Martin Armstrong – Page 3 – The Burning Platform

The Wave of Deflation & Rising Unemployment

The peak in unemployment during the Great Depression was during the technology shift that was a result of the introduction of the combustion engine. Tractors began to replace farm workers, as agriculture had been 70% of GDP in the mid-19th century, 40% by 1900, and later dropped to 3% by 1980. This technology shift, combined with the Dust Bowl, changed the face of labor dramatically.

Politicians are brain-dead. Hillary claims she will champion equal pay for women and raise the minimum wage to $15. I do not know what planet she is on but such a combination will clearly create a major depression, given we already have this technology shift underway with so many jobs being automated. You park your car, push a button for the ticket, and pay by sticking your card in a machine without ever seeing a person. McDonalds announced its answer to $15 an hour minimum wage – touch-screen cashiers.

The combination of a $15 minimum wage and Obamacare is a lethal injection for the economy. But hey, we elect corrupt lawyers to public office who say what the people want to hear and have no concept of the result if such ideas are implemented.

Tell your children to study computer programming. What will the world be like in 25 years? Will any menial jobs remain?

We are approaching the reality of the movie series “Terminator.” Government is striving to develop robot warriors whose loyalty will never be questioned.

The future will be very much sci-fi. So I am sure someone reading “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” the classic science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne, never imagined that submarines would really exist one day.

Welcome to the wave of deflation. This trend is already causing people to spend less and save more.

ICIJ’s Political Agenda May Backfire

Guest Post by Martin Armstrong

Wile the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has clearly targeted Putin, in doing so when it is his aids rather than him personally calls into question what is their real political agenda. Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson resigned just 2 days after the papers were released. Reports say that 12 current or former heads of state are mentioned. Who are they protecting will be very interesting since targeting Putin makes this more of a political plot.

Nevertheless, this is coming precisely in line with the other side of 2015.75, which we warned would prove to be the peak in government. This is playing directly into the cycles where our model has been warning we are facing the collapse in confidence in government; i.e. politicians. This is truly the driving force behind Trump. But this massive leak may have far more political implications than merely targeting rich people who have a secret stash.

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The Panama Papers

Guest Post by Martin Armstrong

A lot of emails have been coming in with regard to the Panama Papers. Let me say this from the outset; Panama has been the key place to establish offshore accounts for decades. An insider has stolen all documents and handed to the press. This was not a government hack. The press has not made all the documents available and that is curious for they too can be protecting favored people. We now have the biggest document leak in history exposing world leaders and their secretive offshore financial dealings. Some 11.5 million documents have been leaked from a Panama-based law firm with offices in 35 countries; Mossack Fonseca. This leak has exposed a trove of confidential financial dealings by the elites of aides to Russian President Vladimir Putin all the way to relatives of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Naturally, the press likes to focus on Putin. There is much more hidden behind the press curtain.

The stash of records from legal firm Mossack Fonseca was obtained from an anonymous source by German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung which they then shared with more than 100 media groups by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The documents show links to 72 current or former heads of state including dictators. The ICIJ is hell bent on attacking the rich, not politicians. So the question really is, are the protecting fellow socialists?

While the elite seek to hunt people for taxes, they often live separate financial lives. What has been also exposed is the tremendous conflicts of interest. Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson had secretly owned millions of dollars of bank bonds during his country’s financial crisis when the country’s financial system collapsed and banks had to be bailed out. Thousands are now demanding Iceland’s Prime Minister resign over ‘Panama Papers’ revelations.

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When Will Trump be Assassinated?

Guest Post by Martin Armstrong

Whenever the establishment is seriously threatened, they respond with assassination. This is historically the normal in all cultures. One of the more credible conspiracies about the Kennedy assassination centers on the fact that he was against expanding the military and opposed starting the Vietnam War. After Lyndon Johnson approved the war, he latter commented how it was a staged event and that the Vietnamese never fired on Americans to begin with. The official story was that North Vietnamese torpedo boats launched an “unprovoked attack” against a U.S. destroyer on a “routine patrol” in the Tonkin Gulf. Then, the North Vietnamese boats followed up with a “deliberate attack” on a pair of U.S. ships two days later. In 1965, Lyndon Johnson commented, “For all I know, our Navy was shooting at whales out there.” The military wanted war, regardless of the facts. They lied to the American people and took the lives of more than 50,000 boys.

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Sometimes the Impossible Becomes Possible

Guest Post by Martin Armstrong

Some people can face adversity but others want to hide and pretend nothing is happening. What might seem impossible with respect to political reform to save our future, actually becomes entirely probable. What you have to grasp here is that the news may be negative. However, it is that negativity that finally lights the one remaining match to create an explosion. They say that HOPE is eternal. I tried very hard to make a difference while working from the inside on Capitol Hill, but it is true that I gave up. What I saw led me to believe I was wasting my time and, above all, it was pointless.

