare a victory as well as a usurpation of power with the support of the Senate. It is possible that Sponsianus may have been Severus Hostilianus of the Byzantine sources which may have confused him with Hostiliaisn (251AD), the young son of Trajan Decius (249-251AD).

Consequently, Sponsianus may be the same person noted by his Zonaras who refers to Severos Stilianos. It may have been the usurpation of Marcus Silbannacus and his support by the Senate that forced Philip to make concessions to the Persians. No emperor Sponsianus is mentioned in the Historia Augusta.

What we do know is that Philip I had murdered Gordian III in his attempt to seize the throne. However, he was not equipped to manage the entire empire. As the invasions began from the Northern Germanic tribes, this is clearly why we see these usurpations, not from a quest to seize the throne as much as the political turmoil facing these invasions.

Trajan Decius (249-251AD) was hailed emperor by the troops on the Danube and and he marched against Philip I and defeated him and his son at Verona. However, Trajan Decius was then the first emperor to be killed in battle against the Goths. It was because of these invasions that Trajan Decius took this as the Christians refusing to honor the gods of Rome angered the gods and as such he ordered the first widespread persecution of the Christians in 250AD because of these invasions.

History of the Region

The Alamanni several Germanic tribes including the Ubii, the Sicambri, the Teneteri, the Usipetes, the Catti, and the Cherusces. They were the inhabitants of the upper and lower Rhine, and those beyond that great river, such as the Westphaliaus, the Hessians, and the Saxons, as far as the Elbe and the Weser. They did not imitate the Roman coinage but issued their own Celtic gold staters early on.

It was Drusus, during the time of Augustus (27BC-14AD) who constructed forts and established garrisons throughout this region, in order to hold the Germanic tribes in check; at the same time that he opened a road for his troops through the Hyrcanian forest. The victories of Drusus (brother of Tiberius (14-37AD) over the Alamanni were well known. However, those exploits were not followed by the expansion of the empire and the subjugation of the Germanic tribes of that region. Thus, that area was never reduced to the form of a province.

Following this period, the Alamanni inhabiting that part of Germany, which is situated between the Danube, and the Upper Rhine, were finally subdued at first by Caracalla (198-217AD), and later by Aurelian (270-275AD) Later on, the father of Constantine I the Great (307-337AD)Constantius Chlorus (393-305), while still a caesar under the Tetrarchy, overthrew them with a great slaughter. They continued, nevertheless, from time to time, to wage war against subsequent emperors, from Constantine the Great to Gratian (367-383AD). They were finally brought to subjection 496 AD when they met with a major defeat by the Franks under King Clodovicus.

The primary reason for the Academic rejection of these coins stemmed from that reverse of the coin depicts an image borrowed from coins minted by C. Augurinus dating back to 187 BC. The inclusion of the Republican era reverse has led to suggest that Sponsianus was the leader of his senatorial resistance against Philip I. In opposition to this, some academics have suggested that it is unlikely that his senatorial recognition would have used along with a Republican reverse from the coins celebrating the family of the Minucii by C.Augurinus.

because there existed emperors appointed by the Senate of Pupienus (238AD) and Balbinus (238AD) Therefore, it has been argued that if Sponsianus was supported by the Senate he would have used a more current theme for his coinage. While the series is interesting, they certainly are not conclusive. It cannot be ruled out that Sponsianus perhaps claimed his right to the throne arguing he had descended from that ancient senatorial family. After all, Constantine the Great did that with Claudius II (268-270AD) in an attempt to so some legitimacy.

It is most likely that there were invasions in that area on the Danube frontier whereas he may have been held Emperor to defend the local region from the invaders. We have seen this before even for example Postumus (260-268AD) who claim the throne of the Gallic Empire to protect the people from invaders from the North. He issues coinage showing he was there to protect them from the barbarians which Rome could not. This region of the Danube was under attack at the time around 244 AD by the Alamanni the Germanic tribes. There have been additional ports of coins discovered in Romania that also date to this period of 244 AD suggesting that there was political instability and war in the region during that time.

Socrates v Me


Armstrong Economics Blog/Socrates Re-Posted Dec 19, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: I have been following Socrates for quite a while. It certainly seems to provide the long-term view quite reliably. You said it has taught you. So I take it that is why it is AI because you did not precisely code it to do these things?

WK

ANSWER: I created Socrates to monitor everything. As a hedge fund manager, I could see how everything was connected. Read Herbert Hoover’s Memoirs for 1931 and it accurately described how a panic unfolds is led by a liquidity crisis the same as when Russian bonds collapsed in 1998 creating the fall of Long Term Capital Management.

Any mistakes are mine personally in the interpretation. That is what I mean by it has taught me a lot over the years. A lot of clients just rely on Socrates – not me personally. The arrays are probably one of the important aspects. Once again, it has nothing to do with my opinion. So many clients get familiar with it and apply their own interpretations.

Here is the array we published in July and we were touting the August/September period all year. We can see the violent thrust up and then down – the typical panic but over two months. It depends on the week it generally hits. It called for a Directional Change in October followed by another in November and then December made a new high and then retreated.

Socrates has done a good job. Once again, it is not me personally making these forecasts. As a human, we are all subject to error. Socrates is not perfect. The Global Market Watch is an ongoing project and I am stunned at how many different patterns it is coming up with. This demonstrates that complexity is an understatement. Below are the Global Market Watch reports for the 1932 low on a weekly and monthly level which was the week of July 4th, 1932.  We can see that it is not perfect. When it is saying a “New Pattern Forming” it means this is a new pattern not yet in the database. The number of patterns is approaching 100,000. Nevertheless, it did pick the 1932 low correctly. Not every day into that low. Thus, it is not a trading tool, but something to just alert you to pay attention. Nothing is ever INFALLIBLE.