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.

QUESTION: Will oil go crazy if Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz?

Sam

ANSWER: It is questionable if Iran would do that, for we get only about 3% of our oil through that strait, whereas 80% or so goes to China. Nevertheless, February was a Directional Change and March remains a key target until we have a Panic Cycle in June. We also have a Yearly Panic Cycle in 2028.

China has built the railway infrastructure that connects Iran to China, creating a potential land corridor for energy and trade. While not a dedicated oil pipeline, it is a crucial piece of China’s strategy to secure overland energy and trade routes. The railway to Iran is not a solution to a Strait of Hormuz closure, but it is a component of a much larger risk-mitigation strategy. Consequently, this is a strategic, diversified, overland route for some energy and a lot of trade, enhancing China’s leverage and resilience.

A Strait of Hormuz closure will ignite a national energy security crisis for China that the railway alone could not solve. It would cause immediate global oil price spikes and severe economic pain for China. We would expect oil to rise to $140 level and an all out war it could even reach $240. Therefore, while China is actively working to reduce its vulnerability to a chokepoint like Strait of Hormuz through projects like the Iran railway, it remains overwhelmingly dependent on that sea lane. Its overall strategy is one of diversification and incremental risk reduction, not the possession of a single, ready-made alternative.

The question of whether a Strait of Hormuz closure would impact Europe more severely than the United States cuts to the heart of energy geopolitics and the fundamental restructuring of global oil flows over the past decade. The answer is unequivocally yes—Europe would suffer catastrophically while America would face manageable disruption. This asymmetry represents one of the most significant geopolitical vulnerabilities in the current international system.

The Democrats after imposing sanctions on Russia, saw gasoline prices rising and Biden called it “Putin’s Inflation.” He then started selling off the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) all for political purposes to pretend his actions were not stupid. As always, the Neocons are INCAPABLE of dealing with more than one issue – defeat Russia. They care nothing about the people or the country. To them, this is like the children’s board game of WAR.

In 2022, in response to high gasoline prices following Biden’s Neocon sanctions on Russia, the Biden administration authorized the largest-ever release from the SPR amounting to at least 180 million barrels over several months. The SPR inventory dropped from about 638 million barrels in late 2021 to around 347 million barrels by the end of 2022—its lowest level since 1983.

We are plagued by the absolute worst politicians in human history for they act ONLY in their self-interest and NEVER for the people or the country long-term. They have ZERO sense of history and ZERO interest in even looking at the past. Europe is especially vulnerable for a series of really stupid decisions.

Europe faces an entirely different situation. The European Union consumes approximately 13-14 million barrels of oil daily while producing less than 3 million barrels domestically (primarily from Norway, which is not an EU member). European oil import dependency exceeds 85%.

Critically, Europe imports approximately 2.5-3 million barrels daily directly from Persian Gulf producers, primarily Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and UAE. This represents roughly 20-25% of total European consumption. However, the impact calculation is far more complex than this direct percentage suggests.

If Persian Gulf oil disappears from global markets, every importer competes for remaining supplies. Europe would be bidding against China, India, Japan, South Korea, and other Asian consumers for non-Persian Gulf oil from Russia, West Africa, Latin America, and North America. Europe’s bargaining position in this competition has been severely weakened by deliberate policy choices.

Angela Merkel’s government decisively shifted Germany’s energy policy following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in March 2011. Merkel appointed an ethics commission on “Safe Energy Supply.” Based on its recommendations, she announced in May 2011 that Germany would phase out all nuclear power by 2022. That decision alone demonstrated that she lacked the quality to be an actual world leader. She is the one who opened the flood gates and allowed everyone to pour into Europe because she was being criticized for refusing to help Greece and was concerned only about her image. Those two decisions alone are putting the nail in the coffin of the EU.

Merkel was so concerned about her image to make person of the year, so did Hitler, Stalin, Zelensky, and Gretta no less how wonderful it would be with Biden and Kamala. Time’s track record of picking losers seems to be pretty on point.

Europe imposed comprehensive sanctions on Russian oil following the Ukraine invasion, attempting to reduce imports from approximately 2.5 million barrels daily to near-zero. While European countries have found workarounds (purchasing Russian oil refined in India and Turkey, or transported through obscure intermediaries), the relationship has fundamentally deteriorated.

Then every source I have says Zelensky gave the order to blow up Nord Stream. The cover-up is claiming a general defied Zelensky’s orders and blew up Nord Stream. Of course, they have to claim that or else why would Europe go to destroy itself for Ukraine? Zelensky is vindictive, I believe a closet Neo-Nazi who pretend to be a christian before becoming president in an election many believe was rigged.

