This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.

Martin Armstrong Warns "This Time Is Very Different"

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by Martin Armstrong via ArmstrongEconomics.com,

For years, I have warned that we will face our worst nightmare – the collapse of socialism. In the death throes of this abomination that even the Ten Commandments listed as a serious sin, equal to “thou shalt not kill”, government will become the ugly beast that will devour society to retain power.

capitalism-vs-socialism

 

Of course, they will never see themselves that way, but they will justify in their minds that stripping us of our freedom, rights, privileges, and immunities, is necessary to maintain socialism for the good of the people.

Thatcher-Socialism

We are running out of other peoples’ money, as Margaret Thatcher warned.

 

Marx-Changing World

Karl Marx, who sought to change society by sheer force, set all this in motion. What has taken place is really scary, for indeed they have altered society far more than anyone dares to ponder.

Why is this Sovereign Debt Crisis collapse different from 1931? When the governments of the world defaulted on their debts in 1931, there were no pension funds. Government has exempted itself from all prudent reason for you take the state operated pension funds, like Social Security in the USA, where 100% of the money is in government bonds. They may have no intention of defaulting, but very few government have ever paid off their debts in the end. Then there are states who regulate pension funds requiring more than 80% to be in government bonds.

A Sovereign Debt Default this time around will wipe out socialism, yet the bulk of the people are clueless not merely about the risk, but the ramifications. Younger generations do not save to support their parents for that was government’s job post-Great Depression. Socialism has altered thousands of years of family structure following the ranting of Karl Marx. This has been one giant lab experiment that ended badly in China and Russia and is coming to a local government near you.

So this time it is SUBSTANTIALLY DIFFERENT. Government is now on the hook, which is part of the reason why they are moving to eliminate cash to prevent bank runs and to force society to comply with their demands. This is why we have people like Gordon Brown, who sold Britain’s gold reserves in 1999 making the low, claiming now that eliminating cash will eliminate the boom and bust of the business cycle. Let’s face it, Gordon Brown has NEVER been right when it comes to politics, not even once, and he has been the worst manager of finance that Britain has ever known. He sold the low in gold and now he presumes he can fulfill Marxism by eliminating cash. He postulates ideas that are theory without any support whatsoever. We cannot afford more arrogant people like this in politics who believe they have a right to experiment with society.

This time it is very different. They have wiped out society placing the entire scheme of socialism as a terrible nightmare that will end badly, and they have ruined the social family structure disarming people that for thousands of years was our very means of self-sufficient survival. These clown have set the tone for wiping out the dreams they sold the elderly, all while hunting taxes and causing job creation to implode as the youth has been converted into the lost generation. All this with pretend good intentions. Can you imagine the damage to society if they had actually intended this mess? They have lied to themselves and to the people. We have to crash and burn – that part is inevitable. Only when the economy turns down will we then argue over solutions.

 

- advertisements -

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Thu, 05/28/2015 - 16:36 | 6141286 PrecipiceWatching
PrecipiceWatching's picture

Hmmm..... "this time" its different.  'kay.

 

The Collectivist crooks had become world class adept at kicking that long overdue comeuppance can down the road.  So...Yawn.

 

 

More importantly:

 

I wish I had Roger Federer's magnificent backhand.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 16:36 | 6141294 SickDollar
SickDollar's picture

 no shit we know this time it will be different

tell me something i dont know, like when are they planning to crash the dollar /

time to learn Chinese and Russian bitchez

 

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 16:56 | 6141367 SafelyGraze
SafelyGraze's picture

"they are moving to eliminate cash to prevent bank runs and to force society to comply with their demands"

the joke is on them, because lots of us have american express gold cards with, like, a 500k limit.

also we have defined benefits packages in addition to soc sec.

plus a homeowner's association.

no government can stand up to the triple whammy of citizens with credit cards, defined benefits, and associations.

hugs,
den 5396 of the Friendship Club of America

 

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:13 | 6141422 nuubee
nuubee's picture

How are the followers of Karl Marx not extremely embarassed to follow the philosophy of a man who said something so stupid?

"Philosophers have only previously interpreted the world, but the real task is to change it."

