This time is was Shanghai that bucked the trend after ending the day up +1.1% whilst the Nikkei and Hang Seng closed 1% lower. All core indices moved in a 3%+ range, which is only to be expected these days. Late in the US trading day, we are seeing Asian futures following the strong pattern of global markets with the Nikkei and Chinese futures both adding an additional 2% on the earlier cash closes. European stocks moved from strength to strength as the day wore on. News that total oil production will be capped from both OPEC and non-OPEC members installed confidence if nothing else. The fact that there was an agreement was taken as a positive sign and the gain in oil prices was an added benefit. All core markets closed around 3% higher with banks, miners and refiners all showing impressive gains. We shall see tomorrow if this momentum can be sustained after they read the FED minutes and the European leaders summit tomorrow from Belgium. Top of the agenda will be the topic of the BREXIT and closely followed by the migration issue. All efforts are being made to encourage Britain to adopt the closer ties but PM, David Cameron, did offer the voters the chance of a referendum, the date which is rumored to be announced depending upon tomorrow’s meeting.

In the US, markets have followed the European trend and watched the 6% gain in today’s oil price. A more dovish reading of the FED minutes late this evening has helped support today’s gains. Although they expressed concerns about a global risk (slowdown) they were not positioned with enough information (just yet) to making a policy decision. We are back to watching economic data which is what FED Chair Janet Yellen will repeat next.

US Treasuries have sold off on the day but in all fairness – they have been weak all day. Last trade seen was US 10’s at 1.81% again today off 3bp from last night’s 1.78% close. Interesting that both wings (5’s and 30’s) also gained 3bp. 2’s gained just 2bp to close 0.74% so a small 1bp steepening 2/10’s curve. Germany saw another poor auction today (again uncovered) but closed 0.27%. Closes the spread tonight at +154bp. Peripherals closed Italy 10yr at 1.60 (-2bp), Greece 10yr closed 10.58 (-10bp), Turkey 10’s closed 10.61% (+12bp) and finally UK 10yr Gilts closed 1.48% (+4bp).

Tomorrow we have the Asian and European reaction to the FED minutes; we have seen both geographies futures market trading small better on the release. Also, S+P have cut ratings on Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain and Kazakhstan as a result of recent oil price declines. You may remember SA was cut only just last October (to A+) so today’s two notch downgrade (to A-) is a bit of a shocker. Mexico has surprised markets also today when they raised rates (by 50bp to 3.75%) in an attempt to stem the weak peso.

Real Estate is in crash mode. London and Hong Kong look the worst after both were off 15%+ in the first month of the turn from September 30, 2015. The Miami market has been flooded with money from South America whereas New York has been the target for Asia and Europe. The U.S. market is getting softer. Even in my own search for property in Florida, realtors are sending emails about price reductions. We should see a general decline here into 2016. As mortgage money is becoming tighter, cash deals are common, which is money trying to get out of banks in general. The IRS in the United States has targeted Miami and New York by directing that the name of buyers behind trusts and corporations be revealed. This is piercing the corporate veils for the purpose of taxes come 2017 with the new G20 reporting.

In many areas, such as New Jersey, the average home was still 20-25% below the 2007 peak. Consequently, this class of Real Estate is in the same type of crisis we saw in Japan and the Nikkei which prolong that bear market for 26+ years. There becomes a large supply pf people who would sell their homes placing on the market if prices got back up. So you have a large group who are looking to sell any higher prices and that becomes the capping mechanism.

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong, since the S&P did break last year’s low, does that qualify for a slingshot if the Dow does not?

Thank You for all you do

GW

ANSWER: We do not have to make a new low in the Dow. The S&P 500 penetrating last year’s low was sufficient. We are approaching our target for the shift in confidence in the euro on 2016.202. This may cause a bid in the Dow, which is where international capital seeks to park money.

These are EXTREMELY difficult times. They are not easy to forecast, to say the least. This is certainly not a time for OPINION for sometimes it may be right, and other times dead wrong. The numbers are the numbers as is TIME. We have to realize that everything happens for a reason. We closed lower at year-end and that warned of this correction, just as we closed above 1044 in gold. Absolutely everything takes place according to a fine order. Our job is to listen to the markets for they are trying to speak to us. We have to comprehend what they are saying.

Look closely at the oscillator. It is starting to curve back up. With the euro looking very weak, we may yet see a real crisis coming in confidence.

As of January 31, Hillary has raised $163.5 million, which is more than any of the other presidential candidates. The question that comes to mind is why would the big banks back Hillary when she pretends to be willing to curb their abuse? The answer lies in what she said at her Goldman Sachs speeches. One attendee said she sounded like a managing director at Goldman. This is why she will NEVER release any transcripts of her speeches. They would doom her candidacy.

It was the Clinton Administration that did everything for the New York bankers, perhaps beside kissing their feet. They allowed interstate banking and repealed Glass-Steagall by handing the bankers students on a silver platter by eliminating their right to file bankruptcy. We would not be looking at the student loan crisis as “too big to fail,” and we certainly would not have had the boom in proprietary banking. So is it any wonder why the bankers are huge contributors to Hillary? They are buying their privileges as usual.

