Tag Archives: Progressivism

Apr 1 2021

Socialist Revolution On Target


Armstrong Economics Blog/Economics Re-Posted Apr 1, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT:

When I hear Bill Gates state on video, that if other countries had “followed the procedures of Vietnam, New Zealand, and Australia, there would have been lesser deaths…”

it is obvious to me that what he really was saying is ‘if other countries had followed the POLITICAL MOVES of Vietnam, New Zealand, and Australia’ bla bla bla, etc, and bla.

With the information available on alt and social media it is also obvious to me, that those countries have gone full on Nazi/Stazi/Police state based upon zero actual medical reasons.

It doesn’t take any imagination to then hypothesize and extrapolate that the WHO, WEF, UN, Gates and other uber-wealthy people are the designers and movers of this takeover worldwide. Additionally the huge global corporations (with interlinking BODs) are going along with the scheme and doing what some conservative governments will not/cannot do.

This was all planned in advance, it’s got very little to do with an actual virus, but primarily for propaganda sake. The scheme covers politics, social conditioning, financial re-engineering, setting up an unaccountable soviet style polit bureau of world governance, CCP level technical population control, and adoption of a fully operational socialist/fascist systems.
– The mask will become the shot.
– Food shortages will become the normal, and hunger will begat compliance.
– Sporadic violence will be the catalyst for a general police state and then gun/2A removal.
– Political unrest and social chaos will seize any governments that attempt to object, and likely will usher in UN troops to oversee the chaos.

If a few years ago I would have imagined a successful worldwide scam to take control of the world would happen in 2020 – I may have called myself a little bit nuts or a great fiction writer!

But now…?

What really scares me is to extrapolate any further on the effects of what seems to planned, and even more, the success thus far.

Very big thank you for all you do and your writings!

G

REPLY: Never in my life have I ever witnessed such a political coup to take over the world and impose their vision of a socialistic, green environment. The last time something like this occurred on an international contagion basis was the Revolution of 1848. Our models forecast that we would see global civil unrest in 2020, and this was 172 years on schedule (2 x 8.6 – 17.2). The previous target was 1934, which was the Socialist revolution where FDR even confiscated gold in January 1934. However, the 1848 event was more of a contagion.

I have said many times that humans cannot forecast what they have never seen. I personally am shocked at the magnitude of this movement. Just watching the Democratic Convention makes me see that conducting business in the future will become impossible unless you are doing something they approve of.

People do not grasp the dangerous road we are heading down. Socialists cannot tolerate dissent nor will they tolerate opposition. Socialism requires TOTALITARIANISM to take hold. Just look at anyone who posts anything against this movement, from health to facts about the Obama Administration illegally trying to create Russia Gate. Facebook and YouTube immediately take them down. They are idiots, for they think they are helping their Democratic cause, but they will soon discover that Socialists will not tolerate free speech, and they too will end up suppressed. They are fools, for they have NEVER picked up a history book — ever!

The Socialist Revolutionary movement began in Italy with a local revolution in Sicily in January 1848. The movement caught on as a natural contagion spreading to France by February.  This revolution became a contagion rather than organized by a single group as we have today. The movement extended throughout the whole of Europe, with the exception of Russia, Spain, and the Scandinavian countries. In France, by June 26, 1848, the revolution resulted in more than 10,000 people were either killed, which included 1,500 troops. It was successful in creating the Second Republic.

The Socialist Revolution of 1848 took hold and spread worldwide, as we are witnessing again today under the pretense of this coronavirus. The 1848 Socialist Revolution engulfed the following countries, among many others, which even included Canada:

Italian states
France
German states
Denmark
Schleswig
Habsburg Monarchy
Hungary
Galicia
Sweden
Switzerland
Greater Poland
Romanian Principalities
Belgium
Ireland
Spain
South America

There was rising tension in the United States, but this was offset by the California Gold Rush after the discovery in 1848. Many people just picked up and left. Nevertheless, there was also a political polarization, with Democrats and reformers in favor of socialism. However, they were deeply concerned about the violence involved in Europe. The opposition came from conservative elements, especially Whigs, southern slaveholders, orthodox Calvinists, and Catholics. The most interesting aspect was that thousands of Germans fled the Socialists in Europe and migrated to the United States, later becoming Republicans, which also helped suppress the Socialists.

