Join Us at the 2023 World Economic Conference in Orlando, Florida!

? Dates: November 17, 18, and 19 ? Location: Orlando, Florida, USA (or tune in from home with our virtual ticket options)

Are you ready to unlock the future of economics and finance? Prepare for an unforgettable World Economic Conference experience in sunny Orlando, Florida! This premier event is your gateway to insights, networking, and valuable resources that will supercharge your understanding of the global economy.

?️ What’s Included for In-Person Attendees:

1. Event Admission: Enjoy reserved seating assigned based on the order of ticket sales, ensuring you have a prime view of every presentation.
2. Presentation Slides: Gain access to the presentation slides from all speakers, allowing you to delve deeper into the topics discussed.
3. Video Recording: Can’t make it to a session? No worries! You’ll receive access to video recordings of all conference presentations, so you can catch up at your convenience.
4. WEC Event App: Connect with the conference on a whole new level. Access presentation slides, bonus reports, recordings, and more via the official WEC Event App.
5. Bonus Conference Materials: Get a package of bonus conference-related materials, including exclusive bonus reports and videos (as provided by Martin Armstrong).
6. Morning Information Sessions: Don’t miss out on important morning information sessions, screened on-site in the meeting room on Saturday and Sunday.
7. Networking Opportunities: Exclusive access to the Event App Networking Feature allows you to connect with fellow attendees, both in-person and virtual, fostering valuable professional relationships.
8. Culinary Delights: Savor delicious breakfast and lunch on Saturday and Sunday, prepared to keep you energized throughout the day.
9. Cocktail Reception: Kick off the conference in style at our Friday evening cocktail reception. Meet and mingle with fellow attendees while enjoying refreshing drinks.
10. Swag Bag: As a token of our appreciation, each in-person attendee will receive a swag bag filled with goodies, including an Armstrong Economics notebook, pen, and an event collector’s mug!

Unable to travel? We also have two different ticket options for those wishing to attend virtually! 

Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of a global gathering of economic and financial minds. Secure your spot at the World Economic Conference in Orlando, Florida, and gain the knowledge, connections, and resources you need to thrive in the world of finance and economics.

Space is limited, so act now and reserve your seat! Visit our Events page to register and join us in sunny Orlando this November.

Now available at all major retailers!

The eBook will be available shortly.

The second edition of “The Plot to Seize Russia – The Untold History” is now available for purchase in paperback and hardcover on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The ebook will be available shortly.

Book description:

“Take care of Russia,” Boris Yeltsin said as he departed his presidency in August 1999. These words were directed at current Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Yeltsin specifically picked Putin as his predecessor to prevent the takeover of Russia.

So, who was Yeltsin warning against? Newly declassified documents from the Clinton Administration prove that there was a plot to rig the Russian election of 2000. These never-before-seen documents confirm numerous attempts to implement pro-Western policies using the Russian oligarchy headed by Boris Berezovsky.

On the other side were the communists who desired a return to the glory days of the Soviet Union. As one of the largest international hedge fund managers, author Martin Armstrong found himself in the middle of perhaps the greatest espionage, or attempt at a regime change for Russia, in modern history.

The Plot to Seize Russia pulls back the curtain to expose the most extraordinary attempt to seize power in modern history, but with the pen rather than armies. These declassified documents reveal a plot that has altered our thinking about the relations between the United States and Russia. The thirst for power comes seething through every line of these papers that alter our perception of reality, change the course of history, and now threaten us with World War III.

War has now entered the video game stage. Ukraine has placed a literal price tag on Russian lives, paying soldiers roughly $2,200 for capturing an enemy combatant and around $330 for killing one in close combat when confirmed by video. This is the monetization of death.

What better way to entice the youth than to turn war into a video game? Call of Duty-aligned missions are provided, as the Ukrainian government is providing incentives for death and destruction. The new bonuses are part of Ukraine’s broader transformation of its military into a contract-based force with higher pay, clearer service terms, and direct rewards for battlefield results. Frontline monthly pay reportedly averages about $6,700 and can exceed $10,000 depending on mission risk and performance. A captured Russian soldier brings 100,000 hryvnias, roughly $2,200, while killing an enemy soldier can bring 15,000 hryvnias, roughly $330. If multiple soldiers participate in a capture, the reward is divided among them.