Now here come Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, who just happens to be a former Goldman Sachs banker, to say that the government needs to REVERSE what the Clintons did and “break up the banks.” It was Kashkari who helped to oversee the rescue of the banks during the financial crisis. He worked at the U.S. Treasury from 2006 to 2009 where he was overseeing the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) that pumped $700 billion into U.S. banks during the 2007-2009 financial meltdown under the leadership of Hank Paulson, former CEO of Goldman Sachs acting as Secretary of the Treasury.

Kashkari has stated that the nation’s biggest banks present a potentially “nuclear” threat to the U.S. economy and regulators should consider breaking them up. He has warned that the Clinton Administration’s actions to this day have left the New York banks in the same position of “too big to fail,” which means as always, “too big to jail.”

Governments everywhere are going broke. Despite what people think, gold may yet make new record lows under $1,000 in the months ahead. Canada has sold off a piece of its gold reserve into this rally. There is NO intention of returning to a gold standard. They are moving fully electronic and intend to eliminate cash everywhere. In so doing, the “official” view behind the curtain is that they no longer need gold.

As Keynes said, “In truth, the gold standard is already a barbarous relic. All of us, from the Governor of the Bank of England downwards, are now primarily interested in preserving the stability of business, prices and employment, and are not likely, when the choice is forced on us, deliberately to sacrifice these to outworn dogma, which had its value once, of 3 pounds, 17 shillings, 10 1/2 pence per ounce. Advocates of the ancient standard do not observe how remote it now is from the spirit and the requirements of the age.”

But Keynes was not the first to use this term. It actually dates back to the demonetization of silver in 1873, which began the age of the Silver Democrats. John Austin Stevens wrote to the New York Times in October 1873, stating that “gold is a relic of barbarism to be tabooed by all civilized nations.”

I have been warning that gold is not really the cornerstone of government nor is it interesting to big money in the context of physical possession. It is a hedge against government for the average person. Governments are turning away from gold, and as they cross that line and head into the sovereign debt crisis, they will sell everything and hunt every person to grab as much wealth as they can to keep their jobs. That is what we are dealing with. Gold reserves will be for sale. This may be the final capitulation for gold, and in that sense it is a very good thing. If governments go broke and sell off their reserves to try to hold onto power, then thereafter they will have no gold to sell into a rally. From a long-term perspective, let’s get it over with and just sell it.

QUESTION: Hello Marty, Is it your belief that they will (again) try to confiscate gold bullion coins when the going gets rough? If so, is there an alternative that you would recommend?

Many thanks for you great work.

k

ANSWER:I do not believe they will confiscate gold for there is no intention to return to a gold standard as Roosevelt did in 1934. He confiscated the gold FIRST to profit from the dollar devaluation in 1934. He also wanted to stop people from hoarding cash outside the banks, which is the same problem we have today that they are addressing by moving electronic and cancelling high denominations. However, what they will do is confiscate gold if you tried to leave the country with it or you travel with it domestically using the civil asset forfeiture laws. That would be the same as if it were cash.

It does appear that old pre-1965 silver coins may be best for small commerce. However, keep in mind that the government may declare any transaction in gold or silver to be illegal and they then get to confiscate all assets involved. They can easily just pass a law and declare anyone dealing in some off-currency exchange to be “money laundering” to hide from taxes. These people will do whatever they can to retain power.

keep in mind that as they become more and more desperate for money, all legal forms used today will vanish at the order of any judge. Any “trust” or corporation will have no validity to prevent government on the hunt for money. Piercing the corporate veil is a legal decision to treat the rights or duties of a corporation as the rights or liabilities of its shareholders. A trust or corporate structure is normally treated as a separate legal person, but there is ample legal precedent to “pierce” the corporate veil so they pretend it does not exist. These trusts or corporations are legal creation of the state and the state can change its mind. They typically rest upon the major prong of “unity of interest and ownership,” meaning the concentration of shareholder control. The fewer the people, the greater the likelihood they will disregard the legal structure. The other two prongs are “wrongful conduct” and “proximate cause.” Therefore, they allege there is some crime like money laundering to avoid paying taxes, and with the concentration of ownership they apply the “totality of circumstances” and like magic, the corporate structure or trust vanishes. Corporate veil piercing is the most litigated issue in corporate law. (see: Thompson, Robert B. (1991), “Piercing the Corporate Veil: An Empirical Study,” Cornell Law Review 76: 1036–1074)

This is how they seized Princeton Economics. They lied and said I owned everything and/or I controlled it behind the curtain because the U.S. company I had from the outset was in my children’s names. They were both over 18 at the time of my confrontation and their legal rights meant nothing. Then they lied and said I had no partners and threatened to imprison them on contempt if they dared to come to the States to protest. It did not matter; I was not even a signature to all the bank accounts they had to run their businesses around the world. Nothing mattered. There was no appeal for no judge would ever overrule another on this issue when the government is on the other side. So corporate structure and ownership really means nothing if they want control to get to whatever they desire. And thanks to Judge John Walker, a judge still has the power of the former king of England and can throw you in prison without a trial and take your lawyers away — all under the heading of civil contempt of court.