The 1848 Socialist Revolution sent people fleeing Europe to the United States for safety. Today, a takeover by the Socialists in the United States will lead to yet another migration between states, but there is no new land for people to flee. It is more likely to result in nations splitting and civil wars.

Apr 1 2021

Food Crisis of 2021 in Europe


Armstrong Economics Blog/Agriculture Re-Posted Apr 1, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

We are staring in the face of a serious food crisis in Europe as food prices rise continuously, and with further draconian COVID measures within the EU, they are bringing the food supply chains to a standstill. Our models have been warned that this 8.6-year cyclical wave into 2024 will be one of commodity inflation due to SHORTAGES rather than speculative demand. All the indications that the world is heading for a serious food price crisis are in play. The Food Price Index (FFPI) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) averaged 107.5 points in December 2020, an increase of 2.3 points (2.2%) compared to November 2020, which represents an increase for the seventh consecutive month.

With the exception of sugar, all sub-indices of the FFPI recorded slight gains in December, with the sub-index for vegetable oil again rising the most, followed by that for dairy products, meat, and cereals. For 2020 as a whole, the FFPI averaged 97.9 points, a three-year high, 2.9 points (3.1%) higher than in 2019, but still well below its 2011 high of 131.9 points. It is also interesting that the FFPI in 2002 was still 53.1 points. It only increased significantly from the financial crisis of 2007/08, only to then level off in the 90-point range. Since May 2020 it has increased by 18%.

Our models project that the upward trend in the FFPI will intensify going into 2024. With the coronavirus mutating, as we warned ALL viruses do, as such, we have these various strains from Africa, Brazil, UK, and even California, are inspiring politicians to use this as an opportunity to restrict the population even further. These corona measures have extended to the food supply chains, disrupting them just as we see in electronics. For example, the German Fruit Trade Association sees the supply of fruit and vegetables from abroad is at a substantial risk whereby imports are suspended. The reason is the tightening of the corona entry regulation by the federal government. The tightening of the lockdown in Europe is beginning to restrict the supply chains reducing the food supply

Apr 1 2021

Collectibles Going Crazy?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Collectibles Re-Posted Apr 1, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

This June, Sotheby’s will be auctioning off three of the greatest rarities in the stamp and coin field. The 1933 Double Eagle $20 gold coin, the unique British Guiana One-Cent Black on Magenta, and the unique Inverted Jenny 1918 Plate Block. This is truly an incredible offering from a single collector to have captured three of the rarest and most unique collectibles in history.

It is a bit unusual that a unique stamp from a less than the mainstream region has emerged as the rarest and sole-surviving example of the British Guiana One-Cent Magenta from 1856. It was last sold in 2014 at Sotheby’s for $9.48 million. While it was rediscovered by a 12-year-old schoolboy living in South America in 1873, perhaps due to fantastic marketing, it has emerged as one of the most important stamps in famous collections that have ever assembled. In 1873 L. Vernon Vaughan, a 12-year-old schoolboy living with his family in British Guiana found the stamp among a group of family papers bearing many British Guiana issues. The young philatelist would later sell the stamp for several shillings to another local collector. The British Guiana then entered the UK in 1878, and shortly after, it was purchased in Paris by Count Philippe la Renotière von Ferrary who many considered to be perhaps the greatest stamp collector in history. Then following the war, France seized Ferrary’s collection, which had been donated to the Postmuseum in Berlin, as part of war reparations due from Germany following World War I. The stamp was then sold in 1922 at auction when it was purchased by Arthur Hind, a textile magnate from New York, for its first auction-record price of $35,000. The stamp changed hands moving from the collections of the Australian engineer Frederick T. Small; then a consortium headed by Irwin Weinberg; then by John du Pont of the famous chemical company. Du Pont paid $935,000 for the stamp in a 1980 auction, before it was last sold at auction to Weitzman for the record-setting price of $9.48 million.

Interestingly, a tradition emerged where previous owners of the British Guiana signed the back of the stamp. Weitzman added his own personal mark to the reverse of the stamp inscribing his initials “SW” along with a line drawing of a stiletto shoe as a nod to his legacy in fashion.