The mathematics of war explains why a living Russian soldier is worth more than a dead one. A prisoner can be exchanged for Ukrainian POWs, providing Kyiv with leverage in future negotiations while allowing families to see loved ones return home. Captured soldiers also become intelligence assets, revealing information about troop movements, logistics, morale, and battlefield tactics. From a purely military perspective, one prisoner can produce far greater strategic value than one casualty. That is precisely why Ukraine’s incentive system pays substantially more for captures than kills. Modern warfare has become an exercise in cost-benefit analysis where even human lives are assigned a financial value based on their perceived utility to the state.

Ukraine has built a unique military incentive system: E-Points.
Units receive points for verified destruction of enemy equipment, personnel, and other combat actions. Those points can then be exchanged for drones, EW systems, and robotic ground platforms.
Every successful strike… pic.twitter.com/mY5f1Am8UI

— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) May 24, 2026

This is what happens when war becomes permanent. Governments begin reducing human life to accounting entries. A prisoner has value because he can be exchanged. A dead man has value because he removes one more body from the battlefield. The military bureaucracy then assigns a number to each outcome, and suddenly killing becomes an incentive structure. The same people who lecture the world about morality are now openly creating pay scales for death.

Ukraine has already gamified drone warfare through its e-Points system, where units earn points for confirmed destruction of enemy personnel or equipment and use those points to buy more drones, ground robots, and electronic warfare gear through the Brave1 marketplace. Business Insider reported that more than 181,000 pieces of equipment have already been delivered through that system this year. The battlefield has become a marketplace. Kill, confirm, collect, upgrade, repeat.

“E-Points have already changed the approach to warfare. This is about clear incentives, fair rewards, and the rapid scaling of effective solutions. Military units receive resources based on results: the more targets they destroy, the more points they earn. This is a direct incentive that enables units to strengthen their capabilities with new technologies,” said Ukraine’s Minister of Defence, Mykhailo Fedorov.

This is the future of war. The drone operator earns points. The infantryman earns cash. The commander receives measurable performance data. The government gets propaganda footage. The dead become statistics on a dashboard. This is why drone warfare is so dangerous. It removes the final psychological barrier between the man pulling the trigger and the human being dying on the screen. Once killing becomes remote, verified, rewarded, and gamified, war no longer resembles anything the old generals understood.

The West created this nightmare by refusing to negotiate. They have thrown hundreds of billions into Ukraine while pretending this is about defending democracy. Now the war has produced bounty systems, drone leaderboards, prisoner incentives, and video-confirmed kills. This is not civilization. This is barbarism with software.

People keep asking when World War III will begin. They are asking the wrong question. Europe is already behaving as though it is at war. I have warned for years that the politicians in Brussels would never allow peace because the sovereign debt crisis requires an external enemy. Every week, another European government announces more military spending, another mobilization plan, another emergency measure, another speech warning the public to prepare for conflict. This is no longer speculation. It is policy.

Now Poland’s foreign intelligence chief, Col. Paweł Szota, has made one of the clearest admissions yet. He warned, “The level of Russian aggression is very high, and the risk of military confrontation is real.” He added that Poland “must operate as if war with Russia is inevitable“ because waiting until conflict begins would be too late. Those are extraordinary statements from the head of a NATO intelligence service. Governments do not talk this way unless they are already planning for the next stage.

Szota explained that Russia “is systematically pushing red lines, testing NATO’s responses,” and argued that the Kremlin views Poland and NATO’s eastern flank as “an obstacle to achieving its imperial ambitions.” He also warned that Moscow could continue the war in Ukraine for years, sacrifice its own economy, and expand hybrid operations against NATO members, including provocations in the Baltic region. Europe is no longer speaking about diplomacy. It is openly discussing escalation scenarios and military contingencies.

This is precisely what our computer has been forecasting. The 2026 Panic Cycle was never simply about financial markets. It marked the acceleration of geopolitical instability. Governments always require a crisis when they cannot solve the debt problem. Europe is entering an economic depression while military budgets are exploding. Germany is debating conscription once again. Poland is rapidly expanding one of the largest armies in Europe. NATO members are increasing defense spending toward 5% of GDP. Civil defense campaigns are appearing across the continent. These are not the actions of governments expecting peace. They are the actions of governments preparing their populations psychologically and financially for war.

