Tag Archives: Understanding cycles

Jan 27 2023

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

Jan 11 2023

The Fed & the Misinformation


Armstrong Economics Blog/Central Banks Re-Posted Jan 11, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Marty, I was there at your Berlin conference when one of the attendees openly admitted he was from the Bundesbank. He was very open about it. There have been other central bankers at your WEC. I suppose they have to attend just to get a whiff of the trend. Powell has come out and asserted the Fed’s independence and it will not make policy based on climate change. That was very refreshing.  The bulk of analysts still cry about the creation of money at the Fed are insisting that a recession is coming because when the Fed stops printing, we will see a correction worse than 2008. Some call this a confetti party. Many claims to be fed watchers, but have never stepped inside their door. Meeting the people I have at your WEC events, you are always in the center and I can see it is not your opinion but Socrates that they want to listen to for an unbiased view. So will there be a huge correction when this party is over or have the fed watches been talking sophistry with no real insight?

HD

PS: What about a Dubai WEC because the world imposes vaccine passports?

ANSWER: I know, This is the typical myopic domestic view that the Fed is in a very dangerous situation and a wrong move in any direction could cause a financial system meltdown worse than 2008. The argument is that since we have a debt-based monetary system if the Fed stops increasing the money supply this will lead to an economic withdrawal process that will be worse than 2008-2009. Once more, this is only looking at the domestic economy. They live with blinders on and do not see the world around us with respect to the globalization policies that are all in chaos.

Even at Davos in 2003, Alejandro Toledo, then President of Peru, urged the participants to listen to the voices of those protesting outside and to build a bridge with the participants of the Porto Alegre anti-globalization conference. “We must give a human face to the global economy and globalization,” he said. “Managing the economy is not an end in itself, but a means to improve the quality of life. Globalization is meaningless if it does not contribute to reducing poverty all over the world. “ Schwab preaches equality but at the price of Authoritarianism and the loss of individual rights.

The Fed is not between a rock and a hard place domestically. It just made it clear that it is not like the ECB and is not in the climate change business. The Fed is INDEPENDENT and will not be bullied by Biden. The Fed understands that it has become the world’s central bank and its actions in raising rates have had a far greater impact externally particularly in emerging markets because so many other nations issue their debt in US dollars.

The focus is not entirely on the nonsense of the domestic number of the money supply. If a foreigner buys property in the United States, they convert their currency to dollars, and in effect that increases the domestic money supply for that capital now free up cash domestically. The Fed has no control over that aspect and central banks have become aware of this effect which is not taught in economics class and not factored into the doomsday forecasts all based on the same reasoning forever.

All the analysis is constantly based on the Quantity Theory of Money which no longer works in our global economy. That was the foundation of the money theory that emerged with Sir Tomas Greshan who was the agent for the British crown. He saw that when Henry VIII debased the coinage, the value declined in Amsterdam when the exchange rate was solely based upon the metal content of the currency.

All we have ever heard is that the Fed has the power to create money out of thin air. They never explain why the Fed was given that power. You cannot have a fixed money supply as the population increases, then you end up with DEFLATION which is the rise in the value of money. They are married to the argument and nothing you can do will deter them from that saying. During the Great Depression, people hoard their money and do not spend it. That was why the ECB went to negative to try to force people to spend money. You can DOUBLE the money supply but if the people hoard it, you will never create inflation.

Because people hoard their cash, there was a huge contraction in the velocity of money. This resulted in massive shortages and it led to over 200 cities issuing their own money to try to enable a local economy to still function for there was not enough cash to even pay anyone for services.

INFLATION is actually the decline in the purchasing power of the currency as measured against assets. DEFLATION is the rise in the value of money and the decline in the value of assets. The way the term “inflation” is handled today, the government puts the blame on the private sector. During DEFLATION we are blamed for not spending our money.

All this talk about bail-ins and bail-outs misses the point. They act as if they in the end really matter. HYPERINFLATION will never arrive based on increasing the money supply. It arrives with the collapse of CONFIDENCE in the government. Germany imposed a forced loan and confiscated 10% of everyone’s assets in December 1922. Germany lost the war and in 1918 there was a Communist Revolution that led to the creation of the Weimar Republic. The money supply increased 10 fold during 1922 when they were struggling to meet the reparation payments. That undermined the confidence in the government. But it was December 1922 when they confiscated  Note that the hyperinflation took off in 1923 after that forced loan. It was no longer safe to have assets in banks.

