Friday, February 27, 2015

MARTIN ARMSTRONG'S LATEST BLOG POSTS

The Movie and The Goal

Movieo-t
The movie just played to sold-out venues in Croatia. I did some press interviews there and the tone of the questions is exactly different from the United States. It is sort of we know the US system is corrupt and protects the bankers, but do you feel comfortable being up front about it and are you afraid? This is very interesting take.
I have been asked what will the average person take away from this film. After all, I did not need to do this movie for out clients since they already know the truth behind the curtain. My objective here has been to expose the political-economic system to the average person so they might understand when the economy turns down, who to really blame. We cannot move forward unless we honestly free ourselves from the corruption and manipulation that tries desperately to hide what is going on. This is about the type of world we are leaving behind for our children and as it stands now, we have brought them into a world of economic slavery with the dwindling light of freedom.
Pawn
It has been my hope that if enough people really understand what is going on and the manipulations behind the scenes, just maybe we can prevent the swing to the hard left and perhaps avert wars with people positioned on a chessboard as the mere pawns of finance. There may not be many islands left we can flee to in this new authoritarian world that is emerging. The left is already touting the evil is Capitalism and their solution has never changed – seize property by force and oppress anyone who disagrees with their vision of utopia.
AmBusCycle-2

Like global warming, they actually believe they can eliminate the business cycle that has always existed. Instead of learning what it is all about and what makes it function, they merely blame people and seek to hunt them down for causing each economic slump. The left executed tens of millions of people during the revolutions that began with the takeover of Russia in 1917.
What I hope people will take away from this is understanding it is not simply the “rich” or the “bankers” that are at fault. Government is at the center of this corruption and whenever it goes terribly bad, they rush to protect their friends, not help society of protect the economy. There is never any original thought and there is certainly never a flicker of light that even bothers to spark an idea that perhaps we should really reform.
The last crisis saw big investigations and reform of the banking industry under the US Congress called the Dodd-Frank legislation to curtail proprietary trading by banks. This past Christmas, the bankers bribed Congress to repeal that legislation so it is back once again. Banking changed from relationship banking where they once upon a time cared about a client to transactional banking where clients became the target for profit. All that matters to them now is how much they can make on a deal. They will initiate a loan and then sell it rather than hold it. This has increased profits at the expense of altering the very foundation of the banking system and relationship banking. Why lend money when you can trade with it and make instant profits?
The economy is going to turn down VERY hard. The next decline will be far worse than the past from an economic perspective for there has been a very shallow recovery. Indeed, outside the USA, the economies of Europe, Asia, and Russia are all declining. Once the US turns down starting by October 2015, there will be nothing left holding up the global economy and deflation will get much worse. The dollar will rise with deflation and that will set in motion a massive new round of sovereign debt defaults and restructures. What began in Greece has become a contagion and we will see the price for our complacency with political-economy.
So my hope is to educate as many people as possible in a probably futile attempt to reduce the contraction in magnitude and hopefully push back the swing toward authoritarianism to freedom. That is the greatest gift I can leave my own posterity.

Brussels Altering History to Train Children to Accept EU Integration

Euro-Flag
One of the most basic means of propaganda any government engages in has been to rewrite history. It has been probably the most dishonest and unethical manipulations of society that has often led to war. The EU is now manipulating children by altering history to reflect a United States of Europe by ignoring the historical and cultural distinction between the European member states. This is just part of the campaign to alter the minds of European children to secure the jobs in Brussels with making the people accept EU integration as reported by theTelegraph.
The EU is now attempting to misinform the younger generation distorting history to pretend there is only one Europe. This naturally will be job security for those in Brussels with the €400,000 part-time jobs and tax-free privileges. It always becomes about government maintaining power and privilege. The truth becomes the victim and indeed if you tell a lie repeatedly, it become the new truth.
Cicero-2
The Oligarchy during the Roman Republic was a master manipulator. They used every tool including books by Cicero to reshape themselves and events into a new reality. The portrayed Caesar as the destroyer of the Republic who was the ruthless Dictator. It was Plutarch who reported that when a friend of Cicero’s remarked that the constellation of Lyra was due to rise the next day, Cicero revealed his part in the corruption by responding – “Yes, by edict.” For you see, the Oligarchy bribed the high priest to insert days into the calendar to postpone elections. Yet, most people merely took the words of Cicero in defense of the Republic and believe that Caesar was the oppressor when in fact it was the other way around. So propaganda plays a strategic role. It did not work at that moment in history for Cicero and Cato – both had to flee Rome and died for their corruption. Yet in their death, the propaganda lived on. 

