Tag Archives: Progressivism
Repo Crisis – Best Kept Secret Ever!
Armstrong Economics Blog/Interest Rates
Re-Posted Nov 29, 2019 by Martin Armstrong
COMMENT: Marty; I want to thank you for a great conference. It is clear you are the only true institutional adviser. Our board is very impressed. The FT reported that there is still no single factor that caused the dislocations in the repo market in mid-September. You are the only one who explains the event authoritative.
Thanks
JG
ANSWER: Nobody will talk publicly. Everyone is scared to death of starting a panic. This is the BEST kept secret I have ever seen in my career. The real test comes at year-end when banks typically step back from the repo market so that their balance sheets are smaller for December 31 regulatory calculations. We will see what really happens then on the chaos scale of 1 to 10. I find it really funny how there are articles calling it the new QE to where the Fed is clandestinely buying T-Bills through repo. This really seems to be an orchestrated effort at disinformation. It is hard to say if the people who make this up are deliberate agents of the government hired to keep people looking in the wrong direction.
The Rising Tension in Europe for Civil Unrest
Armstrong Economics Blog/Civil Unrest
Re-Posted Nov 27, 2019 by Martin Armstrong
QUESTION: Hello!
More and more people in western Europe are talking about the coming civil war between the Muslims/Arabs and the Europeans. Guillaume Faye has even written a book about it. I personally believe that it will break out between 2025 and 2050 and that it will start in France. Me and my friends are looking for some place to go before it starts. We are looking at eastern Europe. Have your computer anything on this coming civil war?
Thank you for your hard work.
IR
ANSWER: Economics is at the root of the crisis. In 1844, tensions rose and there were gun battles on the streets in Philadelphia against the Irish Catholics. This occurred in the middle of a depression from the Panic of 1837 with the sovereign debt defaults by states. Religion was involved to some extent, but the argument became that the Irish immigrants were taking the jobs and were willing to work for less.
In this case, the refugees get handouts from the state and then the state raises taxes on the citizens. This still is fueling the tensions and there is indeed a risk of civil conflicts and separatist movements. This is also the period where we should expect more anti-establishment parties rising because people are losing their lifestyles thanks to the career politicians who have created an economic catastrophe.
William Koch & Ancient Coins
Armstrong Economics Blog/Ancient History
Re-Posted Nov 26, 2019 by Martin Armstrong
QUESTION: I understand that the Koch brothers bought ancient coins. Is there any truth to that?
WJ
ANSWER: Oh, yes. William Koch was involved in a very famous case involving the Athenian decadrahms. There was a hoard discovered in Antalya by a television repairman and two other people back in 1984. They found a hoard of 2000 ancient silver coins with a metal detector. The hoard contained the rare Athenian decadrachms, which were produced as a commemorative 10-drachma coin. There were only 7 previously known examples. The Elmali Hoard contained 14 of them and became known as the “The Hoard of the Century.” The first one sold for $600,000 dollars, easily breaking the old record. The billionaire, William Koch of Boston, bought 1,800 of the coins for $3.5 million dollars. The Turkish Government knew that the treasure had been smuggled out of the country, but after it was taken across the border they didn’t have the slightest knowledge of its whereabouts. The treasure disappeared.
Based on the evidence, the Turkish Government started legal proceedings in Boston. The judge gave an important interim judgment in Turkey’s favor. Koch lost the hoard to Turkey
Britain GDP Has been declining ever since joining the EU
Armstrong Economics Blog/BRITAIN
Re-Posted Nov 25, 2019 by Martin Armstrong
REQUEST:
Hi Martin, I trust you are well. Would you post the chart you showed of how the UK has performed since joining the EU? I’ve been ploughing through your emails but am unable to find it. In short, I want to show my partners son the chart, who is a vehement ‘remainer’. Ie, evidence that the Uk would be better off leaving the EU.
Thanks for your help,
Cheers
Charlie
Venezuela & Guyana
Armstrong Economics Blog/South America
Re-Posted Nov 25, 2019 by Martin Armstrong
COMMENT: Mr. Armstrong; I am from Venezuela and became an American citizen 20 years ago. I have brought my father here to live for his pension in Venezuela will not even buy him a cup of coffee as you have mentioned. I can only wish that the democrats would visit Venezuela and witness first hand what their ideas would do to America. You have a country with the largest oil reserves in the world and even gold reserves yet its people are starving. Qatar has the highest net worth per capita which shows that capitalism is so much better than socialism. You are correct. Venezuela proves governments are incapable of managing a bubblegum machine.