^^ Retarded. Philosophy by definition is descriptive, not prescriptive. The moment you become prescriptive as to how people should live, you become a cult leader, and should be judged along with any other religion.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:39 | 6141522 SoilMyselfRotten
SoilMyselfRotten's picture

the joke is on them, because lots of us have american express gold cards with, like, a 500k limit.

 

And that is unlike cashless how?


Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:53 | 6141559 whotookmyalias
whotookmyalias's picture

The other reason it's different now is that people are less and less self-reliant. How many people, even on this site, grow their own food and know home remedies?How many could fix their own car or catch on as a day laborer laying bricks?  We've lost skills, experience, and knowledge that took mankind thousands of years to develop.  Dandelion wine, anyone?

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 18:05 | 6141599 SoilMyselfRotten
SoilMyselfRotten's picture

Just noticed gold closed $1,188.80, silver 16.66. Ok, we trying to send somebody a signal here or what? This shit does not happen by accident, although i know they do love their numbers.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 20:15 | 6141939 Achilles Heel
Achilles Heel's picture

It's a signal that you have too much time on your hands.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 20:53 | 6142044 Shock and Awe (not verified)
Shock and Awe's picture

Capitalists make me wanna fucking puke! Kill them all!

Americans have been lied to since the beginning. Capitalism is only good for the boys from israel.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 21:03 | 6142081 cnmcdee
cnmcdee's picture

Wanna make 100x your money in the next 60 days? Buy FAZ? Why? Because I have a strong suspicion without leaking details that the next false flag is gonna go, it's gonna be BIG, will bring martial law and the nuclear strikes inside Iran.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 21:19 | 6142124 Richard Chesler
Richard Chesler's picture

Fucking shithead post just means tne ES is about to ramp another 100 points.

Fucking shithead!

 

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 21:34 | 6142163 J S Bach
J S Bach's picture

"Can you imagine the damage to society if they had actually intended this mess?"

 

Sir... they DID intend this mess.  It's what they were born to do... wreck nations and cultures.

Read the "forged" (and entirely accurate) Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma01/Kidd/thesis/pdf/protocols.pdf

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 21:42 | 6142186 Richard Chesler
Richard Chesler's picture

The solution to the jew problem doesnt seem so far fetched anymore.

 

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 22:39 | 6142380 TahoeBilly2012
TahoeBilly2012's picture

Karl Marx was no more a socialist than Paul Krugman is a Kenyesian, they just play those guys on TV...they are social engineers with an obvious perverse plan of global enslavement. The founding of the Soviet Union by the Tribe(tm) is prophesized in the Protocols of Zion, just as the destruction of ALL nation states is, look at the Mid East, the Euro Zone, the attempt on Russia...interesting isn't it, all coming at once. There is one "ism" Zionism, always was.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 00:04 | 6142606 Gobbler
Gobbler's picture

I'm with you.  Karl Marx was a revolutionary bent of enslavement.  Greedy capitalists just use him as a monster in the closet.  I'll take my chances with affordable education and healthcare.  If I get locked in a FEMA Camp, then so be it.

Sun, 05/31/2015 - 10:51 | 6149087 Weisshaupt
Weisshaupt's picture

Says the guy who wants to hold a gun to the heads of others to make them provide education and health care to him as a "free lunch". If you advocate taking from others what they produce by force to benefit you - to grant you thing you neither paid for nor earned- you are the one advocating enslavement - it doesn't matter that you plan to give of your booty to noncontributing zeros who can't provide enough value to others to pay their own way in life in return for a vote that will allow you to steal yet more from other who produce. (I same "some" because the pigs always move into the farm house)

You won't be locked in a FEMA camp. FEMA camps are for people who don't want to be slaves and find slavery abhorrent. There those types will be "re-educated" (for free!) or slaughtered if they resist.

You want all of the benefits of being a slave- "free housing", "free clothing", "Free healthcare" and a Guaranteed job (we will train you - there is your education!). You are perfectly happy to give up your life ( and mine too) to make that happen - to let the government make everyone dependent upon it for survival - to use force to persecute those who live independently - No FEMA camps for you my friend. A useless idiot like you will get your fondest wish. Life in Poverty as their slave- with no responsibilities other than to do as you are told, and the government will "take care" of you like the 5 year old you want to be - just a 5 year old capable of hard labor.