So will they confiscate gold? I doubt in a wholesale basis, however, they have shut this down as far as gold being portable. You cannot jump on a plane with a suitcase full of gold as you once could decades ago. So just be prepared, they can make it illegal to conduct a transaction in gold. When Roosevelt did confiscate gold, they retroactively negated any private contract that defined its payment in gold known then as the “gold clause.” (see: U.S. v. BANKERS’ TRUST CO., 294 US 240 (1935)

The U.S. stock market closed more than 1.5% up on Wednesday after posting a three-day gain that was helped by some recovery in oil prices and encouraging economic data. We now need to move higher beyond a three-day rally to suggest this is more than a reaction. The markets are clearly shifting. Gold managed to close slightly positive but support is rapidly rising. Our opening number for tomorrow is 1199.50 and a closing beneath that will warn that a retest of key support will unfold. Our opening number in the euro lies at 1.1058 and the market continues to look negative. In the Dow, our opening number for tomorrow will be 16707.90.

The euro crisis appears to be unfolding right on target rather amazingly. Our target was published in “The Rise and Fall of the Euro” back in 2011. The target for the collapse in confidence was 2016.202. This comes into play March 13/14, 2016. It is rather amazing that we can target a specific event within time, years in advance, and watch these things unfold. This illustrates that TIME remains everything and humanity repeats a process that results in the same response over and over again throughout history. This also demonstrates that our forecasting is not based upon OPINION. With the euro unable to reach 116 of a rebound, this does not look very good in the next few weeks.

Here is what we published in that report:

 

From a timing perspective, the Bretton Woods System actually began with the operational start of the IMF on March 1, 1947 (1947.164). The euro began officially on January 1, 1999 (1999.002). The birth of the euro essentially completed the 51.6-year cycle between 1947 and 1999. The collapse of the euro appears to be due no later than 17.2 years from its birth, making the ideal target 2016.202, just 23.5 weeks ideally AFTER the peak on this current Economic Confidence Model wave 2015.75.

Larry Summers, the father of NEGATIVE INTEREST RATES, is so against a free society and looks upon us as dumb cattle to be herded and corralled for his pleasure. His ideas are just beyond belief. Now Mr. Pro-Government-Anti-Democracy is advocating killing the $100 bill. He is moving to electronic money so that government can get all the taxes it ever dreamed of. We are rapidly being converted from milk cows to just beef cows. This is creating a completely totalitarian future. With people like this who never had a real job but knows how to dictate to the world, our future looks very bleak.

Summers actually reveals this is really about taxes by arguing that the U.S. government should stop issuing new $100 bills and recall the old ones out of circulation. Keep in mind the government will comply because this is the balloon he is floating at their direction and the press cheers our demise. There is nobody in the press willing to call him out. They prefer to lick the ground he walks on. They give him air-time because that is their role.

Summers went further and suggested that even the $50 bill should be examined. In support of the ECB ending the €500 note, he slandered Luxembourg who objects to ending the €500 note by saying that this minuscule country has a “long and unsavory tradition of giving comfort to tax evaders, money launderers, and other proponents of bank secrecy.”

This proves that withdrawing the €500 note in Europe and the $100 and $50 bills in the U.S. is all about taxes — not crime or terrorism. They are moving to end money as we know it. The problem is that the $100 bill circulates predominantly OUTSIDE the USA. They will take a step closer to eliminating the dollar as the reserve currency, and eventually we will end up with a new one-world currency as early as 2018 but probably by 2020. This is really part of the 2017 G20 accord to tax everyone everywhere.

Thank you Mr. Summers for your persistent dedication to eliminating our freedom and converting the world into a giant totalitarian state, despite admitting the government is incapable of forecasting the business cycle. That means that they are too blind to even comprehend the consequences of their actions today.

TIP: Swap your $100 notes in the sock-drawer for $20s. We went from $10,000 to $100 without terrorists or money laundering laws (which now means hiding money from government). Summers will take us down to $1 at best and he wants that gone as well. This guy should be in prison for what he has done to society. He was the cheerleader to get rid of Glass Steagall under the Clintons.

Summers is in the top 10 people who have created the destruction of all our rights and the world economy. The press treat him as royalty. In my book, he is in the class of Adolf Hitler within the Financial arena. Hitler actually began terminating the handicapped because they were a burden to the state. They happened to be veterans from WWI. This is the same attitude of Summers. Eliminate all our rights for his efficient mind to be at peace. What happens when he controls everything, and government is still unable to survive? He will be first among the elite to advocate sending in troops to hunt anyone who dissents from his will. Yes I am being harsh. But this guy has ZERO respect for that cattle he sees out his window any more than Germany terminating veterans because it was a burden to take care of them. Our society which he cannot figure out how it works because he admits it is too “complex” for his mind, never prevents him from trying to manipulate us to his desire. He seems more like a two-year old who gets mad they cannot play with a toy and do not like to share. If the economy is too complex to forecast, it is too complex for his manipulation games.

Well, Monopoly is going cashless. It looks like the game company sees the writing on the wall and are preparing the kids for the new world order — a cashless society.