This idea that we are headed into so black hole all because the Fed creates money is insane. That misinformation that the German Hyperinflation was all because of printing money was totally absurd and a lie. Once the government stole 10% of everyone’s assets, that was the final straw. They then had to print just to try to cover costs and meet reparation payments.

The Lesson of Germany is seriously distorted and has inflected the view of money supply and inflation which ignores the actions of the government. That is the real issue.

Dec 23 2022

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.

Dec 20 2022

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.

Dec 19 2022

Panic Cycle & the Deep State


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

QUESTION #1: Once more I am asking:
In practical terms, when a Panic Cycle appears, which are the factors that will help us to determine if the movement will be up or down please?
Thank you for answering.
SM

QUESTION #2: Your Panic Cycle is remarkable and your forecast on Ukraine before 2014 warrants putting you on the front page of every newspaper. Do you think the fact that ________ goes out of its way to find people who will say what your model has and never refer to you as being part of the whole disinformation game? I tend to trust them less and less for never crediting your computer even once as part of the whole cancel culture. What is your view on this silence?

ANSWER: A Panic Cycle, more often than not, can be an outside reversal meaning it can penetrate the previous low, turn around, and penetrate the previous high. It can also be a huge move in one direction. They tend to be events that are a surprise typically engulfed in some news. It is hard to come up with the fundamentals well in advance. But the computer was picking up the 2008 crash as far back as 1999. I took this array from our old site off of the Wayback machine.

We published the computer forecast in 2013 that had pinpointed Ukraine as the place where World War III would begin. That was one year before the 2014 revolution. The ONLY people to call for an interview on that forecast was RT from Russia. That says a lot. No one social media site nor even one mainstream news outlet ever bothered to can to ask how could this computer do that.

It should be obvious as we move into a Panic Cycle. If a market is rising, be on guard and turn to the Weekly and Monthly levels to see if there will be a big crash or an abrupt breakout. Trying to explain that 2007-2009 would be a major crash was rather simple as you got closer.  The very day of the high in the ECM was the precise day of the high in the Shiller Real Estate Index.  The Panic Cycle Target of 2010.29 was the precise day that Greece applied for emergency loans from the IMF. It should have been obvious going into that from 2002 that it would have been a crash.

Keep in mind that a Panic Cycle can be an OUTSIDE REVERSAL meaning it can make a new low and high during the same timing interval. Here is Weekly gold. There the Panic Cycle for the week of 04/18/22 was a high as well as a big move in one direction. Note that the top Composite or aggregate was a turning point. This helped to define that it would be a high since the market was rallying into it. Take note that the Directional Change target for the Week of 05/16 produced the low also because it coincided with the target for a turning point on the top line. Note that the next Directional Change was 06/06/22 and that was the highest closing with the next week being an outside reversal to the downside.

Insofar as to why other sites refuse to report the success of Socrates or the mainstream press, a lot of people write in asking if the same site ignores our forecasts and will go out of their way to tout someone else are really part of the undercover proxy war of the government against the free press. I cannot confirm or deny that view, but indeed a lot of people write in question if they are the same thing that is now being exposed with the corruption at Twitter and the government-controlled Wikipedia. Some emails have pointed out that they jump on claiming this breakthrough in cold fusion, but refuse to report on how our computer has projected so many things years ahead of time and could save the world if you got rid of the corrupt politicians and deep state.

As I have explained, the Constitution is a NEGATIVE restraint upon exclusive government. This is how the government has been using social media and mainstream media to cancel people, and ignore others, doing what would be unconstitutional if the Deep State did it directly. So you may be right. If they go out of their way to find someone else, perhaps they too are getting their orders from Washington DC. Guess we need Musk to buy them out too.

The computer had targeted 2014 for the start of the war. This is me outlining that 3 years in advance at the 2011 World Economic Conference. Some people judge various sites and newspapers that constantly ignore reporting on any of these forecasts as really just part of the Deep State no matter what they pretend to be. After what Musk has exposed, you have to question any of them these days.

Dec 19 2022

They Never Teach the Truth


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

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong, I recently graduated ________________ with a degree in history. I just wanted to let you know that nowhere was there ever a discussion that FDR deliberately allowed Pearl Harbor to take place to force the Americans into a world war. I verified independently what you said about FDR. To my total shock, you are 100% correct. That leaves me wondering if what is being taught is indeed just propaganda..

Thank you for all you do. You are an amazing source.

CM

ANSWER: Let me explain something. To write the Greatest Bull Market in History back in 1986, I published my sources with newspaper clippings and researched everything because history is indeed written by the victor. When I was in school, I had to read The Great Crash by John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006). Nowhere in there did he EVER criticize the government because he was a left-wing socialist in love with Marx as most academics seem to be.