If you are walking down the street and a guy comes up to you with a gun and says, “Your money or your life?” do you begin to preach that it is illegal to have a gun without a license? Whatever the rules of law might be, such things are totally irrelevant. He has the gun and you do not.

I laugh at those who think corporations are evil and ignore government. They are typically weak minded and easily influenced by propaganda. I may not be a fan of NY bankers who have engaged in manipulating markets and buying government to stay out of jail, but let’s make no mistake — they do not have the guns and tanks to rob us of our freedom. Only government can oppress the people by sheer force of arms. Nonetheless, politicians always blame the “rich” to get elected.

Our HOPE will be very simple. We have to CRASH AND BURN first. Without that pain, there is no reform or gain. Nobody will change anything before the system fails. It is unrealistic to see this message as BAD to justify hiding in the shadows. The good news, if you understand what is unfolding, is that you understand what the game is about and you can help in our time of need. We do not need someone hiding their head in the sand. If they do not comprehend how we have reached this point, then they will blindly hand more rights to those who have created this nightmare. Therefore, what seems impossible (political reform) becomes possible only when the majority opens their eyes.

Press & Politicians Are The Problem

Guest Post by Martin Armstrong

The elitist press are starting to realize that they are the problem. “Trump voters are a coalition of the dispossessed. They have suffered lost jobs, lost wages, lost dreams. The American system is not working for them, so naturally they are looking for something else. Moreover, many in the media, especially me, did not understand how they would express their alienation. We expected Trump to fizzle because we were not socially intermingled with his supporters and did not listen carefully enough. For me, it’s a lesson that I have to change the way I do my job if I’m going to report accurately on this country,” wrote David Brooks of the New York Times who had endorsed Obama.

This is why I call the people the “great unwashed” because politicians and journalists are disconnected from reality, and combined, they will absolutely bring about the collapse of the United States. We will, no doubt, see the USA ultimately split into at least four separate nations that are divided but still “united” as states. It has been set in motion by this elitist, socialistic bullshit, and the people are stupid enough to listen to whatever they preach as they line their pockets. I am not writing about this from afar. I have even attended the White House Correspondence Dinner where the president came and delivered a speech. So I have been inside, but I am also on the outside for I read the tea leaves of the economy; not what Harvard professors teach.

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Conservatives for Big Government

Guest Posts by Martin Armstrong

Glen Beck’s piece in the National Review has really pissed off a lot of people. He has taken the “elite” position and claims that Trump is not a conservative. “Politically orphaned by their party, conservatives were forced to either stay home or hold their noses and vote for a progressive Republican,” Beck wrote. Quite honestly, the entire “conservative” position is a bunch of crap, because they have not done anything that is “conservative.” They support every war and the NSA. They have done nothing to “reduce” government. The “conservatives” are just a part of the “special” elite class that looks down upon the rest of us as the great unwashed. Even John McCain voted to tax the internet.

The “conservatives” have bullshitted themselves into thinking they are somehow doing something other than lining their own pockets and protecting the bankers just like the Clintons. Beck says, “If Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination, there will once again be no opposition to an ever-expanding government. This is a crisis for conservatism.” It has been the crisis in conservatism that has given rise to Trump.

David Boaz, vice president of the Cato Institute, claims Trump’s idea of the presidency is that he will ride in on a “white horse… fire the stupid people, hire the best people, and fix everything. He doesn’t talk about policy or working with Congress. He’s effectively vowing to be an American Mussolini, concentrating power in the Trump White House and governing by fiat. It’s a vision to make the last 16 years of executive abuse of power seem modest.”

Why work with Congress when they do not work? Should they fire people who have been there through Democrat and Republican eras because they are the unelected bureaucrats? The thought of bringing in more outsiders scares them to death. This system is collapsing and they are too busy lining their pockets to give two shits!

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The Central Bankers Are Crazy & Public is Out Of Its Mind – Where’s the Beef?

Guest Post by Martin Armstrong

The central bankers are simply crazy, not evil. They are trying to steer the economy by utilizing this simpleton theory that if you make something cheaper, someone will buy it. Japanese and German cars managed to get a major foothold in the U.S. because the quality of U.S. manufacturers collapsed, thanks to unions. The socialist battle against corporations forgot something important – the ultimate decision maker is the consumer. The last American car I bought in the 1970s simply caught on fire while parked in my driveway. Another friend bought a brand-new American car and there was a terrible rattle. When they took the door panel off, there was an empty bottle of Coke inside. Cheaper does not always cut it. Gee, shall we cheer if the stock market goes down by 90%? It would be a lot cheaper. Why does the same theory not apply?

