Is California the Worst Economic Nightmare in the USA?


QUESTION: Marty,

Whenever you refer to California Dreaming, my blog post from a few years back, I cannot help but smile. Thank you for your chart on the California economy. Does this represent most states? Does this represent the state of the U.S. economy? What states are actually growing?

Yes, I agree with you that the government has become very corrupt, but no really cares about the Clintons anymore because they have no real impact on the average person’s life. The real issue, I believe is the war that is going on regarding freedom of access to making informed decisions on more important matters such as parenting and vaccines. Your blog at least has not been wiped off of Google and Facebook like Natural News, Mercola, and a host of other sites that call into question the efficacy and safety of vaccines. Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc have made it very difficult to find dissenting views on vaccines due to a letter from a Congressman. You should research this issue.

I think this is the real undercurrent going on right now, at least from my perspective. Plus the civil asset forfeiture, and the jailing of the journalists.

Thank you! I still think you are awesome!! I miss chatting with you!

S

ANSWER: California is actually the worst. Illinois is in trouble, but that is because their constitution forbids renegotiating state employee pensions. In the case of California, it is really just a Socialist’s dream of directing pensions to invest green. Losing money is just the tip of the iceberg.

 

What Makes Currencies Rise & Fall in Value?


House-Testimony

QUESTION: What makes currencies rise & fall in value?

CC

ANSWER: Many people want to reduce this to a logical explanation. It reminds me of when I testified before Congress at the House Ways & Means Committee. They had to put me on a panel with academics. I told them to make me last. The Committee was asking about changes in taxes and the impact upon currency. The academics said there should be no impact. When they came to me, I dealt with the truth.

 

Currencies will rise and fall BECAUSE, first and foremost, this is the way international capital gets to vote on the CONFIDENCE in that political government. You see this in the spreads within the Eurozone such as buying Germany selling Italy or Greece for an example. The dollar has been rising of late BECAUSE the confidence in Europe has been collapsing. This becomes self-evident just plotting the Dow Jones Industrials in dollars v euro. If capital perceives a problem, it will flee from that region to another. The dollar rose during World War I and II, but it declined with the Korean War because the former was a reservoir of capital and the latter was not

Wilbur Ross Discusses U.S. Economy, China Trade, Tariffs and Hong Kong….


Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appears (in studio) on CNBC to discuss the current state of the U.S. economy, the ongoing issues with communist China, the ‘next step’ trade tariffs and the situation in Hong Kong.

Stunning Day of Economic Gaslighting – Despite All Positive Data, Corporate Media Cheering For Recession…


A “negative yield curve“;  a pending “economic recession“.  These are the obtuse and ridiculous proclamations of the Mainstream Corporate Media today.  So let’s take a moment to discuss how stunningly -intentionally- disconnected they are.

Always remember, there are trillions of dollars at stake; and these media entities have a vested interest in maintaining the Wall Street position, adverse to Main Street USA.

First the “negative yield curve” aspect; where long-term bond rates (returns on investment) are lower than short-term rates (returns).  As Reuters proclaims:

“A key bond market metric turned negative for the first time since 2007 on Wednesday, sending stocks tumbling”…

I must admit, I actually started laughing out loud when I first read that proclamation. Allow me to introduce a radical concept in economics: “supply and demand” !

The long-term borrowing rate for return on investment dropped momentarily lower than the short-term borrowing rate of return on investment because massive numbers of foreign investors were rushing to buy long-term U.S. bonds.   Wait… what?  Yes, a ‘negative yield curve’ is what happens when everyone wants to buy bonds in your long-term economy.

There weren’t enough long-term bonds to fill the demand of those who wanted to purchase them.  Ergo, the return rate of interest dropped because there was no need to have an incentive to sell them…. everyone wants them.

So the yield drops, because the U.S. doesn’t need to incentivize the sale… because everyone is lined up to buy them.  See how that works?

Do lines of people wrapping all around the world trying to get to the U.S.A Bank and buy U.S. treasury bonds sound like the USA economy (underlying the bond) is weak or in trouble?

It’s OK to laugh out loud.

No, really, it’s ok.

Yes, Alice, it’s true.  The financial media would have you believe that customers lined-up around the building to purchase your products means your business is about to close because of a lack of customers.   THAT my friends is the stupidity of it.

The U.S.A economy is so strong, so healthy, and forecast to remain so with such intensity, that everyone wants to purchase dollars because it is the world’s highest predicted rate of return for investment….. And somehow the media can spin that into a bad thing.