I was in London and would often rummage around the antique bookstores near the British Museum. I found a copy of Herbert Hoover’s memoirs. It changed my life. It was there that I read about the sovereign debt defaults of 1931. Hoover made a serious mistake. Many blamed him for the Great Depression so he did not want to appear to be making money from it. So his deal was that nobody could make money from the book. They published, I believe, only 500 copies. It was extremely rare. I would discuss what he wrote at institutional seminars I used to do exclusively below 1985. That led to an onslaught of calls to the Hoover Foundation asking for the book. I spoke to them and they said – Oh you’re the guy. I said yes. I was trying to get them to republish the work. Today, you can buy republished editions.

I learned the hard way – never trust what they teach in school. All the research I have done has been on my own. That’s why when I wrote the Great Bull Market in History, I tried to create a “feel” for how I did my research reading all the daily newspapers trying to recreate the experience as if you were there back then. Understanding the truth is critical.

Roosevelt was inflicting embargos on the Japanese, freezing their money, and cutting them off from all energy, and when they turned to buy fuel from other nations, Roosevelt threatened to blockade their ships. Is it any wonder why the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor to eliminate the US fleet after the treats of an embargo?

What we are doing to Russia is the exactly same way Roosevelt treated the Japanese. There will be only one resolution – World War III. I do not believe that those in Washington and Brussels are this stupid. This is DELIBERATE and they are trying to provoke Russia to attack as did the Japanese and they claim we wear the white hats.

Even the official senate investigation into Pearl Harbor became necessary because of “Rumors even circulated that President Franklin Roosevelt, determined to draw the nation into war, baited Japan with an unguarded harbor.” 

Just like the weapons of mass destruction that never existed in Iraq, or Vietnam that never attacked us, or the sinking of the Lusitania because we were secretly sending arms to Britain after swearing we were neutral when it comes to war – the people are NEVER told the truth.

Nov 28 2022

Why I Look at the Dow First


Armstrong Economics Blog/Economics Re-Posted Nov 28, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Why do you focus on the Dow over the S&P 500 and others?

ANSWER: New analysts claim that the S&P 500 provides a better picture of the markets compared to the Dow. Although the S&P 500 obviously has a larger catalog, the Dow is a direct reflection of international capital flows. Look toward the Dow to see where big money is moving.

The S&P 500 is domestic-oriented, and fund managers and institutions tend to focus on this index. The NASDAQ typically reflects retail, often tech-heavy, and usually does not peak at the same time. Each index offers a completely different perspective. The Dow Jones Industrials is the big money. You will notice that this index leads the way. It is the first out of a key low because it is typically the foreign capital based on currency. You will also notice the Dow tends to top out first because the big money tends to pull out first also due to currency.

Capital is flowing like never before, and the smart money is on the move. Socrates users have access to our capital flow heat map that shows where money is moving in real time. The USD remains the last safe haven, and money is pouring into the US. Look to the Dow for the best international perspective.

Nov 13 2022

Interest Rates Rise will Not be Slow


Armstrong Economics Blog/Interest Rates Re-Posted Nov 13, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

This interview with FXStreet is from 2015. Some are surprised at the consecutive rate hikes, but our models have been indicating for a very long time that rates would rise rapidly. There would be no soft landing. Central banks maintained artificially low rates for far too long and were backed into a corner. They created a problem long ago, and it will cause pain for “some time,” as Powell usually states, for the situation to be under control.

Nov 8 2022

2022 WEC: In the Dollar We Trust


Armstrong Economics Blog/World Economic Conference Re-Posted Nov 8, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

At the World Economic Conference in 2021, the Armstrong Socrates model predicted that 2022 was going to be volatile and chaotic featuring a strong US dollar, a huge move in interest rates, a major bond market decline, fertilizer and food shortages, as well as escalating geopolitical tensions in Ukraine.

What now? Socrates forecast that 2023 will be more volatile and chaotic, featuring violent moves across all markets as monetary and geopolitical tensions and debt problems intensify.

At this year’s World Economic Conference, November 11-13, Martin Armstrong will talk about what’s next for the US dollar and other currencies, the liquidity/credit crisis, as well as price targets for oil, gold, stocks, bonds/interest rates, and stocks.

Give yourself an “unfair” advantage over the markets by joining us at this year’s conference remotely or in person. Meet Martin Armstrong – have your questions answered and get the best roadmap for 2023 and beyond in the investment business.