This 1933 Double Eagle ($20 gold coin) is the only example that may be legally owned by an individual. It was the coin acquired by King Farouk of Egypt. Stuart Weitzman purchased the coin at a Sotheby’s/Stack’s auction in 2002 for a world record price of US$7.59 million, nearly doubling the previous record. The Director of the United States Mint signed a Certificate of Monetization that, in return for twenty dollars, authorized the issuance of this single example.

In August 2005, the US Mint announced the recovery of ten additional stolen 1933 double eagle gold coins from the family of Philadelphia jeweler/coin dealer Israel Switt, who was the illicit coin dealer identified by the Secret Service as a party to the theft who admitted selling the first nine double eagles that were recovered. Israel Switt had many contacts and friends within the Philadelphia Mint. As the story goes, the Secret Service found that only one man, George McCann, had access to the coins at the time and served prison time for similar embezzlement in 1940. Israel Switt somehow obtained the stolen 1933 double eagles. One theory is that McCann swapped the previous year’s Double Eagles for the 1933 specimens prior to melting, thereby making sure the count was correct. The US mint began striking Double Eagles on March 15, 1933. Roosevelt’s executive order to ban gold was not finalized until April 5. Therefore, on March 6, 1933, the Secretary of the Treasury ordered the Director of the Mint to pay gold only under a license issued by the Secretary, and the United States Mint cashier’s daily statements do not reflect that any 1933 Double Eagles were paid out.

In September 2004, the claimed owner, Joan Switt Langbord, heir to Israel Swift, tried to sell the 10 coins and they had to be surrendered to the Secret Service. In July 2005, the coins were authenticated by the United States Mint after working with the Smithsonian Institution, as being genuine 1933 double eagles. Joan Switt Langbord claimed to have found them in a box and she went to court to have them returned. On October 28, 2010, US court ruled and the issue went to trial in July 2011. On July 20, 2011, after a ten-day trial, a jury ruled unanimously in favor of the United States government and Lanford appealed. At first, the Court of Appeals overruled the jury, but then it went En Banc and the Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the government. The Langbords appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which on April 17th, 2017 denied certiorari.

Hetty Green’s son, Edward Howland Robinson Green (1868-1936), was not so frugal and spent $3  million on coins and stamps. He was an avid collector and bought the famous sheet of 100 inverted airmail stamps in 1918, paying $20,000. The last time this Plate Block appeared on the market was 16 years ago when it sold at auction for $2.97 million.

Meanwhile, the classic Ferraris from the 1980s have nearly doubled in price over the past year.

Mar 31 2021

The Best form of Government


Armstrong Blog/Gov’t Incompetence Re-Post ed Mar 31, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

One person wrote, “Have you ever realized that you are the first true psychohistorian ever, as in Asimov’s Foundation?” Many others are writing in and asking if I could elaborate on my recent statement, “So just start planning now for the next real Great Reset which will be the overthrow of the republic.”

I must confess, I never read Asimov’s Foundation. From reading the cliff notes, I gather it was based upon the fall of Rome. Psychohistory seems to describe an amalgam of psychology, history, and related social sciences and the humanities all combined. Quite honestly, history repeats as I have said many times because the passions of man never change. A mother still cries for her son who dies in battle today as she did in ancient times. To me, in order to understand history you must connect the dots, and to do so that requires an understanding of the thinking process of the time WITHOUT imposing your interpretation based upon what is now.

I have given the example of the city of Philadelphia they named because in Greek it meant “brotherly love,” so the Quakers interpreted that in a Christian sense that yes, I love my brother. The true interpretation at that time in ancient Greece meant incest. They called Ptolemy II Pheladelphos because he married his sister. Context is everything, just as it was wrong to interpret the ancient Egyptians as Pagans or the Greeks saying they worshiped many gods, which was not true. The Egyptians believed in one god they called Rha being the sun, because it gave life. The others represented an individual sin or trait but were never seen as gods of creators.

The Sistine Chapel has as its centerpiece Michelangelo’s “God Creating Adam.” All of our representations of God are symbolic. Nobody actually knows the face of God. The Greeks also never saw their many gods as creators. They were really seen as Titans who were mischievous to put it politely. When you died, you were judged, but not by Zeus, but by the three fates. So many ancient statues are beheaded because the ignorant early Christians thought every statue was a God.

