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.

Canada is walking into extremely dangerous territory and most people do not understand the implications because governments always package surveillance laws as “public safety.” That is how this begins every single time historically. They sell fear first, then quietly expand state power behind the scenes while claiming only criminals should worry.

Now even Apple, Google, Meta, Signal, privacy experts, cybersecurity professionals, and members of the U.S. Congress are warning that Canada’s Bill C-22 could force technology companies to weaken encryption and build government access mechanisms directly into their systems.

People need to understand what encryption actually is. Encryption is not some toy used only by criminals. Encryption protects bank accounts, corporate systems, private medical data, government communications, journalists, dissidents, businesses, lawyers, and ordinary citizens. Every time you use secure banking, send a private message, or protect sensitive data online, encryption is standing between you and cybercriminals.

The government always frames these laws as targeting terrorists, child exploitation, organized crime, or national security threats. But the mechanism itself never stays limited. Once governments establish the legal right to force “lawful access” into encrypted systems, the infrastructure for surveillance already exists. The temptation to expand those powers becomes overwhelming.

Apple warned directly that Bill C-22 could allow Canada to “force companies to break encryption by inserting backdoors into their products.” Meta warned the bill could require companies to “break, weaken, or circumvent encryption” and potentially install government spyware capabilities directly into systems. Signal reportedly stated it would rather leave Canada entirely than compromise its encryption promises.

There is no such thing as a “safe backdoor.” Once you intentionally weaken encryption for government access, you create vulnerabilities that hackers, hostile states, cybercriminals, foreign intelligence agencies, and malicious actors can eventually exploit. Government itself is composed of malicious actors for that matter.

The bill reportedly includes provisions requiring providers to maintain technical capabilities enabling authorized access while also retaining categories of metadata for up to one year. People underestimate how dangerous metadata itself becomes. Governments love pretending metadata is harmless because it does not always contain message content directly. Nonsense. Metadata reveals social relationships, movement patterns, communication habits, financial behavior, political affiliations, and entire personal networks. Modern surveillance increasingly relies on metadata because it allows governments to map society itself.

What is happening in Canada is part of a much larger global trend. Britain attempted similar measures against Apple recently. Australia passed controversial encryption-access laws years ago. The European Union continues pushing expanded digital surveillance frameworks. Governments worldwide are moving toward centralized digital monitoring systems because the financial and political pressures building globally are enormous.

This is exactly what I have warned about regarding the transition toward CBDCs, digital IDs, centralized payment systems, and cashless societies. Once governments gain the technical ability to monitor communications, financial transactions, movement, identity, and digital behavior simultaneously, you create a system where privacy itself effectively disappears.

That is how free societies slowly normalize surveillance infrastructure they once would have considered unimaginable. Governments globally are conditioning populations to accept the idea that privacy itself is suspicious. If you want secure communication, they imply you must have something to hide.

People better pay attention because once these systems are built, they rarely disappear.

The line between civilian society and war is disappearing completely. That is the real story behind Russia now authorizing its central bank and Sberbank to operate anti-drone systems and arm personnel to defend financial infrastructure. A country’s banking system is no longer simply processing transactions or moving money. It is now becoming part of the battlefield itself.

Russia passed a new law allowing the central bank, Sberbank, and the Russian Cash Collection Association to deploy their own drone defense systems after repeated Ukrainian strikes deep inside Russian territory. Staff at these institutions can now reportedly be armed as well.

This is what happens when modern war evolves into economic warfare. I have warned repeatedly that World War III would not resemble World War II where armies simply lined up across borders. The entire economy becomes militarized. Banks, energy grids, payment systems, telecommunications, ports, railways, factories, and data centers all become targets because modern civilization itself depends on interconnected infrastructure.

Ukraine understands this perfectly. Their drone strategy has increasingly focused on striking oil facilities, energy infrastructure, logistics centers, and economic targets deep inside Russia because they know they cannot defeat Russia conventionally in a prolonged war of attrition.

What is extraordinary here is not merely the drone attacks themselves. It is the admission that the Russian state can no longer centrally defend everything. Moscow is effectively decentralizing air defense responsibilities and telling major corporations and financial institutions: defend yourselves. That is a major shift psychologically.

The Guardian even framed it bluntly: Russia is telling its banks to “shoot down drones yourself.”