No, really.  That’s the narrative of today.

Now let’s look at the second stupid “A looming recession“:

First, a “recession” is two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth.  That’s how you define a recession.  So to start a recession you need need one quarter of negative GDP growth right?  Well, duh, it hasn’t happened, and there is not a single economist who is predicting a negative Third Quarter growth rate (July, Aug, Sept., ’19).

First Quarter GDP growth was 3.1%. [Beating all expectations] Second Quarter GDP growth was 2.1%. [Again, beating all expectations]… and somehow the Third Quarter is suddenly going to be negative growth?   It’s OK to laugh again.

So how does CNN et al  “warn of a looming recession” when there’s not a single economist forecasting a negative GDP for the third quarter?   Well, they make shit up that’s how.

Think about it…. if the economy was contracting, people would not be getting hired right?  Employers would be laying people off right?  Businesses would be selling off assets right?  Wages would be dropping right?

Do you see any of these things happening?

No?  Why not?

Because it ain’t happening, that’s what !!!

The U.S. economy is not shrinking.  Main Street is strong, and getting stronger.

Go back to point #1, would the world be rushing to buy dollars if the U.S. economy was on the precipice of collapse?  Think about it.

Now, that said, there are some economies that are shrinking; and they all have something in common.  The manufacturing export dependent nations are in trouble because President Trump is starting to limit their access to their most desired customers, the USA. And President Trump is telling companies that operate in those export nations that it would be in their best interests to come to the United States to make their goods.

Germany, the economic engine for the EU, is a manufacturing export dependent nation, and it is contracting.  China is a manufacturing export dependent nation and their manufacturing is contracting.  But the U.S. is strong, because we are not dependent on exports.  In fact the U.S. consumes more than 80 percent of what we produce; we are a self-sustaining economy.

Our U.S. economic strength is why Asian and European investors are rushing to buy dollars (US Bonds); and why the U.S. treasury doesn’t need to provide high yield rates as incentives to buy them (hence the negative yield curve).

Stop me when any of the U.S. economic data has even the slightest implication of a slowdown, or “looming recession”.

Our last jobs report showed 164,000 new jobs created in July (yeah, like two weeks ago).  In addition 363,000 people moved from part-time to full-time employment… does that sound like a weak economic outcome?  Current blue-collar wage growth is in excess of 3.4%, and current overall U.S. worker income is growing at a rate exceeding 5.4%.

Does any of that sound like what you see just before a “looming recession”?

(BEA Data Source – Link)

Every actual data result exceeds expectations.

Every measurable KPI in the U.S. economy beats every forecast.

Show me data that supports this “looming recession” claim.  Guess what; you can’t because it is a manufactured bucket of nonsense.  Abject stupidity created in the basement of media narrative engineers and pushed into the U.S. mainstream talking points in an effort to create something that doesn’t exist.   You know the word for that? “Gaslighting” !

Why?

Why are the financial pundits doing this?

Because the engine for the U.S. economy is the U.S. consumer.  The Wall St./Media pundit goal is to erode consumer confidence, instill fear, and hopefully get people to sit on those high wages…. thereby creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

This my friends is the battle behind Wall Street -vs- Main Street.

There are trillions of dollars at stake.

[You Can Read More Here]

Google Whistleblower Provides Documents Showing Systems and Processes Used to Create Biased Outcomes…


Anyone who has spent time on the internet already knows Google manipulates the internet based on their self-defined ideology.  However, a Google employee and whistleblower has come forward with the documentary evidence explaining how they do it.

Zachary Vorhies has now gone public with the information in order to help people better understand the scope and scale of Google’s manipulative intent.  [Link to Documents]

.

Among those documents is a file called “news black list site for google now.” The document is a “black list,” which restricts certain websites from appearing on an Android Google product.  Not surprisingly CTH is listed on the black list.

Wealth, Poverty, and Politics


Published on Dec 8, 2015

Recorded on September 18, 2015 Hoover Institution fellow Thomas Sowell discusses poverty around the world and in the United States. Poverty in America, he says, compared to the rest of the world, is not severe. Many poor people in poverty in the United States have one or two cars, central heating, and cell phones. The real problem for the poor is the destruction of the family, which Sowell argues dramatically increased once welfare policies were introduced in the 1960s.

Has the “Smart Money” Entered the US Share Market Yet?


