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.

The government keeps telling people the economy is strong because the stock market keeps making new highs. That is the great deception behind every bubble throughout history. Wall Street is not Main Street. You can have record highs in financial assets while society underneath is quietly rotting in real time.

The New York Federal Reserve now reports that 14% of American households are struggling with food insecurity. For families with children, the number rises to 17.5%. That means millions of Americans are literally worried about whether they can afford enough food while politicians stand in Washington congratulating themselves over manipulated statistics.

This is the direct result of monetary policy and the destruction of purchasing power. They printed trillions after 2020 and inflated everything. Housing exploded. Rent exploded. Insurance exploded. Food exploded. The people who owned assets got richer while the working class got trapped trying to survive inflation.

Meanwhile, household debt has surged above $18 trillion. Credit card balances are above $1.2 trillion. Americans are borrowing money just to maintain basic living standards. That is never sustainable historically. Rome did the same thing by debasing the currency until the middle class collapsed under rising costs. Weimar Germany also saw financial assets rise while ordinary citizens watched purchasing power evaporate.

The younger generation has been absolutely destroyed financially. In many cities rent now consumes nearly half of take-home pay. Home ownership has become almost unattainable for millions. Food prices remain dramatically above pre-2020 levels. Families are paying 30%, 40%, even 50% more for necessities than just a few years ago while wages never remotely kept pace.

This is why I have warned that the real crisis would not simply be inflation itself but the collapse in living standards. Governments always manipulate statistics to hide reality. They change CPI formulas, adjust baskets, and claim inflation is “cooling,” but people know the truth every time they walk into a grocery store.

This is also why civil unrest rises during the later stages of debt crises historically. The average person eventually realizes the system no longer works for them, while the financial elite continue accumulating wealth through asset inflation. The K-shaped economy becomes politically dangerous because one side of society feels abandoned entirely.

The French Revolution was not caused because people suddenly hated the aristocracy overnight. It was bread prices, hunger. It was watching elites continue living comfortably while ordinary families could no longer survive rising costs. History always repeats because human nature never changes.

The frightening part is that this is happening before the real sovereign debt crisis even begins. Governments worldwide are drowning in debt and they cannot raise rates forever without detonating the system. So they are trapped. Either they continue inflating the currency slowly to manage the debt, or they trigger a deflationary collapse. Politicians will always choose inflation because it delays the pain politically.

That means the middle class continues getting squeezed while the divide between financial wealth and real economic survival grows wider.

People do not eat stock portfolios. They eat food. They pay rent. They pay utilities. They buy gasoline. That is where the real economy is collapsing.

@unfilteredwithkels

From medical biophysics to a psychiatric ward. Nicholas Jordan Wagter’s story is unfolding in real time at Vancouver General Hospital. He claims it’s retaliation for what he uncovered…..but the official record says something else entirely. What do you think is really happening? Let’s look at the timeline. ? . . . . . . . #nicholasjordanwagter #vancouver #bcpolitics #independentmedia #mentalhealthact

♬ original sound – unfilteredwithkels

The Nicholas Wagter case has exploded online because many people believe it represents something far more dangerous than one isolated mental health dispute. According to widespread claims circulating online, Wagter, a widely published doctor in biophysics, was forcibly detained under Canada’s psychiatric intervention laws after becoming increasingly vocal about financial systems, patent disputes, institutional corruption, and alleged fraud involving complex financial engineering concepts. The Canadian government silenced him by forcibly admitting him into a psychiatric ward. Medical kidnapping is now legal in Canada.

At the center of the controversy is a declaration Wagter submitted through the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Case Tracking System. In that filing, he appears to challenge the legitimacy of a financial patent involving leverage structures, derivatives positioning, automated transaction sequencing, volatility calculations, and remote financial processing systems. His position appears to be that these mechanisms were already deeply embedded within finance and software architecture long before the patent filing itself and therefore should not qualify as a novel invention deserving protection.

That matters because patents tied to financial technologies can be worth enormous sums of money. Modern finance is built on proprietary systems, algorithms, automated trading architecture, derivatives models, and transaction processing frameworks. Entire firms are valued around ownership claims tied to intellectual property. When someone publicly argues that certain patents merely repackage pre-existing concepts under new language, it threatens far more than academic prestige.

People are not disturbed simply because of the patent filing itself. They are disturbed because shortly afterward the public narrative surrounding Wagter allegedly shifted toward mental instability. Discussion surrounding his social media usage began as he posted “conspiracy” theories. Openly questioning the narrative is illegal. He was deemed medically insane by the system without any medical oversight. The video of his arrest has gone viral as this man was hunted down by Vancouver police and taken away to a hospital against his will.

