Pensions Continue to Spiral Downward


Britian Steel Workers

There are 11 million workers in Britain who assumed they had great pensions. The British Steel Pension Scheme is proposing to break its pension promises to its 130,000 members because they are losing money. Tata Steel is looking to sell its holding in its UK plants over the next few months, and that means that the £15bn pension scheme, that would normally be put into the general Pension Protection Fund, has been the slush fund for failed companies. So in other words, what they thought was a guarantee, will be nothing of the sort. Once government takes over anything, it just bleeds money.

Total Narrative Reversal? – Pulse Nightclub Massacre Was Not an LGBT Motivated Attack…


An interesting take on what happened and presented in a very believable way; one wonders if the truth will ever really be known.

BREXIT Polls at 55% – Will the Euro Crash & Burn?


British GDP Growth since 1949

Euro HangingWe provided this chart in our BREXIT Report which says it all. For all the scare mongering how Britain will be worse off if it leaves the EU, this chart demonstrates how the politicians are lying. Britain has seen only declining economic growth since it joined the EU and these are the British government’s own numbers.

Caution will be necessary. If Britain leaves and they cannot cover up that much against the EU, then the pound will survive and the Euro will witness a contagion begin as other states will be driven to hold referendums.

What nobody wants to talk about in the press is how Merkel’s decision to let in the refugees was unilateral. She has fought for the federalization of Europe, but went and made a decides that binds everyone. Girls are being raped in Sweden and Germany. This whole this is a real crisis. Calling those against it racists just demonstrates how abusive these politicians are to defend their mistakes. The refugees are not a race, it is a religion.

European State of the Union Through the Eyes of a 23-Year-Old


european_union_3d_map_1600_clr_17749

I happened to have a conversation with someone from Portugal who was neither a trader nor an investor, just an observant 23-year-old. When I asked for her take on the state of affairs in Europe, she candidly replied:

“Yes, there are groups of people who expect civil war. Actually, the situation in Europe at this moment is a big mess. Those in the Baltic countries are afraid of Russians, others are in a big panic because of ISIS, and the other third are upset about EU not to mention a mess with refuges and etc… In general, war industry brings amazing profit. So it is a question of time when history will repeat once again, as you say.”

Censorship? Manipulating the News?


COMMENT: Dear Mr. Armstrong,

Is there a bug in my computer or has the latest the Nigel Farage video been removed from your blog? I also can’t find the recent more private video on migrant problems in Germany, which was rather shocking for us as the German press is not allowed to automatically report on migrant problems. It’s not a free and independent press anymore.

Thank you for your very interesting and excellent blog.

Kind regards,

ml

REPLY: The videos are still there on my end. It appears that perhaps someone in Germany is blocking those videos. Very curious.

China Corporate Defaults – Good, Bad, or just Ugly?


Shanghai-Stk-Exchnge-1

A fertilizer producer in north China default on bond payments has demonstrates a positive aspect that the state governments are not so eager to bail-out failed companies. This will be a positive step forward in transforming China into a major capital market. For now, it is still not ready for prime time.

Of course many are touting this as a reason to buy gold. It seems they will distort anything to justify a buy. Gold will rise on a sustainable basis when the GENERAL PUBLIC see that government is in trouble, not companies per se. That is starting to materialize in Europe and the election is starting to expose the corruption in the United States as “super delegates” hand Hillary the nomination nullifying the vote of the people. Bernie wants to keep going and on this issue he is correct. You cannot pretend this is a democracy and then do everything in your power to make sure the people really choose nothing.

That is the key to the future. When everyone wakes up and simply say – OMG. This is a joke! The 2016 election may lead to a real political revolution by 2018 overturning Congress entirely.

Saudi Arabia Banning Short Selling Against the Currency Peg


Saudi Arabia Flag

Saudi Arabia has banned financial products that amount to a short-position against the rial. The measure indicates high degree to which the peg is starting to come under attack. The government has announced a wave of layoffs in the public sector. This is an absolute first. The Middle East was considered beyond economics because of oil. Everything is changing.

We will see the same situation with respect to the Euro. If Britain does not leave the EU, it will stand in silence and what its financial standing in the world collapse. Brussels will adopt the same type of policies and just make it illegal to disagree with their policies.

Innovation — Unemployment — Business Cycle


CAPITALISM

QUESTION:

Hi Martin,

Thank you for everything that you do.

Comments have been made – to which you yourself have been alluding to for some time – that technology is replacing jobs at such a rapid rate, unemployment will be a major issue in the very near future.  However, these commentators conclude that this proves that capitalism has failed.

