Tag Archives: Rob Peter to Pay Paul

Jan 16 2018

Can Government Really Prevent War?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics

Re-Posted Jan 16, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Martin,

So much common sense from you. But, re the almost total corruption of government, could this be the ONLY practical solution?

That is:
1. Elect Politicians directly, at random, from the general, law abiding population for a fixed term with no possibility of re-election
2. Pay them well, with jobs/careers guaranteed and severe prison time for any corrupt activity

Of course, lots of other issues, all surmountable – but these principles are sacrosanct.

Could it be any worse than the current appalling corrupt situation?

Regards
IW

PS I understand this system was tried in ancient Greece and Italy around WW1. We might be better at the logistics now?

ANSWER: No there is no other choice. Thrasymachus (c 459-400BC) put it best: all forms of government become the same as they all act in their own self-interest. We really need a bureaucracy to run, but they MUST be accountable to elected people who are by NO MEANS career politicians. The European Project and the entire theory of federalizing Europe has been to supposedly prevent war by devolving everything to a single government. If there are no career politicians, then this will do far more to reduce the threat of war than any other step we can take toward securing our future.

A single government that is still not answerable to the people will not cut it. This is precisely the design of the European Project to eliminate any democratic process because they assume the people are too stupid to understand their vision. Those who dictate the trend of Europe known as the Troika, rule without any accountability to the people. There is no democratic process that any of them have to face. This is the European Project – a single government free of any democratic check and balance all justified to prevent war.

Jan 14 2018

Iran Economic Decline = Rise in Protests


Armstrong Economics Blog/Middle East

Re-Posted Jan 14, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Mr. Armstrong; The economy is in a poor state at best because the government just does not know how to manage the state and this proxy war with Saudi Arabia is draining everything here in Iran. What is your view on the economy going forward?

REPLY: The lifting of economic sanctions under the 2015 nuclear deal with the USA did not result in any improvement in the Iranian economy. Iran’s economy has simply remained stagnant at best for we are in an overall economic contraction now into 2020. Inflation is running above 10% in Iran while many basic food items like eggs are up over 40%. Still, some 3 million people remain unemployed. The economic conditions since the Islamic Revolution have simply left about 35% of Iranians living below the official poverty line.

The protests in Iran are being instigated by economics as they are in Europe. The young Iranians, in general, are growing increasingly frustrated by corruption in government combined with economic mismanagement. Protests and instability are likely to continue over the next few years because of the government, like most others, is simply interested in retaining power – not reform.

Jan 13 2018

Former Uranium Transportation Company President Indicted on 11 Counts Related to Foreign Bribery, Fraud and Money Laundering Scheme


RE-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on January 12, 2018 by

U.S. authorities believe from at least 2009 to October 2014 Mark Lambert (pictured below left) and other company executives, including Daren Condrey, conspired to bribe Vadim Mikerin, an official at the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation subsidiary (TENEX), in order to secure contracts for transporting nuclear fuel.

Daren Condrey plead guilty in June 2015 to conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and wire fraud. Condrey likely flipped on his former partner, Mark Lambert.  [Mr. Condrey is awaiting sentencing, according to the Justice Department.]

(U.S. Dept. of Justice) […] Mark Lambert, 54, of Mount Airy, Maryland, was charged in an 11-count indictment with one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and to commit wire fraud, seven counts of violating the FCPA, two counts of wire fraud and one count of international promotion money laundering. 

The charges stem from an alleged scheme to bribe Vadim Mikerin, a Russian official at JSC Techsnabexport (TENEX), a subsidiary of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation and the sole supplier and exporter of Russian Federation uranium and uranium enrichment services to nuclear power companies worldwide, in order to secure contracts with TENEX.

The case against Lambert is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Theodore D. Chuang of the District of Maryland.

According to the indictment, beginning at least as early as 2009 and continuing until October 2014, Lambert conspired with others at “Transportation Corporation A” to make corrupt and fraudulent bribery and kickback payments to offshore bank accounts associated with shell companies, at the direction of, and for the benefit of, a Russian official, Vadim Mikerin, in order to secure improper business advantages and obtain and retain business with TENEX.