How do I know this? Read some history. It is what happens every time your ideology takes hold.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 02:25 | 6142806 Balanced Integer
Balanced Integer's picture

The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion WERE forged, and you are an idiot for believing otherwise.

The Protocols is one of the best-known and most-discussed examples of literary forgery, with analysis and proof of its fraudulent origin going as far back as 1921. Is it too much to hope that the clowns who think that the Protocols are the Real Deal might get with the program by now?

Elements of the Protocols were plagiarized from Joly's fictional Dialogue in Hell, a thinly veiled attack on the political ambitions of Napoleon III, who, represented by the non-Jewish character Machiavelli, who plots to rule the world. The Protocols 1–19 closely follow the order of Maurice Joly's Dialogues 1–17. 

But never mind all of that. Answer this one question with something resembling sane logic and I'll withdraw my earlier critique of your intelligence: If The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion are indeed the blueprint for Jew domination of Earth, why does it not advocate for Zionism AT ALL in the document? Perhaps you think the "Learned Elders" were anti-Zionists, ha ha!

 

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 07:13 | 6143040 3Wishes
3Wishes's picture

All boy raping joos say that.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 09:11 | 6143344 J S Bach
J S Bach's picture

What the hell does it matter if they WERE forged?!  The fact is, they have been and ARE being carried out to the letter!  Suppose someone claimed that the New England Patriots playbook was "forged".  What does it matter?  Every play is carried out brilliantly and they win the big game.  Suppose this playbook never mentions the name "Patriots" in it.  Yet, the Patirots are the ones using the plays and winning.

Okay, so the Protocols never mention the word "Zionist".  Yet, the Jews alone are the ones using the diabolical formulae and winning.  I don't understand the fixation with people on the word "forged".  The important fact remains... the Protocols are being carried out and therefore cannot be ignored.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 09:34 | 6143429 ThanksChump
ThanksChump's picture

Uh huh. And all mobsters are Italian. Thought experiment: Replace the term Jew with Bankster. Humor me...

 

All banksters fit the Protocols profile. But not all banksters are Jews, despite the sterotype.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 09:46 | 6143478 Moe Howard
Moe Howard's picture

Not all banksters are Jews, you are right. But most are.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 09:24 | 6143397 ThanksChump
ThanksChump's picture

Yep. The wiki link would have been a lot easier to type, but thanks.

 

Folks here wouldn't read that either. Confirmation bias and all.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 21:26 | 6142139 greenskeeper carl
greenskeeper carl's picture

why would a false flag, martial law, and war with iran cause the financials to crash? War is big money for the big banks...

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 23:50 | 6142572 weburke
weburke's picture

govt borrows 5 trillion, spends it the helicopter method, writes it off gets another 5 trillion, minimum living wage is where we are headed, at a greatly lessened population.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 02:29 | 6142808 cornflakesdisease
cornflakesdisease's picture

Then who will clean the 1% pools and iron their shirts?

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 23:03 | 6142467 Vullsain
Vullsain's picture

 What Capitalism!! It is a hybrid Socialist /Corporatist State. We get what we deserve. Fuckin nation of lemmings, leaches and sociopaths.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 02:14 | 6142790 DeanWinchester717
DeanWinchester717's picture

lol agreed.  Capitalism in it's current form that Reeks of Iniquity (also something the bible warned about) is the failure here.  I'm not for socialism extremes either, but where the hell in the 10 commandments is either capitalism or socialism listed?! LOL  WTF?  Riiiight.  Everyone's got an f'ng agenda these days and it's usually greed motivated, based in selfishness and keeping things unfair for the masses.  Society is stuck on derp mode.  