Canada has quietly built one of the most expansive psychiatric intervention systems in the Western world under provincial mental health acts. Authorities can legally detain individuals for psychiatric evaluation if they are considered a danger to themselves or others, or even if they are deemed mentally incapable of caring for themselves properly. The threshold is often subjective and similar to the charge of conspiracy as no actual incident needs to take place. Police, doctors, or family complaints are all it takes for someone to be carted off to a hospital. In some provinces, individuals can initially be held for up to 72 hours without consent, with extensions available afterward through medical authorization.

No criminal conviction is required. No jury trial occurs. No public burden of proof exists comparable to criminal proceedings. Once a psychiatric framework is introduced, institutional authority expands dramatically. Doctors and administrators suddenly hold powers that in any other context would require a court proceeding.

The frightening part is that governments increasingly frame all dissent through the lens of public safety, misinformation, extremism, instability, or mental health risk. During the trucker protests, Canada froze bank accounts without criminal trials. Speech laws have expanded aggressively. Online monitoring has intensified. MAID and assisted suicide laws expanded while mental health systems simultaneously gained broader authority. People are beginning to notice that nearly every modern crisis somehow results in institutions obtaining more power over the individual.

Whether Wagter is right or wrong about the patent dispute becomes secondary. The larger fear is how widespread this tactic will become in Canada as dissent grows. Any act against the status quo will result in government declaring you either crazy or a criminal who can no longer exist within the confines of society.

The latest PCE inflation report confirmed exactly what I have warned. Inflation was never “transitory,” and the Federal Reserve has completely lost control of the narrative. The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, core PCE, rose 3.3% annually in April, up from 3.2% in March and well above the Fed’s mythical 2% target. Headline PCE inflation accelerated to 3.8%, the highest level in roughly three years.

The government and mainstream economists will immediately try to calm everyone by saying the monthly core increase was “only” 0.2%. They are playing games with statistics because they know the public is scared. The reality is that inflation has remained above target for over five years straight while wages continue failing to keep pace with real living costs. The average person does not care about seasonal adjustments or revised models. They care that groceries, gasoline, insurance, rent, electricity, and debt servicing costs continue rising together.

Energy remains the key. Gasoline prices jumped 12.3% in April alone and are now reportedly more than 50% higher than late February as the Iran conflict disrupted shipping routes, insurance markets, and energy supply chains tied to the Strait of Hormuz. The Fed cannot print oil. It cannot lower geopolitical risk with interest rates. Central bankers are trapped because war-driven inflation behaves very differently from ordinary business cycle inflation.

Meanwhile, real personal spending rose only 0.1% after inflation adjustments while personal income was flat. Adjusted for inflation, incomes actually declined. This is exactly how stagflation develops. Prices rise faster than household purchasing power while economic growth weakens underneath the surface. The government says consumer spending rose 0.5%, but if inflation absorbed nearly all of that increase, then people are simply paying more for the same standard of living.

The numbers themselves are becoming increasingly distorted. Reuters noted that core PCE is now running hotter than CPI, which is extremely unusual. That divergence is creating panic inside policy circles because the Fed built its credibility around PCE as the “better” inflation measure. Now they are suddenly discussing alternative trimmed-mean models and adjusted calculations because the official gauges are moving in the wrong direction again. This is always how governments behave during inflation waves. They change definitions once the numbers become politically dangerous.

The debt crisis sits underneath all of this. Washington cannot tolerate high rates indefinitely because the federal government itself is drowning in debt. Every percentage point increase in rates explodes interest expenses across trillions in Treasury issuance. Yet lowering rates risks reigniting inflation even further. The Fed is trapped between sovereign debt instability and persistent inflationary pressure created by war, supply chain fragmentation, energy costs, and deglobalization.

This is why I warned years ago that inflation would become structural rather than cyclical. The old world of cheap globalization is breaking apart. Nations are reshoring production, militarizing trade, subsidizing domestic industry, sanctioning rivals, weaponizing currencies, and preparing for prolonged geopolitical confrontation. All of that raises costs permanently.

The public keeps waiting for prices to “normalize,” but normalization itself is over. Governments accumulated unimaginable debts during the era of cheap energy, cheap labor, and global stability. Now the geopolitical order is fragmenting at the exact moment sovereign debt has reached unsustainable levels. That combination is deadly because governments can no longer solve crises with unlimited stimulus without fueling another inflation wave.

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

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