In order to effectuate and conceal the corrupt and fraudulent bribe payments, Lambert and others allegedly caused fake invoices to be prepared, purportedly from TENEX to Transportation Corporation A, that described services that were never provided, and then Lambert and others caused Transportation Corporation A to wire the corrupt payments for those purported services to shell companies in Latvia, Cyprus and Switzerland.

Lambert and others also allegedly used code words like “lucky figures,” “LF,” “lucky numbers,” and “cake” to describe the payments in emails to the Russian official at his personal email account.  The indictment also alleges that Lambert and others caused Transportation Corporation A to over-bill TENEX by building the cost of the corrupt payments into their invoices, and TENEX thus overpaid for Transportation Corporation A’s services.   (read more)

Jan 13 2018

Are Police Acting Like Thugs Because Judges Refuse to Defend the Constitution?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Police

Re-Posted Jan 13, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

Teacher Deyshia Hargrave was questioning the school board how they can vote to give the superintendent a raise when school employees have not gotten a raise in years. A policeman from the parish Marshal’s Office told her to leave the room. He shut down her freedom of speech to even ask a question in a respectful manner.  He ordered her to step outside, pushed her to the ground, and then arrested her dragging her out in handcuffs.

The question this presents is why are police officer lacking any training about human and constitutional rights. Far too many seem they believe they are supreme in their authority and need not answer to anyone. This evolves because judges are not defending the constitution as a whole. There are no checks and balances anymore. What happened to “We the People” in this modern day?

Categories: Police
Jan 13 2018

Judge Throws Out Gov’t Case Against Bundy


Armstrong Economics Blog/Rule of Law

RE-Posted Jan 13, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

The pressure has to be so great in this land to ever obtain any justice. In the case of the rancher, Bundy, the government has been on a crusade to imprison him if not outright murder him to uphold their supreme authority to ignore the Constitution.

A U.S. Federal District Judge Gloria Navarro dismissed all charges against Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, his two sons and another man on Monday after accusing prosecutors of willfully withholding evidence from Bundy’s lawyers. Judge Navarro cited “flagrant prosecutorial misconduct” in her decision to dismiss all charges against the Nevada rancher and three others. She wrote: “The court finds that the universal sense of justice has been violated.”

This is what is called a Brady Violation. Rarely will any federal judge actually dismiss a criminal complaint of the government on a Brady Violation – perhaps one in a million, if that. They have also crafted “harmless error” analysis to basically say you would have been convicted anyhow so rights do not matter.

Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963) was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court which established that the prosecution must turn over all evidence that might exonerate the defendant (exculpatory evidence) to the defense. The prosecution failed to do so for Brady and he was convicted. Brady challenged his conviction, arguing it had been contrary to the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Prosecutors hate to ever turnover anything that will defeat them in court. In United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667 (1985), the Supreme Court effectively overrule Brady by applying Harmless Error analysis meaning you have the burden to prove now that the evidence withheld WOULD HAVE changed the verdict. And who does the analysis? A judge of course and never the people.

In order for the Bundy charges to be thrown out, there must have been a lot of posturing behind the curtain. The government can always appeal and the likelihood of an appellate court overrule the district court is 100%. So what took place was to a large extent political. They wanted to get this off the table. Bunday spent 700 days in prison.

Jan 11 2018

British Prosecutors Charging Hate Crimes for just saying “All right Geezer.”


Armstrong Economics Blog/BRITAIN

Re-Posted Jan 11, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

The British government is also going completely nuts with criminal charges for nonsense. British prosecutors charged a woman for calling a man a “pussy”. Then there is the case of a businessman who was charged with a hate crime for saying to a transgender man presenting himself as a woman  – “all right geezer.” He alleged he simply said that to him/her when they passed in the street. Vernon Mussington was found guilty but appealed and finally had his conviction overturned.

When the governments collapse, we simply MUST take away the power to prosecute from government completely. Part of the cycle that signals the decline and fall is in motion, is none other than the abuse of the power to prosecute. Edward Gibbon wrote in the Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire:

“[A] distinction of every kind soon became criminal. The possession of wealth stimulated the diligence of the informers; rigid virtue implied a tacit censure of the irregularities of Commodus; important services implied a dangerous superiority of merit; and the friendship of the father always insured the aversion of the son. Suspicion was equivalent to proof; trial to condemnation. The execution of a considerable senator was attended with the death of all who might lament or revenge his fate; and when Commodus had once tasted human blood, he became incapable of pity or remorse”

(Book 1, Chapter 4).