HD
ANSWER: It is truly an example to the entire world. The proven oil reserves in Venezuela are recognized as the largest in the world, totaling 297 billion barrels (4.72×1010 m3). For example, a crude oil contract on the futures market is 1,000 barrels of oil. At $55 per barrel, the notional value of the contract is $55,000. That is 297 million contracts of $16 trillion in reserves. The main coalfields are located in the western Zulia State, on the border with Colombia, and they have known proven reserves of natural bitumen (42 billion tons). On top of all that, they have gold reserves which are estimated to be 10,000 tons (29,166.7 ounces per ton). That is about $40 million per ton or $4 billion. From a resource perspective, Venezuela has more than $20 trillion in reserve values equal to almost the entire US national debt. If they really want socialism, privatize the resources, let professionals manage it, and hand out profits equally to all the people. But no, the government has to control everything.
There is a tiny little country most people have never heard of and assume it is in Africa. In Guyana, they have just discovered oil. This economy is going to explode next year and it will probably be the highest growth in the world. You will quickly see the difference between capitalism and socialism.
The Hunt For Taxes – Sell & Leave Before It is too late?
Armstrong Economics Blog/The Hunt for Taxes
Re-Posted Nov 24, 2019 by Martin Armstrong
QUESTION: Dear MR. Armstrong,
As a long time subscriber to your basic level Socrates,I’m very grateful for the guidance I’ve received.I have a question. In the hunt for taxes my Canadian government just assessed me over $80,000.00 for unreported income. I pay my taxes Mr Armstrong, the Canadian government pulled my bank records and although what I said was verified by those records, they refused to accept them! Even my tax lawyer was astounded.Now a difficult question for me.I’m retired and have no income presently.But I do own my on home.To pay off the CRA I’m considering getting a Reverse Mortgage on my home.They charge 6% monthly on the unpaid settlement so if I can get the RM at say 5% and use the extra to buy gold, perhaps over 5 years I can beat this burden.Would you recommend this strategy to your Mother or what else can I do.
Best Regards,
RW
ANSWER: Perhaps that is all you can do. The tax authorities are pulling those tactics far more often because they are broke and it will get far worse. I strongly advise to get a retirement visa from Thailand. You may have to just change your domicile to get away from this hunt for taxes that will continue to get worse. You are already hit. They will usually shift the burden of proof to you and just assume everything you have belongs to them. This is part of the economic tyranny we face.
It really is best to sell fixed assets in countries with aggressive tax agencies so they cannot take your home. Another thing they do, like the USA, is to cancel your passport if you owe them more the $50,000. We are economic slaves. We have truly lost all our freedoms.
I do not know what else to say, You are dancing with the devil and the rule of law has vanished. Justice died with the beginning of direct taxation embracing the income tax and Marxism. Justice is indeed just the will of the government.
The Repo Crisis
Armstrong Economics Blog/Reports and DVDs
Re-Posted Nov 19, 2019 by Martin Armstrong
QUESTION: Marty; The goldbugs are back and claiming the Repo Crisis is MMT and this is again just printing money endlessly to cover up a major banking crisis in the USA so buy gold of course. You said at the WEC cocktail party this would happen because these people never understand the world economy. Is this because they are so fixated on the dollar crash to make gold viable?
Thanks for a great WEC. It was your best ever!
HN
ANSWER: Of course, they will call this Quantitative Easing and Modern Monetary Theory. They are biased and in favor of gold, which makes them incapable of being real analysts. First, you must establish a base method of inquiry which cannot begin with a predetermined conclusion that all paper money is evil and gold is the only real money. Because they begin with this PRESUMPTION, they only look at things to support that predetermined outcome. They fail to provide the reason or support their proposition with historical evidence. They never provide any collective investigation that would put their expectations in question.
The Fed is NOT engaging in QE nor is it engaging in MMT. The Fed is standing in the middle because banks do not trust banks. The crisis is by NO MEANS in the United States. They also fail to grasp why the dollar is the world’s reserve currency, the hoarding of dollars globally, or what this crisis is even about. They interpret any increase in the quantity of money as inflationary. We have had more than 10 years of QE in Japan and Europe with no inflation, which proves their theory is WRONG. They will never address that reality and instead constantly argue gold will rally with QE.