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 19:31 | 6141835 Oldwood
Oldwood's picture

Most slaves were not restrained by chains or locked doors, they were restrained from running away because they were dependent upon their master and knew little else. there is a very good reason why slave owners deliberately deprived their slaves of any education, especially the ability to read. Tyranny depends on our dependency.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 21:14 | 6142101 jbvtme
jbvtme's picture

tyranny depends on the lack of courage

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 21:20 | 6142125 max2205
max2205's picture

Same DOOM different day 

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 22:48 | 6142422 willwork4food
willwork4food's picture

So what? We are in different days now. Grow some balls and fight.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 00:26 | 6142654 Confused
Confused's picture

We are always in different days. The next war is always the big one. And there have been many. Somehow people continue, and the game continues. 

Nothing has changed, except for "our" (first world) way of life. So in those terms, the stakes are higher. Ask someone from a third world country. I wonder if they think things are different. 

 

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 07:19 | 6143052 3Wishes
3Wishes's picture

But tyrants die gruesome deaths when they make cowardly mistakes.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 20:35 | 6142003 MASTER OF UNIVERSE
MASTER OF UNIVERSE's picture

I'm a Mechanical Engineering Technician -Tool & Die Maker, fisherman, chainsaw wielding seventh generation CANADIAN that smokes Aboriginal smokes, and homegrown CANADIAN bud. In terms of the Upper Paleolithic hunter gatherer toolmaking ways of Aboriginal CANADA, I am fairly adept. I could make a boat in the bush with only an axe and a knife if I had to. I'm no hunter as I don't have a gun or permit, but I can fish enough to survive in the bush if I had to. And shelter in the bush or wilderness is not hard to make for someone with my skills. In brief, I have not lost my natural skillset for survival in CANADA if SHTF.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 21:07 | 6142087 Shock and Awe (not verified)
Shock and Awe's picture

I could make a boat with 3 dead bodies if my buoyancy calculations are correct. If not then I will need 1 more dead body.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 21:37 | 6142177 Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill's picture

Just as well you will be right there then.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 00:10 | 6142618 Money Counterfeiter
Money Counterfeiter's picture

okay

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 07:22 | 6143056 3Wishes
3Wishes's picture

Counting yourself in that equation is common core ?

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 21:44 | 6142198 usednabused
usednabused's picture

Ha, when the SHTF you will choke. Why?? Because you're way too fucking full of yourself

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 22:31 | 6142350 MASTER OF UNIVERSE
MASTER OF UNIVERSE's picture

Very intuitive of you to state that I would choke when in actuality I have always planned on opting for a dirt nap if SHTF and I had to suffer without electricity, Internet, food, beer, Snickers Bars, bud, 100% Columbian coffee, 10% Cream, 2% Skim Milk, eggs, chicken, fish, beef, butter, orange juice, 12 grain bread, raisin bread, cigarettes, cigars, wine, whiskey, televison, phone, running water, hot water, et cetera. Frankly, you are right I would die, methinks, but I would know how to build a boat, chop wood, and build a cabin if I had all that survival stuff I mentioned. Actually, I forgot tunes. I would have to have tunes to survive long term. No Rock & Roll, Blues, R&B, Jazz, Soul, Rockabilly, Boogie Woogie, Swing, Bluegrass, et cetera, and I would fall to pieces without a doubt whatsoever.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 22:51 | 6142432 willwork4food
willwork4food's picture

Yea, the running water, beer and cigs would definitely piss me off. But hot water is a nice touch when it's below freezing.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 22:43 | 6142397 TahoeBilly2012
TahoeBilly2012's picture

That's the exciting part of the collapse, no one knows what happens...the thrill of a lifetime.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 07:26 | 6143066 3Wishes
3Wishes's picture

Fuck yeah, Man and woman were born to take up arms and kill shit to live another day, Taste your own blood to prove your still alive, F-K yeah. 

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 22:55 | 6142445 Boondocker
Boondocker's picture

Can't live on just fish, but all of those skills are great!