Once governments convince themselves war is inevitable, they begin making decisions that ensure it becomes inevitable. Every mobilization by one side is interpreted as aggression by the other. Every sanctions package invites retaliation. Every troop deployment produces another deployment in response. History shows that wars often become unavoidable long before the first shots are fired because political leaders eliminate every possible path back to diplomacy.

I have repeatedly stated that the sovereign debt crisis and the War Cycle are converging. Europe cannot finance its welfare state, its Green agenda, and endless military expansion simultaneously. Something has to give. Throughout history, governments buried under debt have repeatedly turned toward external conflict because war postpones domestic political reckoning. It creates an excuse for deficits, emergency powers, censorship, and capital controls while redirecting public anger toward a foreign adversary.

Ukraine has become the catalyst, not the destination. The computer has consistently warned that 2026 marks the beginning of the Panic Cycle, 2027 carries the highest risk of broader international war, and the economic consequences will intensify into 2028 as recession and civil unrest spread. Europe is no longer preparing to avoid war. Its own intelligence chiefs are now publicly telling their citizens to prepare because they increasingly believe war is coming. That should concern every investor far more than the daily fluctuations in the stock market.

The employment picture continues to soften despite every attempt to paint the economy as resilient. ADP reported that private employers added only 98,000 jobs in June, below expectations of roughly 118,000 and down from May’s 122,000. Nearly all of the hiring came from the service sector, particularly education and health services, while leisure and hospitality barely managed to add jobs despite the FIFA World Cup taking place across North America. Manufacturing remained weak, and natural resources and mining continued to shed workers.

The report exposes an economy that is slowing rather than collapsing. That distinction is important. ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson admitted that it is taking people longer to find work while some industries are simultaneously struggling with labor shortages. That is precisely the type of distortion that emerges late in an economic cycle. Businesses are becoming increasingly cautious about expanding payrolls, yet structural shortages remain because the labor force no longer matches where demand exists. This is not the healthy labor market politicians continue to advertise.

Looking beneath the headline, the gains were concentrated in a handful of industries. Education and health services accounted for nearly half of all new jobs, while financial activities added modestly and information technology posted only small gains. Small businesses generated most of the hiring, adding roughly 53,000 positions, while medium-sized companies added 29,000 and large firms only 25,000. Wage growth continues to cool. Workers who remained with the same employer saw annual pay gains of 4.4%, while job changers received 6.6%, suggesting the intense wage competition that followed the pandemic has eased considerably.

The financial markets immediately interpreted the weaker report as increasing the odds of lower interest rates. That is the standard Keynesian response, but it completely ignores the sovereign debt crisis that is unfolding globally. Markets have become conditioned to believe every sign of economic weakness guarantees monetary easing. The problem is that inflation has not disappeared, geopolitical tensions continue to threaten commodity prices, and governments everywhere remain buried under unprecedented debt. The next Federal Reserve chairman cannot simply slash rates because Wall Street demands it. As I have explained before, if inflation begins to accelerate again, policy makers will be forced into a position they would rather avoid.

Our computer has been warning that 2026 would be a Panic Cycle year marked by increasing volatility rather than outright economic collapse. This report fits that model perfectly. Employment is no longer accelerating, consumers are becoming more cautious, and confidence is beginning to erode. The labor market is usually one of the last pillars to weaken before broader economic conditions deteriorate. Once businesses stop hiring, consumer spending inevitably slows, corporate earnings come under pressure, and governments experience declining tax revenues at precisely the moment debt servicing costs continue to rise.

The official government employment report will be released shortly, and it may differ from ADP because the methodologies are not the same. Nevertheless, the broader trend is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Hiring has slowed, job seekers report that it is taking longer to find work, and businesses remain reluctant to expand despite years of government spending and monetary stimulus. This is exactly the type of environment our computer has projected as we move toward the more volatile period ahead.

Just to clarify, this conference is open to all. I was asked to present a session on “how the world works” as a way to pass knowledge on to the next generation, and I’m happy to say I’ve committed to doing it. So here it is.

Please note: the book will be given only to those who attend the conference in person. For anyone unable to attend, a recorded video will be made available after the event. Since we’re keeping costs low, we won’t be live-streaming—so the video will be offered separately, and you won’t need a conference ticket to purchase it.

The book itself will also go on sale to the general public after the conference concludes.

