Monday, March 23, 2015

MARTIN ARMSTRONG'S LATEST BLOG POSTS

Where to Hide – Public v Private

QUESTION:
There’s a point I’ve been trying to understand and every time that I read your writings I’m staying more and more confused:
How it will be possible with the deflation that already affects several countries, with the bubble burst the bonds, with the financial economic chaos that will destroy several companies, bankruptcy of business, rising unemployment, banks heading for bankruptcy, etc …. So how will it be possible that the values of the roles of the companies that will suffer from declining revenue, may lead the DOW shoot to get 23,000 or 40,000? Where did you find this same picture in the past?
DJIND-W 3-23-2015DAXCSH-W 3-23-2015

ANSWER: You are thinking still in the old theory context. Look at this through a fresh pair of eyes. Here is the Dow and the DAX. Why has the DAX outperformed (in euro) the Dow (in dollars)? Is this because corporate profits are booming? Absolutely no way. The smart money in Europe sees and “feels” Europe is finished. They are betting that the Euro will collapse and this will get them Deutsche marks. This hasNOTHING to do with anything other than survival.
This is the trend in motion and it is illustrating that CONFIDENCE is collapsing. That CONFIDENCE has not yet been shaken in the USA. When that comes, you will see the same flight to private assets for when the problem is government, there is no other choice. On a pure economic basis, the US is fantastic. Companies are so fat and happy they continue to buy their own stock back. That is not the case in Germany. Shares are replacing currency.
DJIND-M 3-23-2015
I have constantly warned that there are TWO forecasts to everything. There is PRICE and then there is TIME. When gold reaches the timing targets on the Benchmarks, it really does not matter what the low is be it $650 or $920. TIME is the most important factor and PRICE merely follows behind.
So here we have the Dow on a monthly level. Taking a normal projection out into March 2017 shows the Dow could reach the 30,400 level. That is still not the extreme Phase Transition unless it were to reach that price in less than 6 months precisely on our timing targets. The most extreme PRICE project stands at about 43,000. The PRICE is always secondary and TIME is foremost.
DAXFOR-M 3-23-2015DJFOR-W 3-23-2015
The rise in the DAX has absolutely NOTHING to do with traditional economic theory. This is all about TIME and the flight to safety. When government is distrusted, run to private assets. It is immaterial if they rise or fall, you have something real whereas government bondsALWAYS evaporate.
Ferdinand-Isabella-AU
Spain was the richest nation in Europe after bringing back all the silver and gold of America. Still Spain collapsed and became a serial defaulter beginning in 1557 followed by 1570, 1575, 1596, 1607, and 1647 ending in a 3rd world status. It was not that its currency was“fiat” but the fact that they spent more than they had and constantly borrowed money that ended in bankruptcy. All their gold and silver meant nothing. Their DEBT destroyed Spain.
Even the examples of hyperinflation are really a collapse in government and a shift to private assets. This is always the way it takes place. You need a place to run and hide. It just depends on who is in trouble.

Surviving Your Own Trading Decisions – You Can Be Your Worst Enemy

SurvivingYourOwnTradingDecisions

One of the biggest reasons people will lose money trading is they are too biased and it becomes a struggle against a particular market. Be it gold and fighting against the downtrend or something like the DAX and fighting against a rally. Whenever you are on the opposite side of a trend, you are playing against the odds and dancing with the devil.
The first thing you have to do is take a deep breath. Learn from your losses. You are paying dearly for that education. You are too focused on a single market and it is becoming a personal war to prove who is still standing at the end of the day.
If we take these two extreme examples, gold and the DAX, if you already feel anxiety that you want to disagree with whatever it is I have to say, you are way too personally involved in that market. The first thing you should do is liquidate and walk away. Look at another market in which you are not so personally involved. This is not a contest to prove you are right and the rest of the world is wrong.
Both gold and the DAX are strongly influenced by the currency trend in motion. The further decline in the Euro, the stronger the rally in the DAX. This is not a rally about corporate profits and economic growth, this is capital betting against the survival of the Euro. Get on point here.
Likewise, the stronger the dollar, the more difficult it will be for gold to rally in dollars for gold requires a general rising fear of banks and government. That is when it makes its strongest rallies in history. Forget fiat, inflation, Ft Knox and the rest of the bullshit.
Step back. Look at the trend – it is as they say YOUR FRIEND. Try not to trade against the trend of any market unless you are dispassionate for only then can you buy and sell based upon trading. Pick a market you have not gone to war with. That is where you have to learn how to trade – DISPASSIONATELY.  This should be about making money  not proving you are right and unvarnished. You cannot wing such wars – you will lose.

The FORECASTER Tickets on Sale in LA – London Showing only Few Left It Will Also Be Shown in Ireland and soon Poland

Movieo-t
Tickets for “The Forecaster” in Los Angeles will go on sale Tuesday, Mar 24th at 7pm. Tickets in New York are available soon.
3/27 – 4/2  Laemmle Playhouse 7 in Los Angeles 
4/3  – 4/8   Cinema Village in New York (Tickets available soon)
Tickets in London are selling fast.
3/27- 4/1   Curzon Bloomsbury in London (Tickets available now!)
  • Friday 27 Mar 2015                            sold out
  • Saturday 28 Mar 2015                        sold out
  • Sunday 29 Mar 2015                          19:50
  • Monday 30 Mar 2015                         sold out
  • Wednesday 01 Apr 2015                    20:45
The Forecaster is invited to the Belfast Film Festival
4/19     Belfast Film Festival (Tickets are on sale)