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 02:30 | 6142811 cornflakesdisease
cornflakesdisease's picture

The fact that you smoke pot tells me you can't deal with everyday stress.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 10:59 | 6143743 MASTER OF UNIVERSE
MASTER OF UNIVERSE's picture

When I was younger I drank to the point where I figured I had better avoid booze in life if I wanted to keep my drivers license and life. I have been smoking pot for over 40 years now and the only time I smoke pot for stress reasons is when I have a tooth ache. When stress hits my life I watch old classic movies until I am destressed. Moreover, I have an Honours BA in Experimental Psychology so when stress hits I am well versed in terms of dealing with it psychologically. I majored in Personality Theory/Clinical Psychology in University and was courted by the University of Hawaii Director of Clinical Psychology before I graduated. Suffice to say that I decided not to go to graduate school at the University of Hawaii because I would have owed way too much money to the Gubberment upon graduation. And I did not want to be stuck in the middle of the Pacific Ocean owing George W. Bush and the American Gubberment over $200,000.

 

Psychology has always been my main game in life.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 00:05 | 6142608 TheMeatTrapper
TheMeatTrapper's picture

"How many people, even on this site, grow their own food and know home remedies?How many could fix their own car or catch on as a day laborer laying bricks?  We've lost skills, experience, and knowledge that took mankind thousands of years to develop.  Dandelion wine, anyone?"

BINGO!

Growing food, trapping meat and building things requires knowledge, practical experience in your environment, tools and perseverance that takes years to acquire. 

http://meattrapper.com

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 10:32 | 6143641 cornflakesdisease
cornflakesdisease's picture

Your are large and erect.  Can we bow down to you?

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 03:44 | 6142856 Down to Earth T...
Down to Earth Thinking's picture

I can and do all of the above and much more in spades. l can probabaly kick your ass as well ?

 

Nww that is the only security, bar none. 

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 08:18 | 6143202 marathonman
marathonman's picture

No matter how much dressing you put on the dandelions they still taste like weeds.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 22:56 | 6142447 ZeroSense
ZeroSense's picture

We can still buy Gold and Silver right!

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:44 | 6141538 Haus-Targaryen
Haus-Targaryen's picture

This time will be different.  

Humanity will have a choice --

In one hand they can find socialism.  For the average low-information voter, the talking points are suprior to the alternative, and there is always a boogie-man -- "the rich." If humanity, after the next collapse, chooses socialism - its game over for for us -- for the next 80 years.

On the other hand, one can find freedom.  The ability for the common man to decide for himself.  The talking points are as good, but the end result is better.   

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 21:34 | 6142162 greenskeeper carl
greenskeeper carl's picture

hmmm. which one will they choose? The average person in the US and the world will make the worst imaginable choice, because they are fucking retarded. If they weren't, they wouldn't keep choosing these same dickless incompetents to lead them into their own demise. WE may know better, but the ignorant masses don't, and there are far more of them than there are of us. Our only hope is enough of them destroy each other quickly enough for the smarter of us to lay low for a while.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 22:51 | 6142430 TheReplacement
TheReplacement's picture

Every day it does not collapse is another day to enlighten someone and make a new ally.  Imagine if we could all do that and it didn't collapse for a few months or maybe a couple of years.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 02:01 | 6142783 Real Estate Geek
Thu, 05/28/2015 - 19:15 | 6141791 acetinker
acetinker's picture

+1 (it's all I've got) to a wo/man brave enough to post pure sarcasm without qualifying it so.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 22:13 | 6142294 emorybored
emorybored's picture

Credit Cards and the 2nd ammendments.

 

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 07:52 | 6143134 JRobby
JRobby's picture

You seem to be missing some crucial elements that will negate your credit line capacities. Better do all your shopping on line and hope the UPS truck does not get hijacked on the way to your stronghold........

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 16:38 | 6141302 TeamDepends
TeamDepends's picture

Shouldn't the Democrat (socialist) be holding up the Republican (yes, RINOs and Neocons are are no friends of free market capitalism).

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:08 | 6141404 Bobbo
Bobbo's picture

A war between sock-puppets.  Humorous, no doubt.  Addictively entertaining, it appears.  Quick, look over there: a snappy retort.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:11 | 6141414 TheABaum
TheABaum's picture

That's why Hayek addressed socialists of all parties.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 19:01 | 6141742 johnvallo
johnvallo's picture

I think it's only half of a graphic. I can imagine that there's a "Capitalism" cartoon as well. This whole article seems like it was patched together. 