NSA Destroying American Technology

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American technology companies are losing business on a major scale. The NSA will be responsible for wiping out the United States as a leader in computer science all because they have to listen to the entire world like an old woman addicted to soap operas. I find myself totally shocked at Microsoft. I purchased the latest office at a store. You then have to go online to download the program. They REQUIRE you to have a Microsoft Account. The worse part of this was they demanded I enter a credit card to PROVE who I was acknowledging it would not be used since I already paid for it. I simply refused. They will not refund your money so this is the latest consumer fraud. It is not disclosed that you mustPROVE who you are now to use their software. This has gone way too far. There are alternatives out there for word like LibreOffice, and Gnumeric is a better spreadsheet than excel for it can open files excel cannot. There are alternatives to Powerpoint and of course there are alternatives to Outlook such asThunderbird.
The question is WHY should I have to PROVE who I am to Microsoft to use a product I already paid for? Something just smells funny so the only choice was to walk away and they stole my money for nothing. There are plenty of alternatives and Microsoft just lost all our business.
Now China has dropped most of the leading technology brands of the USA  all because of the NSA and who can blame them? Widespread Western cybersurveillance has just gone too far. I would now rather use any product from someplace else or write my own. US technology has commited suicide for China will be the biggest economy where all the economic growth will be in the years ahead.
This has impacted U.S. network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc, which in 2012 counted 60 products on the Central Government Procurement Center’s (CGPC) list, but by late 2014 had ZERO according to Reuters. Apple, Intel, McAfee and Citrx have all been dropped. China is shifting to internal alternatives.
The NSA is wiping out the US economy rapidly and Congress, occupied with lawyers, can only argue to uphold laws they write without any comprehension of the consequences. This is all part of the economic decline we see after 2015.75.

MARTIN ARMSTRONG'S LATEST BLOG POSTS

Crisis in Socialism or Capitalism

Smith-Marx
There is a debate going on that tries to paint the economic crashes as due to capitalism and we should all follow Marx and eliminate wealth handing 100% of all power to government. There are really a lot of people who think communism was correct and the problem is capitalism thanks to greedy bankers. To make it perfectly clear, we are not facing just another cyclical slump that will be overcome with some new legislation. Many are welcoming this crisis of European capitalism as an opportunity to replace it with a better system of more socialism and communism by sheer force.
This is why I am doing the Solution Conference NOW. We are going to turn down hard this time and there will be a huge demand to hunt down who done it as if this were some mystery movie with Agatha Christie. This is more than trying to survive with gold coins. Everything could be thrown in the air as the table is just overturned.
Smith -Higest Impertenance
This economic crisis we face centers upon the question of money. Marx argued it was labor. The Physiocrats argued it was land and agriculture. Smith argued it was the total productive forces of society. This is critical, for the difference between Marxism and Smith revolves around what is money and who produces it. IF it is the state, then Marx wins. However, IF money is created by society, then Smith wins with a hidden element. he implies that government is not a producer of wealth but a consumer – the black hole that sucks in everything until society exists no more.
Nov 1918 Revolution Berlin
If everyone worked for government, then there would be no international capital flows for there would be no reason to invest in a land where there is no ownership – i.e. German Hyperinflation amid Communist German Revolution of 1918. Money became worthless because there would be no private property. There was no confidence in Communism and people watched in horror what unfolded in Russia the year before. The simplistic sales-promoters use the German hyperinflation to mislead people into thinking the USA will end up there by simply printing money. They do not comprehend it was a collapse in CONFIDENCE – not simply printing money. The money supply expanded as a RESULT of the collapse in confidence – not the other way around.
Electronic-Money