QUESTION: Dear Armstrong,
According to Dow, a bull market has 3 phases, the final being the distribution by the smart money to the public.
You stated that retail is still not participating. Could this be why the market appears to be unable to stop going up? Because the smart money continually fail to entice the dumb to jump in?
Cheers
GF

ANSWER: So far, the “smart money” has been more foreign than domestic. We have not even remotely reached that level where the domestic “smart money” is sticking more than their toe in the water. Just look at the Dow in euros compared to US dollars. The Europeans have been making a fortune buying the dips in the US market on a currency play in addition to the market itself.

Chicago Trying to Takeover All Power


The environmentalists are working hard behind the curtain to eliminate fossil fuels by nationalizing private utilities. The Democratic Socialists on the Chicago City Council want to “municipalize”ComEd, which has a franchise agreement to deliver power that is due to be renewed. That agreement permits ComEd to operate in the city and went into effect back in 1947. It was negotiated only twice and the last time it was renewed was in 1992. The Democrats want to confiscate the utility and dictate power usage in Chicago. This is really getting crazy.

“The Evil that Men Do”


Founder and CEO Mr. Trogdon,

Your Publisher’s Notebook, “The Evil that Men Do” is a lazy attempt to encourage feel-good legislation that won’t move the needle on mass shootings. You question the “wisdom of letting just about anybody owning an assault weapon.” You go on to say you never felt the need to use a “machine gun.” Is this your definition of an assault weapon because if it is you should sleep well knowing that machine guns were banned in 1934. Or did you mean to say semi-automatic weapons? You fail to articulate what exactly your definition of an assault weapon is. Those on the left do the same thing, by design.

Did you know there have been many more mass shooters, (killed four or more,) who have used semi-automatic hand guns than semi-automatic rifles? If the left is successful at banning the long guns how long will it be before they come after the hand guns. I’ll tell you: immediately after the next mass shooting occurs.

And how about the proposed “red flag” laws? Who exactly determines who’s not fit to own a fire arm? Will due process be adhered to? We’ve seen the left try and push their way around due process during the Kavanaugh hearings. If the left had their way anyone attending a Trump rally or wearing a MAGA hat would be banned from owning a gun. I question Congress’ ability to craft legislation that will prevent mass shooting while maintaining the rights of freedom loving Americans.  There are too many dishonest brokers in Congress. Give them an inch and they’ll be back for a mile.

In my opinion, you left out two options on your reader poll, “what should be done to prevent mass shootings?”

  1. Eliminate gun free zones. These are areas that these sick animals know they can go where there will be the least resistance. They’re free to kill until law enforcement arrives.
  2. Craft policies that will help rebuild the family unit. This would also start the healing of a very divided nation.

The left will never be satisfied until there is a government confiscation of all guns. Any legislation has to be tight enough to ensure the rights of law-abiding gun owners. Anything less should be seen as unacceptable.

Jeff Longo
North Royalton

 

Thomas Sowell on the Origins of Economic Disparities


Published on May 17, 2019

Recorded on April 1, 2019 Is discrimination the reason behind economic inequality in the United States? Thomas Sowell dismisses that question with a newly revised edition of his book Discrimination and Disparities. He sits down with Peter Robinson to discuss the long history of disparities among humans around the world and throughout time. He argues that discrimination has significantly less of a role to play in inequality than contemporary politicians give it credit for, and that something as incontrovertible as birth order of children has a more significant and statistically higher impact on success than discrimination. He discusses why parental attention is the most important aspect of a child’s intellectual development. Sowell goes on to break down different minority groups around the world who went on to have more economic and political success than their majority counterparts, such as the Indians in East Africa, Jewish people in Eastern Europe, Cubans in the United States, and the Chinese in Malaysia. He argues that there is an underlying assumption that if discrimination was absent equality would prevail, which historically has been proven wrong. Sowell goes on to discuss changes in crime rates and poverty since the expansion of US welfare programs in the 1960s and how this has had a huge impact on the success of African Americans. He talks about his own experience growing up in New York, how housing projects used to be considered a positive place to live, and his experience as the first member of his family to enter the seventh grade. Robinson asks Sowell his thoughts on the case for reparations currently being made in Congress, and Sowell presents an argument about why a plan for reparations is not only illogical but also impossible to implement, with so many US citizens’ ancestors arriving long after the Civil War. He also explains that slavery was common throughout the known world for thousands of years and that abolition movements didn’t begin anywhere in the world until the late 18th century. He reminds us that the United States was not the only country guilty of participating in slavery and yet is the only country debating reparations.