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 04:41 | 6142892 Memedada
Memedada's picture

ZH is a farce when it comes to the ‘discussion’ of ideologies/political philosophy. When asked about the definition of socialism most refer to some obscure form of ‘statism’. Meaning all form of government = different forms of socialism. It’s obviously ignorant. The most centralized and all dominant states have been extreme right wing. Monarchies to begin with – an (most often) extremely centralized and all-encompassing state centered around a king/queen/ruling family. Their supporters (the feudal class) had the seats of the right side of the early parliaments (in UK, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, France etc.) and the bourgeois took the left side. There’s the origination of the terms right and left wing.

In today's world there has not been ONE political figure with any real political power in US who was a socialist. There has not been a political figure with influence WHO HAS NOT SERVED HIS/HER CORPORATE MASTERS. It’s a sick form of capitalism (the private ownership of the means of production – everything of real value is today owned by the 0,01%/the real ruling class of today), but it’s still capitalism. The pure (mythical) form of capitalism advocated by the mutated branch of libertarianism in US (mutated away from the libertarians around the world who are still – yes, read up on the history of libertarianism – left-wing) will end the same way. Resources, power and wealth will, over time, be – by the accumulative nature of capitalism – concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. The end game is what we see today.

Socialism is a term hated by mainstream US and at the same time a term they have no idea of what means (except from the idiocies they’ve heard from the abundant mass of right-wing pundits). We have fascism today. And no, fascism/Nazism is not a branch of socialism. The socialists (+ communists and anarchists) made up the absolute majority of the resistance movements in Europe during WWII. And they were summarily sent to gas champers together with the rest of the left-wing.

You can easily be a capitalist (supporting the private ownership of the means of production) and hand out peanuts to the masses (buying off civil unrest). That’s the “Democrats”. Name me a ‘socialist’ policy pursued in US? + the “TINA” ‘Iron Lady’ in the article is one of the prime masterminds behind the financialzation of the economy (=the acceleration of the Ponzi Scheme). She’s a major thief of other people money – or more correctly: she have contributed in the ‘destruction of other peoples ‘money’’ but supporting the rise of the ‘fiat Ponzi regime’.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 04:53 | 6142898 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

+1 but that "farce", that "ignorance" was carefully cultivated, in the US

on the gentler side, it's the famous American skepsis versus ideologies as such. on the harder side, it's the duopoly of Party Power that does not like ideology to be... clearer

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 05:20 | 6142910 Counterpunch
Counterpunch's picture

"The most centralized and all dominant states have been extreme right wing."

 

The Bolsheviks and Maoists were extreme right wing?

The NAZIs absolutely started out as socialists.

The issue isn't left/right, which is by this point in history academic, but the tendency toward totalitarianism - the extreme form of statism.

If 'socialism' is poorly understood it's largely because the word itself is not well-defined. It's actually an umbrella term within which there are polar divides - statist socialism versus libertarian socialism, for one.

And if someone tells you they are a 'libertarian socialist' you still need a lot more information to know much about what they mean

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_socialism

You just know they tend to reject expansive state control.

 

The historical tension, at least, granted, as I see it, isn't really between left and right, but between totalitarianism and liberty.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 05:56 | 6142949 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

Counterpunch, one little thing: totalitarianism has many faces, and not all of them are "statist", not in the usual sense of it

liberal totalitarianism, for example, could be seen in the original "Tragedy of The Commons" in England.

The "socialist" medieval "institution" of common land, that provided sustenance to the rural poor for generations

it had to go. it had to be privatized. and the rural poor? well, wait until they steal an apple because they are hungry. then put them in front of a magistrate that happens to be the new landlord of those privatized lands, and watch them be forcibly shipped to Australia

very, very little "statism" in that, and a lot of liberal and capitalistic extremism in it. as in the "Private Prison System" excesses in the US, where the private prison business puts money into the elections of judges that "will be hard on crime"

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 09:04 | 6143324 Bryan
Bryan's picture

Definition and redefinition of terminology doesn't make the reality any less real.  We're on a slippery slope of societal decay and there's no stopping it.  It happens every time some group has a bright new idea for how to make a country.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 16:37 | 6141289 Burticus
Burticus's picture

Mr. Armstrong's Economic Confidence Model has been pointing at 2015.75 for years.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 16:56 | 6141370 Temporalist
Temporalist's picture

My model is Steve Liesman...he's perfect.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:20 | 6141443 Divine Wind
Divine Wind's picture

 

 

 

My model is Jesus Christ. HE is perfect.

