QUESTION: Hi Mr. Armstrong,
I just read your 1997 Edinburgh transcript which you posted. It sounds like you could have written it today, which brings me to my question. It seems that we have drifted through the last 17 years dealing with the same corrupt systems and find ourselves in the same position, so why do you think markets and societies around the globe are going to deteriorate so dramatically over the next 17 years into 2032? As the old saying goes, “The more things change, the more things stay the same”, or as Einstein might have added, “We are at a relative standstill.”
Always fascinated by your work,
MB
ANSWER: This is why I say it’s like a Shakespeare’s play – the plot is always the same, only the actors change. It is just a question of time. The reason we go into crisis is because each wave builds in intensity. The 2007-2011 decline was the worst since the Great Depression. The bankers went too far. The level of bailout has been massive and the low-level of interest rates was set in motion because of that chaos the bankers created.
Public pessimism is now at historical highs as is the lack of retail participation in stocks. There is no BUBBLE in the stock market without optimism. We have unemployment running with the fictional number of 7% still a 150% above the level prior to the Great Depression. Hence we are at higher and higher levels from one cycle to the next. So the next turn 2015-2020 will be worst than the last. By 2032, I seriously doubt we will exist as we have known it. Just as communism collapsed, we are facing the same collapse from socialism. This is not about helping the less fortunate – this is about government helping themselves to our income.
Communism did not tax you because they owned everything. We have socialism where we own everything, but they tax that ownership pretending it is for our benefit. Don’t pay your property taxes and see how long the state will take to throw you out on the street with nothing. They have no problem leaving people homeless when the money benefits them.
We call something “Draconian” because Draco of Athens passed laws and when you could not pay your taxes and interest, you lost the farm. However, he did not throw you out on the street. You were then a slave working your own land for Draco and his buddies.
We have nothing left. There is no appreciable difference between communism that restricted movement and socialism that they can also restrict your movement until you pay your taxes. It is always about them.
The problem is systemic and reemerges every single time – WITHOUT EXCEPTION!. Only the actors change from one crisis to the next and it is merely pattern after pattern on top of yet other patterns. It does not take a soothsayer to figure out the future. Nobody has to visit me in my dreams or in the middle of the night. This is just the same thing over and over again. I use to ask audiences what famous senator said these words above. In the 1980? The audience would always reply it must be a Republican in Reagan’s camp.
I became friends with Lady Thatcher for in the 1980s you could have intelligent conversations with real leaders. Those days are gone. Lady Thatcher addressed our conference and stated publicly that governments should look at cycles. That was a huge endorsement of our technology.
Snowden revealed that the NSA can watch as you type and predict your thoughts. How? It is cyclical based and about patterns. The future can be revealed. The problem – does anyone really listen or say hey – let’s try something different for just one time?
