QUESTION: Do you really think Trump would let the Central Banks Default? He said we would write off PoteRicos debt maybe he plans to write everything off can he do that? If this really did happen wouldn’t the dollar be worthless? S ANSWER: It seems as though far too many people ASSUME that all central […]

Central banks do not play games with the markets but it sure feels like we are being played by someone! Earlier this year the Bank of Japan, Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank all had similar balance sheets at around $4.5 trillion.  As we know, over the past ten years all three have risen from lower levels but have […]

QUESTION: Hi Martin, I recently asked an Economist for a major Financial Institute the following question. Will the Fed continue to pay interest on “excess reserves” after they start to reduce their balance sheet? Their answer was yes, as it is a way to control short-term rates for private sector borrowers. I am not able […]

COMMENT: Re:  Germany To Tax VAT Just Billing People Before they Pay Please note in Italy we had the same = pay VAT to the government before collecting it from client for decades, until a couple of years ago (approx), when Italian government changed the rules (first you collect VAT from clients, then you send VAT […]

  QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; Do you believe in portfolio diversification? ANSWER: No not really. I see no point in putting money in something you know will be a loss. Diversification within a sector is one thing. But buying government bonds when rates are at a 5,000 year low and governments are in trouble around the […]

In Asia we saw a similar picture to yesterdays market movers with Shanghai and the Hang Seng both closing higher whilst the Nikkei, ASX, KOPSI and SENSEX all closed lower. The SENSEX lost the most ground today (-1.4%) as it continues to add to its recent losing streak, making this its seventh day in a […]

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; Your proposition that the quantity of money theory is dead seems to be a true earth shattering perspective. It certainly disproves the Austrian School and the events post 2008 support your statement. The European Central Bank is supposed to traditionally pursue the goal of monetary stability. The Germans have followed the Austrian […]

Perhaps this period will be looked back upon as the Draghi Deflation. After nearly 10 years of this failed policy, the European banking industry is contracting on every possible level. The merger of Commerzbank to Merge with French BNP is one possibility. Commerzbank is a takeover candidate or shotgun wedding candidate, for good reasons. Its shares have fallen […]

The German Bundestag election campaign has seen a total black-out of any discussion of the major crisis that is building in Europe. Nobody is mentioning that Euro crisis, ECB monetary policy, disintegration of the EU, refugee crisis, pension crisis, the municipalities on the brink of insolvency, or the drastic increases in taxation coming AFTER the election that […]

The Australian ASX was probably over-sold yesterday and therefore stood as the only core that performed today. Closing up +0.5% was a healthy recovery after yesterdays 1% decline. China’s downgrade put a small dent in confidence for the cash markets which took the Hang Seng down -0.8% while the Shanghai closed with just small loss. […]