(sorry, could not resist :) )

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:31 | 6141489 Temporalist
Temporalist's picture

Mine was funnier

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 18:31 | 6141666 wendigo
wendigo's picture

What does 2015.75 mean anyway? Third quarter of 2015? 

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 20:20 | 6141949 acetinker
acetinker's picture

Yes, that's what he means.  It will begin though, on or about September 13, which is also Elul 29.  You thought the greek debt was bad?

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 21:04 | 6142080 Shock and Awe (not verified)
Shock and Awe's picture

Should I bee afraid? Should I buy coins to assure my safe transition into the new world?

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 22:53 | 6142435 TheReplacement
TheReplacement's picture

No.  Someone like you should be all in to government bonds.  Support your team and all that.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 05:46 | 6142939 Arnold
Arnold's picture

Coins for Charon are always the right thing.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 22:03 | 6145913 acetinker
acetinker's picture

No.  You should build a pyramid, and place a golden boat inside so you can ply the heavens forever and ever.  Get busy.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 10:14 | 6143584 FrankDrakman
FrankDrakman's picture

For those of us with no idea, what is Elul 29, and what significance does it hold?

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 22:39 | 6145985 acetinker
acetinker's picture

Man! You ask an honest question, and I have ignored you for far too long! I am sorry!

Elul 29 marks the end/beginning of the Shemitah of the old Hebrew calendar.  It's kinda like the Mayan calendar, but different.

The ancient Hebrew Law dictated that debt be wiped clean every seven years, they called it Shemitah.

So, if you were a borrower, you knew you'd be good-to-go in a relatively short period, and if you were a lender, you'd be a damn fool to lend outside the Shemitah.

However, despite the destruction of debt, the society grew, because it was allowed to create new credit immedately, without the encumbrance of generational debt that we have today.

Elul 29 occurs on our calendar as September 13, in this year.

 

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 23:03 | 6146039 acetinker
acetinker's picture

Wait, I mis-stated that, Shemitahs occur every seven years, but only the seventh Shemitah of each cycle resulted in a renunciaton of debt.

Even so, we're way past overdue.

Anybody know Jonathon Cahn?

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&...

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 23:37 | 6142547 skepsis101
skepsis101's picture

Thursday, October 1st, 2015, to be exact!

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 20:40 | 6142019 Debt-Is-Not-Money
Debt-Is-Not-Money's picture

"My model is Steve Liesman...he's perfect."

A perfect what?

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 19:37 | 6141851 acetinker
acetinker's picture

He's aiming at the seventh shemitah.  However, the last big shitshow (1929) didn't happen 'til four years after the most recent seventh shemitah.  The bankers have certainly gotten more creative, and Jesus is nowhere in sight, since well before then.

People keep investing their future in the markets instead of their own progeny, and wonder why the world has turned to shit.

There is wisdom in the old books, and by the magic of edition, most of it is severely corrupted.

Be well, Burticus!

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 22:54 | 6142439 willwork4food
willwork4food's picture

and Jesus is nowhere in sight,

I would not bet on that.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 00:30 | 6142664 Savyindallas
Savyindallas's picture

"my Kingdom is not of this world"   - it appears he meant it and the forces of Lucifer reign here on Earth. I am hoping that I am proven wrong. I hate to see the bad guys always win. 

Sun, 05/31/2015 - 23:27 | 6150831 acetinker
acetinker's picture

I really don't think there will be a 'second coming'.  To tell ya' the truth, I'm not all that sure that God ever visited this world.

But if He did, and died on a cross in a symbolic waste of human Godliness- what is the result?