The European Union just sent another €3.9 billion to Ukraine to buy drones. This is not humanitarian aid. This is war financing. Reuters reported that the latest transfer is part of the EU’s new €90 billion loan program designed to keep Kyiv funded through 2026 and 2027. The money is being directed toward Ukraine’s drone procurement, meaning European taxpayers are now openly financing the weapons system that has become central to this war.

Do not let anyone pretend Europe is a neutral party. The EU Council itself says support for Ukraine has reached €211.3 billion since the war began. That figure includes military, financial, humanitarian, and refugee-related support. Now Brussels is adding a €90 billion loan on top of that to cover Ukraine’s budget and defense needs for the next two years. This is not charity. This is Europe admitting it intends to keep the war going because Ukraine cannot finance it on its own.

The EU sent nearly €2.8 billion earlier in June, Reuters reported another €3.2 billion tranche under the broader loan structure, and now another €3.9 billion is being pushed out for drones. Ukraine’s reconstruction costs are estimated at $588 billion over the next decade, while Kyiv is signing more than 160 recovery agreements worth over €10 billion. Europe is no longer merely supporting Ukraine. It is building the financial architecture for a permanent war economy.

This is precisely what I have warned about with the War Cycle. Governments buried under sovereign debt always need an external enemy. Europe cannot pay for its welfare state, its green agenda, its migrant crisis, its collapsing pensions, and now a permanent military commitment to Ukraine. Yet Brussels keeps borrowing, spending, and pretending this is sustainable. It is not. Debt becomes the weapon. War becomes the excuse.

They told the people this was about defending democracy. Then they censored dissent. They told taxpayers this would be temporary. Now they are financing Ukraine through 2027. They told everyone sanctions would collapse Russia. Instead, Europe entered depressionary conditions while Russia adapted. Now they are funding drones because the battlefield has shifted into a technological meat grinder.

The most disturbing part is that Europe is already acting as if it is at war. It is restricting Ukrainian men of military age from receiving new refugee protections, increasing defense spending, discussing conscription, and financing weapons production. The European Commission wants temporary protection extended until March 2028, but newly arriving Ukrainian men of military age without authorization from Kyiv may be excluded.

Europe is not trying to end this war. It is funding the next phase. The computer has warned that 2026 is a Panic Cycle, 2027 carries the serious risk of broader war, and 2028 brings the economic consequences. This latest €3.9 billion is not just another payment. It is another step down the road to a conflict Europe’s leaders seem determined to create.

Politicians continue insisting that mass migration carries no economic consequences. Anyone who questions the policy is immediately accused of being anti-immigrant. That has always been the tactic. Rather than debate the economics, they attack the person asking the question. Yet reality eventually catches up with political slogans, and now even economists are beginning to quantify what common sense should have told us years ago.

A new working paper from economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas examined the unprecedented surge in unauthorized immigration between 2021 and 2024. The researchers estimate that unauthorized immigrant workers accounted for roughly 30% of employment growth in the average metropolitan area during that period. More importantly, they found that in markets where housing supply could not expand quickly enough, a 1% increase in unauthorized worker inflows was associated with approximately a 2.2% increase in home prices and about a 1.4% increase in rents.

When population rises rapidly while housing construction fails to keep pace, prices climb. More people competing for a limited number of homes means higher prices. Demand rises faster than supply. The laws of supply and demand do not disappear because politicians prefer open borders. The Federal Reserve researchers also noted that housing construction did not expand sufficiently to absorb the additional demand, leaving existing residents competing for the same inventory. This is basic economics that governments have chosen to ignore.

The numbers illustrate just how severe the housing shortage has become. Freddie Mac estimates the United States remains short roughly 3.7 million housing units. The National Association of Realtors has repeatedly reported that existing home inventory remains well below historical norms, while the median existing-home price reached another record high during 2025. Meanwhile, mortgage rates have remained around 6% to 7% for much of the past two years, dramatically increasing monthly payments and pushing homeownership further out of reach for younger Americans. The result has been exactly what our computer projected years ago, employed adults increasingly remaining with their parents because housing has become unaffordable.

Politicians will inevitably try to blame investors, landlords, or speculators. Those factors exist, but they are only part of a much larger picture. Housing costs have also been driven higher by inflation, elevated interest rates, soaring insurance premiums, rising construction costs, zoning restrictions, and years of underbuilding following the 2008 financial crisis. Mass immigration adds another layer of demand on top of an already constrained market.