Jan 10 2018

Why Governments are Like an Ameba


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics

Re-Posted Jan 10, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

 

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; You may be called the legend because of your forecasts on so many levels, but it might also be because you have met with more governments than probably any economist or analyst. My question is simple. From your experience, do you believe you can prevent the economic carnage that is becoming so obvious to everyone except those in government?

SK

ANSWER: The idealistic belief in intelligence and goodness embedded within human beings is increasingly confronted with the harsh experiences of reality. We all indeed act in our own self-interest or we would take no action (Smith’s Invisible Hand). Even an ameba, which lacks consciousness as we define it being self-aware, still responds to its surrounding and engulfs its prey to survive. It responds due to its hardwired nature. Unfortunately, humans also possess at that inner level this same survival instinct that is hardwired. This makes it increasingly unlikely that willingness to change gains sufficient strength in time for the abyss to be reached. Hence, we must crash and burn.

Because the government will respond in the same manner as an ameba, there is no hope that they will spontaneously look in the mirror and reach an OMG moment of realizing that they are causing the demise of our society. Consequently, they will consume our liberty until they push it to the point that society will then act only in its self-interest to survive. Historically, all governments collapse once they have consumed rights, liberty, and privileges in their desire to maintain control and in the end, die by their own greed for power. They lack any consciousness of what they are doing precisely as an ameba. There is no reasoning for there is no one single mind to reason with.

Therefore, neither I nor anyone else, possess the power to prevent the cycle from unfolding. The very best I can hope for is perhaps to influence the reconstruction

Jan 9 2018

Ukraine & the Next Revolution


Armstrong Economics Blog/Eastern Europe

Re-Posted Jan 9, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; I want to thank you for defending the Ukrainian people in their quest to overthrow the government corruption. You are a great inspiration here in Kiev. What does your model show for the success of our revolution looking ahead?

PN

ANSWER:  There are many in the West who know nothing of Ukraine and simply attribute the revolution to the CIA. I understand the disillusionment in Ukraine about these pretend analysts. They pontificate CIA and ignore that there was a real uprising of the people. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, Ukraine endured years of corruption, mismanagement, lack of economic growth, currency devaluation, and problems in securing funding from public markets. The corruption became widespread and Yanukovich’s sons were engaged in a protection racket preventing people from going into small business. There is no other evidence of how the Ukrainian people have suffered under political corruption that has not really changed. Yanukovich was removed, but those under him are still in power and just changed their stripes. The corrupt politicians did not realize that when the government tried to arrest Mikheil Saakashvili, the ex-Georgian leader-turned Ukrainian opposition politician, the people would rally and rescue him from the police wagon freeing him. The accusations that he plotted to overthrow the government is on par with the corruption. I have a friend who lives close to him. He stood on the roof preaching to the people as the police tried to grab him. It was a real spectacle of corruption.

They have also accused Saakashvili of accepting funding from an exiled Ukrainian businessman in a bid to seize power, which he denies. Thousands of people even gathered outside the courthouse after an almost-eight-hour hearing where the government tried to use the criminal process to eliminate an opposition leader. This is standard in politics and we see the Democrats in the USA trying the same tactics to Impeach Trump. The people are against demanding the impeachment of President Petro Poroshenko trying to stamp out corruption once again in Ukraine.

Ukrainian Revolutions Have Been:

Khmelnytsky Uprising (1648–57)
Ukraine after the Russian Revolution
Ukrainian War of Independence (1917–21)
Declaration of Ukrainian State Act (1941)
Declaration of Independence of Ukraine (1991)
Orange Revolution (2004–05)
Euromaidan (2013–Present)/2014 Ukrainian revolution

This has demonstrated a close correlation with a 52-year cycle aligning with the Economic Confidence Model of 51.6-years. This appears to be on schedule for a rise in tensions again here in 2018, but the peak is most likely coming into play in 2022

Jan 8 2018

Clinton Foundation Targeted by FBI – About Time!


Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption

Re-Posted Jan 8, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

What goes around, comes around. The Democrats intend to turn-up the heat on the Impeachment of Trump. That is all they have to run on in the midterm elections in November. They voted against any tax reform and simply oppose anything offered by the other side. Politics has just degenerated into the obstruction and neither side seems willing to work together. With the Democrats trying to use the Impeachment Card to trump Trump, the game is now afoot and the niceties are off the table.