This is precisely how long wars transform societies historically. Civilian infrastructure slowly merges with military infrastructure until there is barely any distinction left. During the later stages of major conflicts, factories become military targets, railroads become military targets, ports become military targets, and eventually financial institutions themselves become military targets because war is ultimately about resources and economic survival.

Sberbank is not some small regional bank. It is effectively intertwined with the Russian state itself. Sberbank controls roughly a third of Russian banking assets and acts as a pillar of the entire domestic financial system. The Russian central bank likewise sits at the core of wartime financing, sanctions management, currency stabilization, and capital controls.

Russia has pushed aggressively toward cashless payments, digital financial infrastructure, and central bank digital currency experimentation through the digital ruble system. But centralized digital systems become vulnerable during wartime because they create concentrated targets.

The more governments centralize financial systems digitally, the more vulnerable those systems become to cyberwarfare, EMP threats, sabotage, drone attacks, and infrastructure strikes. This is one reason governments are quietly preparing for a wartime financial environment globally.

What people fail to understand is that once banks become strategic military infrastructure, governments will justify virtually unlimited control over the financial system in the name of “security.” That is how capital controls are born historically. War always becomes the excuse for expanded government power.

The United States did exactly this during previous wars. Europe did exactly this. Gold confiscation, capital restrictions, currency controls, surveillance, transaction monitoring, frozen accounts, and restrictions on moving money abroad all emerge in wartime environments because governments become desperate to maintain internal stability.

Russia is already heavily centralized economically due to sanctions. But this trend is spreading globally. Europe is discussing CBDCs openly. Governments worldwide are building real-time payment surveillance systems. Financial privacy is disappearing everywhere because governments increasingly view the banking system as part of national security infrastructure.

Now we are reaching the next stage where banks themselves require physical anti-drone defenses. Imagine if JPMorgan or the Federal Reserve announced rooftop anti-drone missile systems surrounding Manhattan offices. That sounds absurd today, yet this is exactly where prolonged geopolitical escalation leads eventually.

For decades, Switzerland sold one thing better than perhaps any country on earth: privacy. That became its true export. People think of watches, chocolate, pharmaceuticals, or skiing resorts, but Switzerland’s real business was protecting capital from governments. That was the foundation of modern offshore banking.

Switzerland has destroyed the very industry that made it rich. Hong Kong has officially overtaken Switzerland as the world’s largest offshore wealth hub, managing roughly $2.95 trillion in cross-border wealth compared to Switzerland’s $2.94 trillion, according to the latest Boston Consulting Group report.

This was entirely self-inflicted. I warned years ago that Switzerland was committing financial suicide by surrendering banking secrecy under pressure from Washington, Brussels, the OECD, and the global tax authorities. Once Switzerland agreed to automatic information exchange treaties and effectively transformed Swiss bankers into tax informants for foreign governments, they destroyed the very reason international capital flowed there in the first place.

Offshore banking was never simply about taxes. It was about protection from political instability, confiscation, currency collapse, revolution, war, and predatory governments. Switzerland became wealthy because it remained neutral and outside the endless political insanity consuming Europe.

But after 2008, the entire Western financial system changed. FATCA turned foreign banks into enforcement agents for the IRS. CRS reporting standards spread globally. European politicians demonized offshore banking because governments drowning in debt cannot tolerate wealth escaping their reach. Suddenly, confidentiality itself became suspicious.

The politicians pretended this was about “fairness” and fighting tax evasion. Nonsense. This was about governments hunting capital because sovereign debt is spiraling out of control worldwide. Europe is collapsing economically under regulation, welfare spending, energy costs, migration pressures, and war expenditures. Once governments cannot sustain themselves honestly, they begin searching for private pools of wealth to confiscate.

Switzerland surrendered to that pressure completely. The famous Swiss numbered account became little more than mythology. Automatic reporting agreements gutted the entire purpose of Swiss banking secrecy. Once confidentiality disappeared, wealthy clients naturally began looking elsewhere.

That is where Hong Kong entered the picture. Hong Kong operates under an entirely different mentality. While Switzerland spent years apologizing to foreign governments and dismantling privacy protections, Hong Kong positioned itself as the gateway between Chinese wealth and global markets.

Now this does not mean Hong Kong is some perfect banking paradise. Hong Kong has strict compliance laws, anti-money laundering rules, and increasingly close oversight connected to Beijing. In fact, banks in Hong Kong are now tightening controls even further after recent crackdowns from mainland Chinese regulators on cross-border capital flows. HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, and Bank of China Hong Kong have all reportedly begun requiring additional declarations and source-of-funds verification for mainland clients.