Civil unrest rises whenever governments ignore economic reality. Housing affordability has become one of the defining issues across the Western world, not just in the United States but throughout Canada, Britain, Australia, and much of Europe. You cannot continue adding demand while restricting supply and expect prices to remain stable.

Military strategists are still fighting the last war while the battlefield has already changed. Every major conflict throughout history has been defined by a technological revolution. Gunpowder ended the age of castles. Tanks transformed World War II. Precision missiles reshaped modern warfare. Now we have entered the age of the drone. The military that cannot dominate the skies with unmanned systems will lose, regardless of how many tanks, aircraft, or soldiers it possesses.

South Korea has reached the same conclusion. Its Defense Ministry announced that it will train approximately 500,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines as “drone warriors.” Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back said every service member should become as proficient with drones as they are with their personal weapons. The plan calls for procuring 11,000 commercial drones by the end of 2026, expanding to 60,000 training drones by 2029, while also acquiring more than 20,000 low-cost combat drones by 2030. Seoul is accelerating production of loitering munitions, AI-enabled drone swarms, laser weapons, and microwave systems designed to destroy incoming drones.

They are responding to the lessons of Ukraine, where inexpensive FPV drones costing only hundreds or thousands of dollars routinely destroy tanks worth millions. The battlefield has become saturated with unmanned aircraft. Ukraine plans to manufacture roughly 7 million military drones in 2026 after producing about 4 million in 2025. According to Ukrainian officials, drones now account for the overwhelming majority of battlefield strikes, fundamentally changing military doctrine. Entire branches of both the Ukrainian and Russian militaries are now dedicated solely to unmanned systems.

A modern drone operator can eliminate armor, artillery, supply convoys, or individual soldiers from miles away while sitting in relative safety. Fiber-optic drones have largely defeated electronic jamming. AI-assisted targeting is reducing operator workload. Swarm attacks can overwhelm traditional air defenses that were designed to intercept aircraft, not hundreds of inexpensive autonomous systems arriving simultaneously. Ukraine has even developed interceptor drones whose sole mission is to hunt other drones, creating an entirely new layer of aerial combat.

South Korea is not alone. Russia formally established its Unmanned Systems Forces, with Ukrainian military estimates claiming the branch could expand from roughly 80,000 personnel today to more than 165,000 during 2026 and perhaps over 200,000 by 2030. NATO countries are pouring billions into drone production, counter-drone technologies, autonomous weapons, and electronic warfare. The United States, China, Israel, Turkey, and Europe are all racing to build domestic drone industries because they understand the next war will not be won by the side with the largest army. It will be won by the side that can produce, replace, and innovate faster than its opponent.

This is precisely why I have warned that the War Cycle is changing the global economy. Wars no longer require decades to build fleets of battleships or thousands of heavy tanks. A nation with sufficient manufacturing capacity can produce tens of thousands of drones every month. The barriers to entry have collapsed. Software updates now matter as much as ammunition. Engineers have become as important as infantry.

The defense industry is no longer limited to traditional contractors producing aircraft carriers and fighter jets. Semiconductor manufacturers, AI companies, battery producers, optics firms, communications specialists, robotics companies, and rare-earth miners have all become part of the defense sector. This is why governments are scrambling to secure critical minerals, expand chip production, and protect supply chains. They are preparing for a world where industrial capacity determines military survival.

Our computer has consistently projected that 2026 marks the acceleration of the international War Cycle. The military transformation unfolding before our eyes confirms that forecast. The next great conflict will not resemble Iraq, Afghanistan, or even the opening stages of Ukraine. It will be fought by autonomous systems, artificial intelligence, electronic warfare, and millions of inexpensive drones operating continuously across every battlefield. The drone has become what the machine gun was in World War I and what the tank became in World War II. Anyone who fails to recognize that reality is preparing for a war that no longer exists.

Audrey Pulvar, deputy mayor of Paris for international relations, on social media.

Blames Trump for the 1300 deaths in France from the Heat Wave

She wrote:

“Dear American journalists and social media ‘influencers’: for days, some of you have been criticising and making fun of Paris because the city does not have A/C in every room…OMG, this is so rich!”

“As the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, you bear a significant amount of responsibility for global warming and the consequences we, in France, are experiencing. Your cities, which are 90 per cent air conditioned, are not unrelated to this.”

No wonder Macron wants WWIII. Perhaps Russia will nuke all the air conditioning in the US to save France