Psychohistory examines the “why” of history, which in my mind involved the intention and actual behavior of why people and governments act the way they do. Effectively, what I have discovered is that when confronted with a similar set of events, those in power will always respond in the same manner.

Republics are the worst form of government because they always collapse into oligarchies. Even a dictatorship is better, for they are not prone to such corruption. Republics allow people to be elected, but there is no way to prevent them from doing things that are against the very people who elected them. When the bribes are too tempting, they simply can be bought, and that is always their fate. Unfortunately, the Founding Fathers believed Cicero which was the fake news of the day because he was an Optimate and part of the oligarchy. Hence, he distorted the account of Caesar for when he crossed the Rubicon. In reality, the Senate fled, and the people cheered Caesar as their savior from a debt crisis. (see: Anatomy of a Debt Crisis).

The only form of government that deserves a try in the face of the Democrats insisting on mail-in ballots is a direct democracy. The people must vote on every bill proposed, and there can be no adding of nonsense that has nothing to do with the bill. The Social Security Act was 16 pages. Obamacare was at least 33,000 pages. Nobody reads that type of legislation, and they make it that long to hide bombshells.

Mar 31 2021

Who Raises Taxes During a Pandemic Already Creating Economic Turmoil? JoeBama, That’s Who


Posted originally on the conservative tree house March 30, 2021 | Sundance | 243 Comments

Think about the logical insanity of this position for a moment….  According to the Biden administration the economy is in trouble, people are struggling, and congress needs to spend trillions to bail out state, local and federal governments along with sending income subsidies to all Americans as the economic crisis around COVID continues.

Due to policies on energy, regulation and the COVID virus, simultaneously food prices are going higher, fuel prices are up 30 percent, overall energy prices are rising, transportation costs increasing and the inflationary impact on the middle-class is eating up their limited paychecks.

AT THIS EXACT MOMENT the same administration is now proposing a tax increase.

THINK ABOUT THE LACK OF LOGIC HERE.

(VIA AXIOS) […] The biggest-ticket item would raise the corporate rate from 21% to 28%. That’s worth $730 billion over 10 years, according to the Tax Policy Center.  The other three would:

  • Impose a global minimum tax on profits from foreign subsidiaries: $550 billion.
  • Tax capital gains as regular income for the wealthy and tax unrealized capital gains at death: $370 billion.
  • Return the top individual rate for those making more than $400,000 to the pre-Trump rate of 39.6%: $110 billion.

[..]  Democrats close to the White House don’t expect Biden to fight as hard for other expected proposals, including one that could raise some $740 billion by imposing new Social Security taxes on the wealthy.

  • His campaign plan to impose a 28% minimum rate on the wealthy, which would raise $220 billion, is unlikely to cross the finish line.
  • And making it harder for small businesses to claim deductions, which would bring in $140 billion, will likely encounter serious roadblocks.
  • Changing the ways estates are taxed, which would raise $220 billion, may not make it into the final legislation. (read more)
Mar 29 2021

Australia Committing Economic Suicide – Turning Hard Left


Armstrong Economics Blog/Regulation Re-Posted Mar 29, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

The Greens in Australia want to tax Billionaires 6% Wealth Tax annually (in addition to INCOME) as a property tax on everything this own from art right down to the watch they wear. They claim it will raise $11.2 billion over its first two years, it will cost the Australian Tax Office an extra $110 million to implement the policy and enforce compliance. But it does not stop there. It would apply to Australians who hold more than $1 billion in assets, no matter where they live, and non-residents who hold Australian assets worth more than $1 billion. Therefore, you can see how stupid these people are for they assume those they target would just remain in Australia and that foreign investment would certainly abandon Australia. This is on top of income taxes, and property taxes that already are in place.