Then we have the trading public. If the central bankers have gone crazy with this whole negative interest rate theory, then the public is simply out of their minds. The euro rallied because Draghi cut rates further, extended the stimulus another year, increased the amount by another 33%, and then declared rates would stay there for years to come. And these insane traders cheer. Unbelievable! They are celebrating the public admission of Draghi that all his efforts to date have failed, so let’s do even more of the same. And they love this nonsense? Negative interest rates have become simply a tax on saving money and the stupid traders and media writers love it. The Fed tries to raise rates and they say – NO! This is a stunning combination of admission and stupidity that one would expect from a pretty but clueless girl and her drunk college boyfriend who can’t say no to any girl:

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Elite & their Undemocratic Superdelegates/Electoral College

Guest Post by Martin Armstrong

Most people are clueless as to the legality of what they are doing when they vote. You think you are voting for a candidate, you do NOT. You actually do not vote for candidates, you vote for delegates to represent you only on the first vote at the convention and then they are “Free” to vote whomever THEY want – not you. Even in the national election, you technically and legally do not vote for candidates. You vote for delegates to represent you in the Electoral College process. You never actually vote for a person.

The audacity of Mit Romney to come out and bash Trump yet not endorsing anyone else was a blatant play to be drafted by the Republican elite looking to rob the people of any Democratic process. Romney is deeply entrenched within the elite. In July 2012, Cheney used his Wyoming home to host a private fund-raiser for Romney, which netted over $4 million in contributions from attendees for Romney’s campaign. If Romney were to be President, Cheney would not be far away hiding in the shadows.

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Advice for Trump

Guest Post by Martin Armstrong

I do not advise Trump. If he demonstrated that we need major reform or we are going broke, then he might attract more people who are on the fence. Let’s be realistic. Those supporting Trump distrust government politicians. They really do not care about his message. I at least would prefer Trump not for any policy, but any career politician will bring the same line of thinking to the table. There will be no thinking out of the box and we will be blasted with more regulation and taxes killing the economy.

Obama stuffed Christine Largarde in the IMF and that has been far more devastating than any appointment to the Supreme Court. She has destroyed the global economy threatening countries to hand over info on everyone (except exempt politicians like her of course) so they can hunt money everywhere. They do not look at the net result, and only look at the world through their own eyes. I would hope Trump would look at this as a businessman and say you people are nuts.

The standard of living for families is declining. That is not because the “rich” are making more from investment, it is because of rising taxes and government robbing their savings to fund themselves and pretending they are there for their retirement. In reality, they keep lowering benefits because they stole all the money. Anyone in the private sector who did this would be in jail. We are prosecuted for fraud in the private sector, but fraud in public sector is rewarded and called “politics.”

What advice I would give Trump:

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SHOULD YOU BELIEVE THE VAMPIRE SQUID?

I find it fascinating the mainstream corporate media and Wall Street shysters spend SO MUCH time talking down gold and spending an inordinate amount of electronic ink trying to convince the masses that only nutjobs would buy it. I believe less than 2% of people have gold in their investment portfolio, so why the endless articles bashing it?

Newsletter hawkers like Martin Armstrong take every opportunity to shit on gold as an investment. I wonder if he was shitting on it from 2001 through 2011? We don’t know, because he was in prison for investment fraud during most of that time. Fatass Barry Ritholtz is in the same boat. He’s nothing but a failed lawyer pretending to be an investment guru. He’s gleeful when gold falls. It’s because he completely missed a 10 year bull market.

The suppression of gold prices through the paper market since 2011 by the Fed and their Wall Street bank co-conspirators has thus far been successful, but it is fraying at the edges as China continues to accumulate physical gold and pushing the ponzi scheme towards its inevitable conclusion. Soaring gold prices tells the masses central bankers are a fraud, that’s why they are desperate to keep the price capped.

With zero and negative interest rates throughout the world, gold should be skyrocketing. It is showing signs of calling the central banker bluff. Jesse’s comments below should be heeded. The stock market dead cat bounce and the holiday manipulation of gold down $30 will fail. If there is a lesson from the Big Short, do the opposite of what Goldman says to do.

Chart of the Day

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts – Goldman Says Have No Fear and Buy Our Paper

Goldman analyst Jeffrey Currie came out this morning with a ‘sell gold’ recommendation for Ma and Pa Muppet.

I was fortunate enough to hear his explanation for this in his own words on Bloomberg TV, which had touted his gold call about every fifteen minutes all day.

The net summary of Mr. Currie’s forecast is that Goldman’s economists think that there ought to be no fear in the financial paper markets, since there is an historically low chance of a recession, less than fifteen percent, and he sees no real possibility of negative interest rates.

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