Obviously, since capitalism has been interfered with for decades, it can’t have failed since it has not been allowed to be practiced unfettered.

My question is, if we were living in a capitalist system without intervention, how would the system correct itself?  What I mean is since corporate profits depend upon consumption, and consumption depends upon wages from the masses, then how would capitalism prevent very high unemployment?  (This goes back to your example of Henry Ford providing higher wages to his employees, so they could buy the cars he was producing.)

Thank you in advance for any insight you can provide on this very critical issue.

Danny

ANSWER: People who claim that capitalism has failed are seriously burdened with propaganda. Capitalism is freedom, and socialism is effectively the lack of freedom. True, we have done nothing but interfere with the economy since the theories of Marx and Keynes were adopted. Yet, Paul Volcker admitted that this “New Economics” has failed. This whole theory was based on the idea that government could manipulate society to produce utopia, but they have never been able to achieve that. Larry Summers has admitted that publicly, but the socialists do not listen because they want to rob their neighbors.

Innovation comes in waves and technological advancements always displace jobs. The problem has been that people do not improve their worth, yet they demand pay hikes just because they want more money. If you go to Miami, the number one language is Spanish. They want to raise the minimum wage to $15 instead of encouraging people to learn English to broaden their worth. Anyone who has computer skills starts at $15+. So why should people without employable skills earn the same as a person with technology skills?

I had a friend who was a pilot during the Korean War. He told me that many of the old pilots could not make the transition when the new jets came in because they were unable to respond as quickly to the increased speed. Every field moves through the same advancement curve. Unions attempt to freeze skills by demanding more money rather than teaching people to adapt and move with the cycle.

The system will always correct itself as it has done throughout history, long before Marx/Keynes. It is always subject to the business cycle, which is influenced by many factors including weather. Capitalism began with the Black Death. Before then, it was a highly socialistic world or serfs. You worked the land and kept 20% of the food in return for a house to live in, and you could run into the castle when danger came. The Black Death killed about 50% of the workforce and the scarcity of labor resulted in landlords being willing to pay wages. The shortage of labor gave birth to capitalism. So, there will always be cycles to the economy.

Romans invented corporations. They bought and sold shares in the marketplace, and that freedom of capital created Rome (not centralized planning). The system has always been self-correcting. Technology will advance, which will displace jobs and cause unemployment to rise. In turn, corporate profits will be brought down and war will typically emerge to thin the herd. Eventually, the next generation becomes better equipped to ride the next wave of innovation.

Brexit Poll: Latest Trend Finds “Leave” Group Now Ahead of “Remain”…


I really do hope that the Brits leave the EU as I would hate to seem them go down when the EU collapses in the next couple of years. Lets get it over with and at least try and save the United Kingdom.

BREXIT v Yellen


 

BREXIT v Yellen

The debate shifted following the Jobs Report, and people now assume that the Fed will not raise rates. Hence, we have a bounce in gold and the euro. That makes no fundamental sense regarding gold since higher rates indicate inflation and lower rates warn of deflation. The real confusion has been that most only focus on domestic issues. The euro would bounce if BREXIT won, giving a bit of a bid there. Nevertheless, the typical US analysts and newspapers pay no attention to BREXIT and just assume it is a European thing.

To the contrary, BREXIT is a huge deal for if the “real” vote prevails if we do see an exit that the establishment cannot prevent. Sure, the pound will get hit at first, but thereafter, a contagion of separation movements will appear and contribute to the demise of the euro. That will have a broader long-term influence on capital flows pouring into the USA.

Two-bedroom condos in Brooklyn are now going for over $1 million. This is all foreign capital pouring into the USA on cash deals. The same is taking place in Miami, and this is why the IRS demands title companies to pierce corporate veils to get at the real owners only in New York and Miami.

Fed Excess Reserves

BREXIT can have a profound impact on the dollar because it has the potential to send mountains of cash fleeing Europe to the USA.

Then we have Donald Trump, and a victory there would really change America. Trump is talking about a 15% corporate tax rate that would match Hong Kong. If this policy were to happen, we would see $2 trillion in offshore corporate cash return to USA. Then if the Fed wisens up and fails to raise the 0.5 rate on excess reserves or eliminates it, as it should, there will be another $2 trillion freed up.

With $4 trillion free, the only place will be equities. We will see the Dow come into that sweet spot where you can buy it with two hands and watch it rally to test the 23,000 level in the years ahead. Nobody seems to expect a rally and that makes this even more explosive.

So for all the Fed watchers worried about a quarter point change in rates, they are missing the international picture. We have issued a special report on BREXIT for one simple reason:

 

BREXIT IS FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN A RATE CHANGE