Quantity Theory of Money is Being Scrapped

big-stack-of-money
The Quantity Theory of Money that an increase in supply should result in a decrease in its purchasing power (inflation) is being seriously questioned behind the curtain. The simplistic idea is starting to be exposed as an ancient myth. It is interesting how many phone calls are coming in from around the world as people are now asking just what the hell is going on?
Even in Britain, the inflation rate is close to zero, according to official figures, which is seriously intensifying the debate on interest rates and putting the economy on track for its first spell of deflation in more than 50 years.
In Denmark, take out a loan and the bank will pay you for the privilege. Local media have examples of entrepreneurs calling up their lenders and insisting there is a mistake on their statement for the bank is paying them for borrowing money. Welcome to the world of negative interest rates. This is a world in which banks don’t want your money.
This new world is creating bizarre behavior and we are getting more inquiries asking just what the hell is going on here? How can the theory of money fail? Economists and bankers are struggling to explain what it all means and where this will end.
The Fed increased the money supply by QE1-3, but inflation has not soared, commodities (including gold collapsed) everyone swears the stock market will crash any second now, yet nobody seems to ask even if that happens, what will develop with interest rates? A flight to quality today from these levels would mean exactly what? Negative 5% rates?
Central banks have been desperate to revive flagging economies by slashing interest rates to record lows, and pumping out hundreds of billions of currency to trillions trying to follow the Quantity Theory of Money on a daring quest with with what everyone calls quantitative easing.
Deflation is starting to hit Britain now ans with the bank rate is 0.5%, Andy Haldane, the Bank of England’s chief economist, warned last week that it might have to go even lower. The European Central Bank’s deposit rate (the rate it gives commercial banks for leaving money in its vaults) is negative, at -0.2%. In Denmark, it’s -0.75%. The idea is to make banks averse to hoarding cash and force them to lend it to entrepreneurs.
The idea that the Quantity Theory of Money just has to work is starting to be questioned it seems, but only after a few drinks. The Fed is in the opposite position and is hinting it may have to raise rates. This only seems to confuse people even more. How can the Fed be moving opposite of Europe?
Hello! Anyone hear of capital flows? The Quantity Theory of Money is a coincidental observation that has always been wrong. It assumes the same fatal assumption that dooms the supply and demand theory. It was Jean Baptiste Say who was famous for ‘Say’s Law’ which states that supply creates its own demand. This was a concept which was heavily criticized by Keynes. Effectively, merely increasing the supply will not translate into an increase in demand. There must be a market for it. If something is in short supply, demand can actually decline. If there is not enough supply then demand will not appear.
Supply-Demand-photo
What Keynes missed and is currently overlooked, is the demand side. It is ASSUMED that there is a DIRECT relationship between supply and demand. Yet there is not. There is a third intermediary involved and this is called CONFIDENCE. Even if rates go negative, you cannot force DEMAND to rise without CONFIDENCE. This is why the stock market has NEVER peaked twice in history with the same empirical level of interest rates.
Contagions have been impacting the world economy since the beginning. You cannot manage a domestic economy by such simplistic ideas of increasing or decreasing the quantity of money. Heresy you say?
Florence
The major Economic Florentine Crisis of 1343 that lead the people to burn down the palaces of the bankers was set in motion by external forces in France. The French tried to inflation by raising the price of silver relative to gold. The USA made the same stupid mistake during the 19th century and had to get a bailout from J.P.Morgan in 1896 to avoid state bankruptcy. The French had pulled the same stupid move during the 14th century.
The price of silver was driven crazy by debasements in France of their coinage. The French Contagion set in motion was widespread. The silver to gold ratio disrupted everyone in Europe. The ratio stood at 13.62:1 in Florence compared to 12:1 in France during 1316. By driving the price of silver higher, relative to gold forcing the ratio in France down to 5:1 in 1343, this chaos set off riots in Florence as a contagion.
Florence had a two tier monetary system which meant that wages and local commerce was conducted in silver. Gold was used only for international trade. Driving the price of silver higher raised the cost of production which simultaneously reducing the value of trade and even outstanding loans made to individuals and kings alike. This set off a massive wave of deflation which caused a drop in production and rising unemployment. Hence, the first riot came in 1343 whereby the French Debasement had contributed to the impatience of the population.
The French Debasement set off a Contagion which ignited civil unrest in Florence as wages and the daily cost of living were expressed and tied officially to the price of silver no less domestic loans. Since silver rose dramatically in value against gold, revenue on loans and international trade which had been denominated in gold florins depreciated to about one-third of their former value expressed in silver. The cost of production rose by almost 300% as well and that led to sharply rising unemployment. The French debasement was tearing the Florentine economy apart at the seams. Why? Because the supply of money is never exclusively domestic. This is one of the greatest misconceptions and as such the Quantity Theory of Money is way too simplistic and has NEVER held up for the economy has always been global even in ancient times.
Cicero-55BC

Cicero stood before the Senate of Rome in 55BC and warned even then about the flight of capital to Asia (China) for the importation of luxury goods mainly spices and silk. It was the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius who sent even an ambassador to China in 180AD. There has always been capital flows which is why we developed a global capital flow model.
So sorry, the Quantity Theory of Money is way too simplistic to actually work. It restricts one’s perspective to exclusively a domestic economy and as we have seen since QE1-3, it will not translate into inflation on a one-to-one relationship.

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