Now the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has reportedly targeted the foundation of former President Bill Clinton on suspicion of political favors in exchange for donations to the Clinton Foundation. The allegations refer to the period from 2009 to 2013, when Hillary was US Secretary of State. A spokesman for Hillary Clinton told “The Hill” that the FBI investigation was “fraud.” This is really an insult to common sense. As soon as Hillary lost the election, all the foreign governments, including Saudi Arabia, withdrew their “donation” for a smoke-screen charity.

The Clinton Global Initiative was their pretend centerpiece to which they claimed its goal “convenes global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.” This was their claimed effort to influence world leaders while, of course, raising cash for the Foundation from world leaders. As soon as Hillary lost the election, her position of “influence” came to an end. The Clintons began immediately laying off all staff as of April 15th, 2017. The Clinton Foundation said in a filing with the New York Department of Labor reporting it will layoff all staff citing the discontinuation of the Clinton Global Initiative.

It really would be nice to see this exposed for what it is. Bill sold Presidential Pardons to the highest bidder. Not only Marc Rich, but there were countless others. I knew of one kid in Federal Prison in Fort Dix, New Jersey who was bragging he would be released because his father paid the Clintons $250,000 for a Pardon. The corruption of the Clintons has been notorious and probably has never been surpassed by any political figure in the history of any nation.

Jan 7 2018

Will England Break-Up Not Just the United Kingdom


Armstrong Economics Blog/BRITAIN

Re-Posted Jan 7, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Hi Martin.

In your recent blog posts, you talk about the possible timing of the break up of Britain but you talk about that in terms of the regionalisation or break up of England only. Have you not said before that Scotland is likely to become independent sometime in the next few years? Perhaps you could explain how that possibility fits in this process?

Thanks

CGB

ANSWER: There are two expansions on the island of Britain. The more commonly known is the formation of the United Kington which took place in 1707 under Queen Ann. That saw Scotland under English Rule and the birth of the United Kingdom. However, before the reign of Eadgar (959-975 AD), England was divided into Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. It was Eadgar who instituted a uniform coinage throughout the land and a single government. While Eadgar set the pattern for the ‘reformed’ coinage of the later Anglo-Saxon and Norman period and standardized the use of the king’s portrait as in old Roman tradition, it was all about creating BRITAIN as a nation-state.

If we look back in time, we see that the first Anglo-Saxon kingdom to really become powerful was Mercia. It was the King of Mercia who was the one who actually resurrected the old Roman Empire’s monetary system for all of Europe since the French copied his idea. We see that King Offa of Mercia was the first king to put the portrait of himself and his wife on the coinage as was the tradition in the Roman Empire.

Here is the Roman Emperor Claudius who married Agrippina, Jr. in 49AD. You will find throughout the history of Roman coinage, the Roman family of the emperor was traditionally portrayed on the coinage. Constantine the Great even issued coins with the portrait of his mother. Trajan issued coins depicting his father and Septimus Severus issued coins showing his wife and two sons.

The Romans placed great value on family. This is where the idea of virginity of their women was proposed and to be a woman priestesses of the Roman goddess of the hearth, Vesta, in the state religion of ancient Rome, they must be virgins known as Vestal Virgins( Latin: Vestales).

Evidence of the power of Mercia lies in the coinage of Offa who adopted the Roman culture. It was Offa who actually issued the first gold coin after the fall of Rome in Europe. He was copying the Islamic gold coin for trade demonstrating his contacts beyond Britain. He inscribed his name on the Islamic imitation coinage but obviously could not read what the Islamic legends actually said. This gold issue is extremely rare.

Therefore, we have two historic break-ups that Britain faces in the future. Eventually, the United Kingdom will break apart formally, but with the collapse of Brussels and the EU Project, we are also likely to then see AFTER 2032, the general trend toward decentralization of governments as a whole. Hence, we will see England break apart into the old Anglo-Saxon regions as we will see the United States break apart. This is the cycle of dissolution politically against centralized government, which is why the Communist experiment also collapsed. Then you begin again and reform nation-states in the next major cycle wave. Society comes together for economic efficiency, and then government abuses its power, which in turn then results in the cycle of dissolution and it all begins once again.