In a Strait of Hormuz crisis, Europe could not rapidly re-establish Russian supply contracts. Russia would prioritize China and India—who did not sanction Russian energy and have built payment infrastructure in rubles and yuan. Europe would be at the back of the line, forced to pay premium prices for whatever Russia was willing to sell. If I were Russia, this would be the time to crush Europe into the dirt. Paybacks can be a bitch, as they say. If the EU is stupid enough to listen to the NATO Neocons, then Russia would be wise to cut off all exports to ensure that NATO is undermined.

Autonomous AI robots are outsourcing their work to humans. “AI can’t touch grass, you can, get paid when agents need someone in the real world,” the website states. “Robots need your body.”

RentAHuman.ai describes itself as the “meatspace layer for AI.” There is no shortage of stories about AI replacing humans. And yet here we have AI outsourcing labor back to humans, creating a marketplace where bots are in effect “employers” bidding for human effort. Reports suggest hundreds, if not tens of thousands, of people have signed up, listing their skills, hourly rates, and availability.

Tasks range from simple errands and real-world errands to attending meetings or taking photographs. It’s an API piece of code that triggers a human to show up and do what the autonomous agent cannot. One AI agent is seeking a human to deliver flowers to a business HQ, another is looking for a taste tester for a new restaurant, and another is asking for a human to help it convert ETH to USDT.

Prices for human effort are being quoted in stablecoins or crypto wallets, negotiated not by people on a marketplace, but by software logic programmed to minimize cost and maximize efficiency. Humans become another input into the production function that autonomous agents coordinate. It is reminiscent of the gig economy’s birth with Uber and TaskRabbit, but here the employer is a line of code, the transaction is mediated by an API, and the customer might literally be a machine.

What RentAHuman.ai reveals is deeper than the novelty of bots hiring people. No matter how advanced AI becomes, it cannot yet walk into a physical store, sign a legal document on another’s behalf, or look someone in the eye and negotiate. Those boundaries are still human territory. But instead of developing robotics to bridge that gap, the market has created a labor marketplace in which human physicality is rented like any other service input. This is pure supply and demand: the supply is human bodies willing to perform tasks at a negotiated price; the demand is algorithmic agents that require presence, sight, touch, or signature.

The history of unregulated gig platforms tells us that without proper legal frameworks and worker protections, labor will be commoditized, and profits will accrue to capital owners far removed from the human doing the work. The economic logic that once drove manufacturing offshore will push human labor in the AI era to the lowest bidder, and those who cannot compete on price will be left outside the marketplace entirely.

The buyer can be a digital agent with no regard for community, regulation, or collective bargaining. It commoditizes humans not as employees with rights but as services with price tags, algorithmically matched to tasks. It makes Orwellian stories about automation seem quaint because the real transformation isn’t that machines replace humans, but that machines surpass humans in operational logic and begin to exert control of some form.

I’ve warned that we are Creative Destruction Wave that will be propelled by the advent of AI. It remains to be seen how humans and AI will operate as a collective. Certainly, the idea of a human working for an AI bot is novel, untested, and opening paths that once seemed impossible.

Governments never present control as control. It is always framed as protection. In France, the justification is shielding children from harmful content online. But once the state begins targeting tools designed to preserve privacy and free access, the issue is no longer child safety but authority over the internet itself.

In late January, the French National Assembly passed a bill banning social media access for individuals under 15, requiring robust age verification systems on all major platforms. The measure, championed as a safeguard against harmful content, mirrors similar age-restriction laws emerging across Europe and Australia.

Now, France’s digital policymakers are signaling that the next target could be virtual private networks (VPNs), which is one of the internet’s oldest tools for safeguarding privacy and bypassing censorship. “VPNs are the next subject on my list,” declared Anne Le Hénanff, France’s minister delegate for digital affairs. This comes weeks after the social media ban was approved, as officials seek ways to prevent minors from sidestepping age checks using encryption tools.

The claim: If VPNs allow children to evade age filters, then restricting them would enforce the law more effectively. Government believes it should parent your children and you. The internet is no longer a space of free exchange and open access, but a domain to be regulated, surveilled, and ultimately controlled.

This is not an isolated policy choice by France. It reflects a broader shift in how governments view the internet. What was once a decentralized, open system is increasingly treated as infrastructure to be licensed, monitored, and controlled. Age verification sounds reasonable on the surface, but enforcement requires identity checks, data collection, and centralized oversight. Once VPNs are labeled a problem because they interfere with enforcement, encryption itself becomes the target.

History shows that freedom is rarely abolished outright. It is narrowed step by step. Each restriction is justified as temporary, limited, or necessary. First, it is to protect children. Then to combat misinformation. Then to enforce taxes, sanctions, or public order. The cumulative effect is always the same: the individual loses autonomy, and the state gains visibility and leverage.