We are not headed to a hyperinflation nor a gold standard – we are headed into electronic money because these people are dead broke. They BELIEVE their fiscal mismanagement has nothing to do with our economic crisis – it is all our fault because we do not pay enough in taxes. This is the way all governments historically destroy themselves through massive deflation and we are plagued by lawyers who think all they have to do is write laws without any comprehension of how society functions.
A lot of readers have been sending in emails quoting various officials among central bankers who appear to be quoting me such as Yellen just stating that there will be deflation before inflation. True, central bankers have attended our World Economic Conferences. They are more likely to see the handwriting on the wall than politicians.
There are a lot of people blaming central banks as if they are the sole problem. These people are caught up in this crazy theory that inflation is linked to money supply and expect that to function on some mythical one-to-one relationship. What they fail to grasp is the economy creates its own money through lending and the velocity of money, which truly drives inflation. The amount of money need not increase but if everyone spent whatever money they get the same day, theVELOCITY of money would rise and that would be inflationary. This one-dimensional idea of inflation and money supply being tied together cannot be supported by any study whatsoever excluding everything else. There is also a lag so QE1-3 failed to produce inflation just as the expansion of money supply in Europe will NOT stop the deflation. The contraction in the real world is far more than the amoung of money being created.
GoldPush-1971
It was not that the supply of money increased that broke Bretton Woods, it was the fact that the money left the domestic economy and then foreign holders tried to redeem it. Increasing the money supply domestically where it could not be redeemed for gold would have had no impact upon Bretton Woods. It was the fixing of gold to dollars under Bretton Woods and then the exportation of dollars to pay for the military expansion that broke the back of Bretton Woods.
Future
So at the Solution Conference, we will look at critical issues and are there solutions from history that worked. We FIRST must understand the problem for if we cannot grasp the driving mechanism, we stand zero chance of coming up with a Solution to save our children from what will be a far more darker world of authoritarianism.
It is one thing to survive and make money. But what if your gold coins can buy nothing in a land totally controlled by government where any wealth is hunted and taken over your dead body as Stalin did to the Russian people?
The World Economic Conference will be about trading in what. The Solution Conference is about saving our future. We have to havePlan B.

Real Estate & The Business Cycle

RealEstate-Cycle
QUESTION: Hi Martin,
I live here in Fairfax County, VA. Wow! The government largesse almost feels like 2006 again. Real estate values have almost climbed back to 2005 levels. I cannot believe that people here are paying 600k for 15-year-old townhomes under high tension wires. I guess it is the low interest rates. Those units can rent for about 2500/month. All the traditional investment ratios are screaming code red. Ratios like Price/Rent. GRM, Cap Rate, etc, indicate extremely overbought again. However, the rents are higher than in 2005-06, so prices are not as overbought as back then – though they are getting there.
The anecdotal evidence for a top keep piling up. I know of a few couples who are buying bigger homes and keeping the older homes, and using them as rentals.
This brings me to a paper I read that you wrote back in November, 2009, while you were in prison. It seems so prescient. You stated that 2015 would be the high, as you stated 2015.75 would be for the debt bubble.
From this paper you wrote over five years ago, you predicted a bump up into 2015 with a drop thereafter for years. It worked out perfectly so far – a 2012 low to a 2015 high.
How bad will it get for the average mortgage payer? How bad will it get for residential real estate? I own several paid down/paid off rental houses in Maryland, across the Potomac that generate a ton of cash flow. What should I do? I kind of have become dependent on the free cash flow. What will happen with rents? They have gone way up over the past several years, as the foreclosures have displaced (continue to displace) so many wage earners.
I ask, because you have mentioned real estate in passing, but I have not seen you directly address it like you did in that 2009 paper.
Anyway, I intend to come to Princeton this time around later in the year. I am a quiet person, so I will be the one keeping to himself.
Thank you so much for all that you have done. All these cycles make so much sense now that I have been studying your work for the past couple years. It answers the questions I have had, but couldn’t answer.
Best regards,
C
ANSWER: Yes, 2007 was the broad market peak. The 2015 high is the higher-end market that has been driven primarily by capital inflows which people trying to get off the grid. The concern here is that property taxes will now rise and the real net value of property may decline relative to everything else. Parking money in real estate at this time may produce the equivalent of negative interest rates when all is said and done. There are advertisements in Asia and Europe as well as Russia offering real estate in New York City for a little as $10,000. This is speculation once again.

