Answering Questions for the Press

www.armstrongeconomics.com

Q: You predicted an economic peak by October 1, and you suggest there may be a U.S. government shutdown on that day. What’s going to happen in the following months?

A: 2015.75 (September 30/October 1), is the BEGINNING of an economic trend rather than the end. It also happens to be the day the U.S. budget must be approved. A fight over the debt ceiling is shaping up once again. This is more symbolic of the debt crisis, since all we ever have are these hearings to raise the debt ceiling. It never ends. The likelihood of the U.S. actually defaulting is zero. However, this target seems to mark the beginning of a sovereign debt crisis that is engulfing the entire world. Its importance may be that it draws attention to the problem of government debt everywhere. We should see a rise in interest rates begin as more and more capital starts to question government debt and the long-term future. This is a 5000-year low in interest rates, which is totally insane.

Q: You have publicly said that the current economic system works as a Ponzi scheme, and that governments and markets need regulation. Could you expand on that and how to regulate them?

A: Federal government should be prohibited from borrowing money. Politicians exempt themselves from all criminal laws, and thus there is no means of a check and balance to protect society. Eliminate the power to borrow, eliminate federal taxation, and governments should simply expand the money supply according to a fixed level of GDP (say 5%), which must be calculated by a PRIVATE independent board for ALL countries. Doing all of the calculations at the same place will make it as difficult as possible for governments to manipulate their economic numbers to spend more money. We also no longer need taxation at the Federal level for that is a barbaric relic from the past when money was commodity based. We are no longer in a barter economy so we do not need taxes. Eliminate taxes and economic growth will expand, lowering unemployment, and the lost generation will have restored hope for the future.

Q: While you were working as an analyst, you thought the Russian economic collapse. Do you think someone betrayed you?

A: No. The bankers blamed me for their own mistakes. By paying bribes to the IMF to keep the loans going to Russia, they ignored all risk management. This is why Long-Term Capital Management collapsed. A journalist was there at our London World Economic Conference and put that forecast on the front page of the second section. So when it crashed, they blamed me. Then the bankers were trying to manipulate the Japanese yen for March 31, 1999. At our conference in March 1999, I warned all of our clients that they were being targeted, and explained how to defeat the manipulation. They listened and the manipulators lost billions. So two in a row. Yes, they were eager to get me out of the way.

Q: Do you believe Saffra was murdered? In case you do, how did you escape danger?

A: Yes, I believe Russians murdered Saffra for attempting to blackmail Yeltsin. Putin came to power weeks before Saffra’s murder and then seized his Hermitage Capital operation in Russia, which was the entity they were trying to get me to invest $10 billion in at the time, which I rejected. I was not involved in that manipulation so I was not at risk. Even the male nurse who they initially blamed for Saffra’s death was released by the high court who said he did not receive a fair trial and sent him back to the States. Who killed Saffra has never been resolved. The lawyer/accountant for Saffra’s company in Russia, Sergei Leonidovich Magnitsky, was arrested and subsequently murdered while in custody pending official and unofficial inquiries into allegations of fraud, theft, and human rights violations, which were all centered around Saffra. Congress even passed the Magnitsky Act to punish people involved. Why? Very strange connection.

Q: When it comes to your imprisonment, how do you analyze its outcome? 

A: Prison is a huge drain on society. It should be a last resort reserved for violence only. Less than 4% of the people in U.S. prisons are there for violence. In the Feds, every person must go to prison even for a traffic violation on federal property or the prosecutor receives no credit to advance. Former Attorney General Ashcroft imposed that rule and prisons have exploded. Then they put people away for far too long. You become institutionalized for it is like living in tax-free monastery where you really are taken care of. Putting people away for 20 years is crazy. They get out and want to commit a new crime to get back in because they cannot find employment and have typically lost all contact with their family. They are stripped naked of any social contact.

Q: The documentary sustains they fabricated evidence against you. Do you think the legal system and the federal bureau conspired against you to get your codes?

A: I do not think it began that way. I went to my lawyer to file suit against Republic demanding the stolen money be return in one week. They ran to the Feds claiming I conspired with their own people to hide their losses from my clients, which only made sense if we were managing money. The Fed rushed into our office four days later without any verification whatsoever. Whatever the bank said, they just alleged.

Republic was in the middle of a takeover by HSBC. So, it was a desperate move to save the bank. Once the Feds realized we were buying portfolios in Japan, not managing money, everything fell apart. Then Saffra was murdered and I subpoenaed all of the phone line tapes he spoke on; the government went nuts, demanding protective orders, and began the contempt. Once I was in, they demanded the code. To do a film like this, the producer had to get Error & Omission insurance or they could be sued. The insurance company hired an independent board of lawyers to review the case and the facts. They actually put the demand for code in WRITING. The film could not have been made without insurance to verify every fact.

Q: Why did you refuse to give out that information? Besides the misuse they could make out of it, was it also a life-threatening issue? 

A: It became obvious that they would never produce any order that is required by law. If you put someone in contempt, there MUST be some order that says if you do this, you will be released. They would NEVER provide such an order and my lawyers said bluntly that they would never release me, which is why there was no order. They could not take the risk for if I complied, then what. This is why I got into the Supreme Court and then they had to release me or the Supreme Court would have to rule against them. Even the judge did not realize he threw me in prison without an order. He just assumed the government acted by the law. He blurted out, “I thought you did that?” Legally, he should have released me immediately. But he does whatever the government wants. Fair trials are not available in New York City against the government. It is a joke.

Q: Do you think the international financial system has learned anything from its mistakes?

A: No. As long as it is subject to bribing regulators, nothing will change.

Q: You have forecast a rise in violent conflicts when it comes to frontiers that might lead to a serious war outbreak. Does that have anything to do with the current refugee crisis?

A: Yes. The refugee crisis is the prelude to this chaos.

Q: You have also said, contrary to all evidence, that climate change is a fraud. Why?

A: There are hundreds of miles of more ice than we had in 2010. It is simply a cycle; the sun energy output beats like a heart. It is a 300-year cycle and it is turning back down. To the contrary, global warming was attributed to humans as if we have the power to alter the climate. That is absurd. Yes, we can make the air unclean or throw trash on the streets and live in dirt. But that does not alter the sun or the cycles that drive things far larger than our small tiny world.