But the key difference is that Hong Kong still understands the importance of attracting capital instead of demonizing it. Hong Kong’s banking system remains designed around facilitating international trade, multi-currency transactions, corporate structures, and cross-border investment flows. It serves as a gateway into and out of Asia, particularly China. Switzerland increasingly became an extension of Western regulatory enforcement.

Hong Kong also still offers advantages that disappeared in much of Europe. Foreign ownership remains relatively open. Banking and corporate structures are integrated with global trade networks. Taxation remains comparatively competitive. English remains widely used throughout the financial system. Cross-border finance is treated as an industry to encourage rather than politically attack.

Switzerland voluntarily dismantled one of its greatest economic industries. Offshore wealth management supported enormous portions of the Swiss economy directly and indirectly through banks, law firms, wealth managers, accountants, real estate, hospitality, and luxury services. They destroyed a major national advantage because politicians feared international criticism.

Then came the collapse of Credit Suisse, which shattered the psychological aura surrounding Swiss banking stability. Once clients saw one of Switzerland’s historic institutions fail under political and regulatory pressure, confidence began shifting elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Asia is creating wealth while Europe destroys it. Hong Kong and Singapore are projected to continue expanding cross-border wealth at far faster rates than Switzerland through 2030. Europe has become hostile toward capital formation itself. Brussels regulates everything to death, taxes productivity, attacks energy production, and now openly discusses wealth taxes, exit taxes, CBDCs, and expanded financial surveillance.

Governments no longer merely want taxation. They want total visibility and total control over capital itself. CBDCs, digital IDs, transaction monitoring, beneficial ownership registries, cross-border reporting agreements, anti-cash laws, unrealized gains taxes, and capital controls are all moving in the same direction.

Offshore banking once acted as a barrier against total government financial control. Switzerland abandoned that role willingly. Now the money is moving east.

PRIVATE BLOG – Gold into the Eye of the Storm

Private blog posts are exclusively available to Socrates subscribers. To sign-up for Socrates or to learn more, please visit Ask-Socrates.com.

https://ask-socrates.com/

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong, our board has reviewed your forecasts for the past year against 3 others that our firm took. You were the only one correct. All others seem to be just personal opinions that got caught up in the crash scenario. Your forecast for the metals, which is our industry, was correct with the pullback into May when everyone else was calling for a stock market crash and a metals rally. I understand they call you the legend. I also understand that you will hold a special session for the Next Generation. I would like very much to bring my children. Do you have any idea when this will take place?

PD

ANSWER: We are shooting for Tampa on July 25th. We are waiting for the hotel to confirm. We will be posting the tickets soon. I have always had to defend against the presumption that I have too much influence, and that is why the markets perform as forecast. That stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of how the economy functions, and it all goes back to Marx, who proposed that the government has the power to control the economy, a view supported by Keynes. Therefore, I have been judged by that perception because they do not want to hear that cycles exist, since that would mean the government cannot control the economy, which invalidates central bank policy. This is NEVER my opinion. My errors are not in that category; they are my misreading the computer, which I have always said Socrates has beaten me every time.

Those who have been calling for the collapse of the stock market, as in 1929, base everything on chart patterns and completely fail to grasp that we live in a world economy and that everything is connected. That will be a special report I am doing for the Next Generation conference.

I will do a Metals Update on the Private Blog

Turkey did not sell off its US Treasury holdings because Erdogan suddenly discovered some brilliant new economic strategy. This is what governments do when the pressure begins to rise and the walls start closing in. The latest TIC data showed Turkey’s long-term US Treasury holdings collapsed from roughly $11.1 billion in February to about $839 million in March. That is not normal portfolio management. That is a sign of stress.

I have warned that Turkey is one of the key geopolitical pressure points because it sits between East and West, Europe and Asia, NATO and the Islamic world. Everyone pretends Turkey is just another emerging market, but that is absurd. Turkey controls the Bosporus, it borders the Middle East, it has one of the largest militaries in NATO, and Erdogan has long tried to position himself as the leader of a revived Ottoman sphere. This is why Turkey matters far beyond the lira.