I quit managing money domestically in the United States back in 1985. They came in for an audit and government employees MUST find something wrong because their view is nobody is perfect. They said they were going to write me up for improper record keeping. I asked what was wrong. They said my tabs on files were PINK and they were supposed to be RED. I am not one to cower from the government. I demanded their names and told them I would be filing a lawsuit against them personally. They dropped the nonsense and left. I then informed all my American clients that I would no longer manage money inside the United States. I returned all the funds and moved offshore. That incident transformed me into one of the first Hedge Fund Managers. Stupid regulation has an impact and the idiots behind it are too stupid to understand the consequences.

The political left never gets it. If they raised income taxes back to 90% again, I would just quit. Out of principle, I would simply refuse to work as an economic slave. They never read Atlas Shrugged. They think robbing others because they have more than they have is perfectly fine. So if they are walking down the street and someone sticks a gun in their face and says give me everything or your life, they too are justified because whatever they have is still more than the person with the gun.

I find it very interesting that these left-wing policies are actually forbidden by the Ten Commandments for they are built upon avarice and envy. The Seven Deadly Sins are Pride, Anger, Greed, Gluttony, Lust, Envy, and Sloth. What is interesting is the fact that what is in the Ten Commandments can be found in just about every religion since the dawn of time. This appears to be a human problem and they always justify it by saying it is not fair that someone else has something they do not. But then again, then do not want to work for it – Sloth.

Mar 20 2021

Complete Foreign Policy Disaster in Alaska During U.S-China Summit – Secretary Blinken Destroyed by His own Arrogance, Had to Recall Journalists to Hear Talking Points After Initial Public Statements


Posted originally on the conservative tree house March 19, 2021 | Sundance | 251 Comments

To say the first major diplomatic summit between the United States and China was an unmitigated mess would be an understatement.  Apparently U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken thought it would be of value for the domestic audience if he was to lambast the Beijing delegation in public and on camera.  His efforts were a complete fail as the Chinese knew everything was presented for domestic consumption… so, the Red Dragon threw fire right back onto the purple hair and obviously stunned an unsettled U.S. Secretary.

The train wreck was started by challenging China publicly, in front of the international press, likely believing such an aggressive posture would weaken Republican criticism about the Job Biden administration being soft/weak on China. However, using a joint press conference as the forum only provided insult to the Beijing delegation.

Public insults are expressions of weakness, not strength.

It was visibly obvious that Secretary Blinken stupidly did not anticipate the Chinese officials would retaliate in their remarks responding to him.

The Chinese diplomatic team is exceptionally skilled at verbal combat; they use facts and evident weakness to their advantage. Blinken’s foolish decision gave the Chinese officials a rare opportunity to dress down the Secretary of State very publicly in front of the international media.

Secretary Blinken was visibly shocked and destabilized by the strength of the returning words from the Chinese team. His response was extremely defensive; ‘he doth protest too much’, and he was incoherent. Blinken also repeated JoeBama’s ridiculous catch-phrase “America is back.”

Additionally, despite Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s criticism of China, there was not one word on Beijing’s responsibility for the coronavirus. Nothing about China allowing COVID to become a dangerous pandemic, and no criticism of Beijing for their continued refusal to cooperate with international investigations of the origins of the virus, including inspections of the Wuhan bio-labs.

Overall this was a pathetic (weak) and sophomoric (feeble) attempt at diplomatic confrontation; while being disrespectful and completely devoid of fact points to frame the purpose of the diplomatic meeting. The first rule in any negotiation or confrontation is to use the behavior, the accepted empirical action of your adversary, against them.

The U.S. delegation did not cite any factual examples only platitudes and generalities. This allowed a much more prepared Chinese delegation to use the stage to frame the confrontation as without merit, and embarrass the U.S. contingent. After Blinken used the catch-phrase a “rules based international order”, the Chinese shot back with a big truth: “the United States does not talk for the world, only for the United States government.” The U.S. team was dead silent and without retort.

The U.S. team was so badly beaten by the Chinese, so brutally caught off-guard, Secretary of State Blinken had to call the press back into the room after his team put together counterpoints.  Yes, the U.S. team called the reporters back into the room -after opening remarks- just so they could make statements the international audience would hear.  THAT is embarrassing.

All-in-all a major fail on so many levels. The JoeBama diplomacy now appears weaker and more reactionary than the Jimmy Carter diplomacy. Adversaries will take good advantage of the U.S. ineptitude.

A picture says a thousand words…