The majority of mortgages are conventional with 20% down so this is not the same type of high as took place in 2007. Banks are transactional now so they will write the mortgage and resell it. With interest rates negative and mortgages at least offer collateral, they are still better to invest in compared to sovereign debt where you will get nothing.
PopulationOfRome
Our problem is what Rome faced. The greater the economic turmoil in government, the more aggressive they become in taxation. In this regard, real estate is not a movable asset and it can cross the bell curve and decline due to taxation and the lack of mobility. Romans just began to walk away from their property. Therefore, property in North America will tend to be the safest only because it is extremely difficult to invade with troops and tanks. Blow it up with a nuke – sure, but then nothing matters anyway. So staying within the realm of reality, the greatest threat will be taxation.

Those interested in real estate, run out now and take the longest possible mortgage at a FIXED rate in the domestic currency of where the property is located and/or you wealth with rates this low. If you use a cross-currency, then you better pay attention to hedging. This is a hedge so if it ever gets that bad, you can just walk away as did the Romans. DO  NOT assume real estate is a store of value. That depends on the taxation level of the local government and the location.

Supreme Court Justice WVa Found in Questionable Circumstances

WestVa

In the real world, any possible question of impartiality DEMANDS recusal of a judge. Today, law firms are afraid to ask for recusal because Judges retaliate. If that is where they practice, well that comes before your best interest – their business. The degree of corruption in the American legal system is just off the charts from police who lie to protect one another to Judges on the take both federal and state.
ABC News exposed Supreme Court Justice of West Virginia Robin Davis who refused to recuse herself when the lawyer she handed $17 million in fees bought a PRIVATE JET from her husband for $1 million.
Owen-Cohen-SchiavoniIn my own case, the lawyers were talking how the receiver Alan Cohen was talking with Judge Richard Owen as was his subordinate Tancred Schiavoni on a regular basis off the record. I was in the Chrysler Building at the offices of Tenzer Greenblat when they were all talking about the case saying there was no way to win for this was being rigged as Judge Owen was communicating on the side with the government. When I told the lawyer to move for recusal, he responded his firm in New York City would NEVER move against any judge. From that moment on, I knew this was a hopeless cause to actually expect justice. The press in New York is also afraid to ever report the truth about judges so that leaves the country as a whole up to their throat burried in a pile of shit.
It became abundantly clear that lawyers from the same district were hopeless. Their business comes first before any client. So all the pretending of ethics is just that – one giant facade. Nothing is safe in America from your privacy to your liberty no less your property for judges are just not judges with very few exceptions today.
When I moved to go pro se with no choice when paid lawyers will not defend you before their own business, things really got out of hand. Getting rid of lawyers who would not defend me, I then moved for recusal of Judge Owen. He illegally closed the court and threw the press out – something which was totally unconstitutional since EVERY citizen is entitled to a OPEN COURT proceeding so that the people know justice is being done – another ethical fraud since they will close a court and change transcripts to remove whatever there is in your favor. Judge Owen ordered the court reporter to not record the events. Typically, every court transcript begins “in open court” except my transcript of April 24th, 2000.
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Judge Owen had the Associated Press thrown out of court. The journalist reported that it was “In a closed hearing”. That was the only evidence I had to prove what he had done was entirely illegal for no lawyer would back me up against a judge. I appealed his refusal to recuse showing he even illegally altered the transcript to hide the fact he unconstitutionally threw out the press and closed the courtroom. You just can’t make up this stuff. The Second Circuit Court of appeals refused to even dock my appeal. This is the REAL America and we do not stand a prayer in hell of saving our country without profound change and reform. We have become the oppressed by a government that has transformed itself into the very same government we revolted against. The wheel of fortune has completed its revolution. We are now right back where it all began – corrupt judges who protect the kings agents, and writs of assistance to eliminate all rights to privacy. Nothing remains and this is what we are leaving our children.

US & UK Hacked SIM Card Manufacturer To Access all Phone Calls

WINR-Logo

US and British intelligence agencies have hacked into a major manufacturer of Sim cards in Netherlands to steal codes that allow them to listen in on your phone calls and to receive your data. Gemalto, the sim card manufacturer, says it is taking this very seriously.They provide sim cards in some 85 countries whose clients are AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint and another 450 wireless network providers globally. These people are totally out of control. Who will ever stop them? Certainly not our elected “representatives” when all they really care about is hunting loose change. Just what kind of a world are we leaving our children?