The Iran crisis has exposed the weakness. Turkey imports energy. When war sends energy prices higher, inflation returns immediately through the back door. Inflation is already above 32%, the central bank has held rates at 37%, and now the market is talking about rates going to 40%. That is not strength. That is a government fighting a currency crisis with interest rates while pretending everything is stable.

The debt crisis is not simply about government debt-to-GDP ratios. That is the nonsense economists use when they want to ignore capital flows. Turkey’s problem is external vulnerability, inflation, reserve pressure, foreign capital dependence, and the rising cost of rolling debt in a world where capital is no longer blindly funding everyone. ING estimated Turkey’s gross borrowing needs could rise more than 62% this year to TRY 6.382 trillion, driven by redemptions and higher debt costs. That is the debt crisis in motion.

Turkey sees the US and Israel as a joint entity now. As I repeatedly warned, nations do not buy the debt of their enemies. Turkey vehemently opposed Israel’s demolition of Gaza and it matters not that the US is a NATO “ally.” In an Eid holiday speech, Erdogan predicted that Turkey would rise as “one of the shining stars of the new era,” adding that the nation will restore peace to the region. “With defence and aerospace exports rising from $248 million to more than $10 billion, Türkiye is writing a rare success story in the world,” he added. Erdogan sees the conflict as an opportunity to achieve his long-standing dream of reviving the glory of the Ottoman Empire.

This is how sovereign debt crises begin. It is not one dramatic headline. It is a sequence. First the currency weakens. Then reserves are burned defending it. Then inflation returns. Then rates rise. Then the government must issue more debt at higher costs. Then foreign capital becomes nervous. Then the politicians blame speculators, foreigners, oil, war, or anyone except themselves.

Turkey selling Treasuries is part of the same global trend I have warned about. The world is no longer treating US debt as the unquestioned foundation of the monetary system. Foreign governments are looking at Washington, the war cycle, sanctions, deficits, and political instability, and they are beginning to diversify. Some are forced to sell because they need dollars. Others are selling because they no longer trust the system. Either way, the message is the same.

Turkey’s Treasury dump is another warning that the world monetary system is fracturing, and the fools in government still think they can borrow forever, manipulate rates forever, and drag the world into war without consequence.

Congress is pushing nationwide year-round E15 gasoline because they are worried about fuel supply disruptions and soaring prices as the war cycle intensifies. They call it “consumer choice” and “energy independence,” but when you strip away the political marketing, what they are really doing is diluting the fuel supply because they are terrified of shortages and price spikes.

The House just passed H.R. 1346, the Nationwide Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act, by a vote of 218-203. The bill would permanently allow year-round sales of E15 gasoline nationwide. E15 is gasoline blended with 15% ethanol instead of the standard 10%. Congress and the EPA are presenting this as some patriotic victory for farmers and consumers while pretending Americans are not noticing what is really taking place.

The government keeps saying E15 lowers prices at the pump. Of course, it does on paper. You are blending more ethanol into the fuel supply. Ethanol contains less energy per gallon than pure gasoline. That means your mileage declines and your tank empties faster. People end up buying more fuel more often while politicians brag that prices “fell” a few cents per gallon. Americans are paying more for less while Washington pretends this is economic progress.

The EPA openly admitted the purpose behind the emergency waivers was to “prevent disruption in America’s fuel supply” as the Iran war pushed energy markets into panic. They are not doing this because the economy is strong. They are doing this because they are worried about supply itself.

“President Trump is unleashing American Energy Dominance, and today’s action will directly lower prices at the pump and gives a clear demand signal to our domestic biofuels producers. Allowing the summer sale of E-15 will provide drivers more options at the pump, and deliver a bigger domestic market for American farmers,” said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins. The government is congratulating itself for putting lipstick on a pig. Trump spent years condemning Biden’s energy policies that led to elevated prices for different reasons. Washington does not want voters to look at an $ 8-per-gallon situation and suddenly realize that government policy has failed yet again because politicians continually act in their own self-interest while jeopardizing the entire country. The people always suffer when government instigates war. Quite unfortunate as Trump promised to keep America out of the Middle East, but somewhere along the way he morphed from a businessman into a politician. Human nature is consistent.

Governments dilute and stretch what they can at the beginning of a crisis. They lower standards quietly while telling the public everything is under control. You see it in currencies, banking, food quality, and now fuel. The objective is always the same: make a limited supply appear larger. Could this improve consumer sentiment regarding energy? People are still going to pay more at the pump. The end result is higher prices which equates to angry and fearful consumers. It is absolutely insulting for our overlords to question our intelligence in this manner. They genuinely believe we are too stupid to notice.