I will do a special report on the Repo Crisis because it just seems people are using this crisis to sell nonsense and outright bullshit. They are so far off the mark about the cause of this crisis, as always, and it would be funny if they were not misleading people into risking their entire life savings. The banks won’t talk to each other and the central banks are living in absolute terror that the truth will come out and the world will just go nuts.
I always seem to be in the middle of every crisis. Not sure how this happens. I get calls asking me what have I heard because nobody will talk among themselves but somehow they come to me to ask what I have heard. I am writing the report now because it just seems imperative to explain the real cause that the press will never print. Nobody will talk and the central banks cannot dare utter a single word about the source of the crisis for fear of creating a political crisis. Even the heads of states are being left in the dark. Trump has called for negative interest rates because he does not understand the crisis because nobody is talking. All they can do is pray at the foot of their bed every night to PLEASE let this crisis pass. Sorry, your prayers will not be heard.
Germany to Separate North v South by 2030
Armstrong Economics Blog/ECM
Re-Posted Nov 18, 2019 by Martin Armstrong
QUESTION:
Martin,
Following the recent State elections in Saxony, Brandenburg and Thuringia which reflected voter disillusionment and discontent with the CDU and SPD how do you view the German political scene to the 2021 Federal election?
JR
REPLY: Bavaria came into existence in 1806 when Napoleon abolished the Holy Roman Empire. It was at this time that Bavaria’s land area was greatly expanded. Our cyclical model on Bavaria suggests that it will separate from northern Germany by 2030. This will be inspired by the austerity policies that have devastated the local economy. However, this will only be augmented by the difference in religion between Protestant v Catholic. That was also a factor in why Bavaria joined with Austria, which was also Catholic, in the Austro-Prussian War that resulted in Bavaria’s defeat in 1866. Bavaria had to cede several Lower Franconian districts to Prussia.
The Bavarian conservative party, the CSU, lost its absolute majority once the Economic Confidence Model turned in 2017 during the subsequent election in 2018. Meanwhile, the Greens emerged as the second-largest political force in southern Germany. Additionally, the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis is impacting the municipal level and the austerity policies imposed by the north continue to brew civil discontent. The loss of the CSU in Germany undermined the survivability of Merkel which instigated her demise.
The civil unrest will turn upward sharply when this current wave concludes 2021.32. The eventual separation of Germany will most likely unfold by 2030 at the earliest.
The Coming British Elections
Armstrong Economics Blog/BRITAIN
Re-Posted Nov 15, 2019 by Martin Armstrong
QUESTION: I know you were rather close to Sir Alan and Prime Minister Thatcher. I also know you are close to a number of politicians here in Britain. I was at your Edinburgh conference where they introduced you as a seventh-generation Edinburgh Scotsman I found very interesting rather than an American. You are famous here in political circles for many forecasts with the latest being the BREXIT victory. Do you have any insight into the December election? It is getting crazy here with two former Labour MPs declaring that they planned to vote for the Conservative Party because they said Labour’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn, was unfit to be prime minister. Then Tom Watson quit because of Corbyn’s policies over Brexit and his anti-Semitism. But the Conservatives seem to be less reliable as well. I think Nigel Farage may surprise a lot of people in this election. What does Socrates say?
GB
ANSWER: That is an interesting question. It is hard to map because of such a diverse breakdown in the “other” category. There is no question that Nigel’s party came out on top in the EU general elections. As we can see from the chart at the top, both Labour and the Conservatives are declining and there is a rise in both the Liberal Dems and “other” against the establishment so to speak. This is part of the global trend many outside the USA call the Trump Revolution. They are not referring to something that Trump did himself. Instead, this is a global trend against established political parties everywhere.
My advice to Johnson would be to cut a deal with Nigel’s Brexit Party. There is a trend underway that is bigger than most suspect. I know Nigel has no designs on being Prime Minister. However, fate will determine the roll of the dice. Nigel may end up in a position he did not wish to be in.
We will try to refine the models to do a proper forecast. Keep in mind that the “other” category is due for a strong showing and this will most likely be Nigel’s party. Also keep in mind that his Brexit Party does not hold any seats in Parliament at this time. That will change.
Centinel2012 