We have already seen this progression elsewhere. China and Russia did not begin with total internet control. They began by regulating tools that allowed people to bypass official narratives. Democratic governments insist they are different, but once they adopt the same mechanisms with identity-linked access, restricted encryption, and approved routing.

The argument that VPNs must be restricted because they undermine regulation turns the logic of freedom on its head. Privacy tools exist precisely because governments and corporations seek to monitor behavior. When the state decides that privacy itself is unacceptable, the internet ceases to be a free medium and becomes an extension of policy enforcement.

This is not about teenagers using social media. It is about who controls access to information and communication in the digital age. Once governments assert the right to decide when and how citizens may shield themselves online, the balance of power shifts permanently.

Liberal PANICS when she’s asked "Would you take in a Somali migrant so they can stay in America?" ?? pic.twitter.com/glNcliRcd3

— Based Jessica (@RealJessica) February 3, 2026

If you or I sold stock based on a DOJ tip-off, we’d be in a federal prison by Friday.  Here is the real issue. Pelosi is out of power. That means someone in the DOJ is distributing inside-information. Are they doing it for free? Or is there a much deeper dark money ring? The SEC will never investigate because when they charge a firm like Goldman Sachs for something illegal, nobody ever goes to prison and they pound their chest that they got some huge find, but that is just their cut. It is NEVER the total amount of monety made illegally, it’s just their 10%-20% cut. This is just the facade. This goes so much more deeper.

QUESTION: Marty, you said this is a perfect storm behind the metals between sovereign debt and war. I believe you said that the EU wants war with Russia or keeps up the appearance of war so they can keep the $350 billion they stole from Russia that included personal assets of Russians not all government assets. I think I remember that you also said Ukraine suspended all payment on its sovereign debt. Am I on the right track?

WP

ANSWER: Absolutely. At least 40% of the “Russian” assets seized by the EU are private assets like houses and yachts belonging to anyone who was just Russian. The EU is broke and they do not care about international law. They pretend that seizing private assets of Russian citizens is lawful when it is outright theft.

They are now stirring up hatred against Americans as well and they will use war to freeze any American private investments in the EU as well using war as the excuse. There is a large anti-American sentiment that they are fueling for they need to justify defaulting on American investors that are private assets as well. Europeans should get some assets out of the EU for they are desperate to save the bureaucracy – not the people. The EU is a failure. Listen to Merz speak at Davos and you will see the fragmentation unfolding. They are shutting down free speech fearing that the people will wise up and storm their Parliament.

Ukraine suspended payments on approximately $20 billion in international bonds in 2022, and bondholders agreed to a two-year payment freeze Kiev. In September 2024, Ukraine completed a restructuring of about $20.5 billion in international bonds with over 97% bondholder participation. The representative bondholder committee, comprised some of the world’s largest asset managers and other long-term investors in Ukraine.

The restructuring involved bondholders accepting a 37% write-off of their claims, with new bonds issued at reduced interest rates that will gradually increase over time. Only a fool would buy Ukrainian assets or debt. Any fund investing in Ukraine should be sold.

The Group of Creditors of Ukraine includes Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with observers including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

These official creditors extended their debt service suspension until the end of March 2027 U.S. Department of the Treasury, while the private bondholders completed their restructuring in 2024.
My sources report that Ukraine also has smaller amounts owed to companies like Cargill Financial Services International, but refuses to provide a comprehensive list of all specific bondholders.

The European Union is now moving forward rapidly with the issuance of stable coins through a consortium of major banks, aiming to create a euro-pegged stable coin called Qivalis, which is expected to launch in the second half of 2026. This initiative is part of a broader effort to regulate digital assets under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). It is also a way to issue debt. They hope with a euro-backed stabble coin, they will be able to sell this in Asia, Africa, and North America for as they beat the war drums,  you have to be out of your mind to buy euro debt.

The EU stable coin seems to be the backup for their unpopular digital euro, which most now see as 100% total control. They have pushed for making it criminal to buy anything with €1,000 euros in cash. They trust nobody and they are desperate for money. If you pay in cash, you are a criminal in their view. As the EU experiment is failing, they become desperate to retain power. They have transformed Europe from a free society to the modern version of USSR. This proves that the EU will not survive and they are desperate at this time. This is all about money. Everyone is guilty. You are just now a serf and you must prove where you got that money from to your new master.

This the the oldest game in the book. When you have a domestic crisis, find an external enemy to blame. It’s like the kid who tells the teacher that they did the homework, but the cat ate it, and then an illegal migrant ate their cat.