The EPA’s own regulatory structure restricted E15 during the summer months for years because higher volatility contributes to ozone and smog formation in hot temperatures. Suddenly now, in the middle of a geopolitical crisis and rising energy fears, all those concerns become “flexible.” Rules always change the moment governments become desperate.

This is why I have warned that inflation was never transitory. Once war enters the equation, inflation becomes structural because war attacks supply itself. You cannot print oil. You cannot print refining capacity. You cannot print stability in the Middle East. So instead governments begin blending, waiving, extending, subsidizing, and manipulating statistics while pretending they solved the problem.

The frightening part is that this is likely only the beginning. The government claims the measure is temporary, but in all likelihood, the measure will become a new norm that the public is forced to accept. Europe is already discussing energy controls openly. Once shortages deepen, politicians always shift from “consumer choice” to outright management of consumption itself.

Washington knows the energy situation is fragile. They cannot allow energy prices to reflect real scarcity because the debt structure would implode under the pressure. So instead they dilute the product and hope the public does not notice.

There was a time when people could still speak privately. You could sit across from a therapist, talk about your marriage falling apart, your depression, your fears, your finances, or the darkest moments of your life believing those conversations would remain between two human beings. That world is dying rapidly because everything now must be digitized, stored, analyzed, and monetized.

A woman using the therapy app Talkspace discovered that transcripts from her therapy sessions ended up being produced in court during litigation involving her former employer. Let that sink in for a moment. These were not vague notes scribbled down by a therapist. These were detailed digital records discussing her personal life, emotional state, relationships, and finances. The machine remembered everything.

This is what society has become. They tell people to seek help, open up, trust the system, use the apps, go digital, and then they quietly turn human vulnerability into searchable data.

People still fail to understand the danger because they continue believing these technology companies are merely offering services. They are not. They are harvesting human behavior at industrial scale. Every click, every message, every location, every search, every emotional breakdown becomes data to be stored forever.

Talkspace executives reportedly bragged to investors about building one of the largest mental health data banks in existence containing roughly 140 million exchanges between patients and therapists. Human suffering itself is now an asset class. Depression has become data. Trauma has become machine learning material. Your private thoughts are now inventory sitting on corporate servers.

When someone went to therapy, the therapist might keep handwritten notes locked away in a cabinet somewhere. Those notes were incomplete, temporary, and human. Today every word can be transcribed, archived, searched, copied, subpoenaed, breached, or fed into artificial intelligence systems. The conversation never dies because the machine never forgets. And people wonder why society feels colder and less human.

What happens when people realize their darkest thoughts may someday appear in court? What happens when employers, insurance companies, governments, or AI systems can gain access to deeply personal psychological information? You destroy trust itself. People stop speaking honestly. They stop trusting institutions. They begin living cautiously because they know every word may someday be weaponized against them.

This is where the entire digital age has been heading from the start. First they harvested shopping habits. Then browsing history. Then location data. Then biometrics. Now they are harvesting the individual’s inner psychological life. Nothing is sacred anymore because everything has a price.

There was another report recently where therapy videos, transcripts, and more than 1.7 million patient activity logs were exposed online through an unsecured database tied to a virtual mental health company. Millions of deeply personal records sitting exposed because the modern world insists on centralizing every aspect of human life into digital systems vulnerable to leaks, hacks, subpoenas, and surveillance.

The disturbing part is that this is only the beginning. Artificial intelligence systems are now being trained to analyze emotion, stress, vulnerability, behavior, and psychological patterns. The machine is learning how humans think at their weakest moments. Once enough data exists, the system can begin predicting behavior itself.

People laugh when I warn about this because they still imagine surveillance as old men listening to phone calls in some government building. That is obsolete. The new system is far more dangerous because people voluntarily feed it every day through apps, subscriptions, loyalty programs, therapy platforms, fitness trackers, smart devices, and social media.

The system knows where you go, what you buy, what you fear, what depresses you, what excites you, who you love, how much money you have, what medications you take, and increasingly how emotionally stable you are.

That is power beyond anything governments possessed historically, and once that information becomes centralized, it will eventually be abused because history has demonstrated repeatedly that systems built for convenience inevitably become systems of control.