Remember that even God [the Bible] said that this world is given over to Lucifer.

Know, always that that which is given to you has a price tag.  You won't see it, because the price tag itself, is never revealed.

I like you Savvy, even though it should be two a's and one v.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 22:55 | 6142442 TheReplacement
TheReplacement's picture

Have the bankers really gotten more creative or did the free market capitalists willingly sell them the computers and technology by which they will be hanged?

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 23:06 | 6142475 Crawdaddy
Crawdaddy's picture

For new peeps, a source checking observation:
Martin Armstr0ng was the gopher boy for Brit Neocon Sir Alan Walters. Armstr0ng's mentor was a card carrying member of the NWO. Walters is dead now but when he was alive this is how Walters spent his time:

> Monetarist econ advisor to Margaret Thatcher
> Adviser to the World Bank
> Vice Chairman of AIG Trading Group
> American Enterprise Institute

AEI, you may have heard, is the HQ for the NeoCon NWO Goat Worshipers who are responsible for damn near every bad thing happening in the world right now.

PNAC! Just google PNAC.

Armstr0ng's writings show he is trying to keep that NWO flame alive, doing his part by highlighting one side of a manufactured conflict. A manufactured conflict brought to you by his handlers in NeoCon central - the American Enterprise Instute. They have spent years pushing their Hegelian dialectic, order out of chaos game plan.

The AEI are but one of many globalists orgs working to destroy anything that stand in the way of NWO.

Armstr0ng is one their pets. He may have arrived at this point against his will, via bribery, coercion etc, leveraging his trouble with the law. The outcome is he is neocon pet and therefore a professional shit disturber.

Over the past many years he is portrayed as a"voice of knowledge" on this site (and others). He typically posts five paragraphs and a few pics for impact.

Caveat emptor amigos.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 00:31 | 6142667 Confused
Confused's picture

No shortage of Armstrong history at this site. Correct me if I am wrong, perhaps I am confusing individuals with the same name. Didnt he also spend time in Jail, and have an attempt on his life? 

Not to say his word should be trusted. But anything, even if it is in direct opposition to what you or I believe, is a chance to learn something. Even if it is to ignore an individual. 

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 02:31 | 6142812 cornflakesdisease
cornflakesdisease's picture

You mean Martin "precious metals and the stockmarket are not manipulated" Armstrong?

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 16:38 | 6141303 City_Of_Champyinz
City_Of_Champyinz's picture

The goal of socialism is communism.
-- Vladimir Lenin

Karl Marx was a total failure who refused to bathe, blew not one but TWO inheritances, and lived with his mom for most of his life.  Why anyone has listened to what this blowhard fool has said is beyond me...

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 16:52 | 6141346 TeamDepends
TeamDepends's picture

Lenin was MUMMIFIED. Communism is a religion where the oligarchs are god and the rest of us serfs, no middle class.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 16:57 | 6141376 Implied Violins
Implied Violins's picture

The current batch of oligarchs won't present such a beautiful corpse for posterity as Vlad, methinks...pretty hard to hide stretch marks.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:41 | 6141528 SoilMyselfRotten
SoilMyselfRotten's picture

Who needs communism, we're probably one event from full blown fascism.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 18:01 | 6141588 Amish Hacker
Amish Hacker's picture

"We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us."

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:06 | 6141399 Bobbo
Bobbo's picture

Q:  Is it the same in China today?

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 16:52 | 6141350 Captain Debtcrash
Captain Debtcrash's picture

Socialism is just a mix of capitalism and communism.  While there are other variables all else being equal the closer to capitalism the more prosperous a socialist society will be and the closer to communism the more of a wreck it will be. 

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 19:05 | 6141752 malek
malek's picture

Sorry, but that's just bullshit.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 21:45 | 6142199 artless
artless's picture

Thanks, Malek you saved me having to write that.

 

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 21:29 | 6142143 lasvegaspersona
lasvegaspersona's picture

Socialism is another term for communism. After the cold war we were allowed to talk about the commies but the brand was ruined. Even socialism got tarnished so now they call it 'progressive'. Anything that involves taking other peoples hard earned wealth is  the same shit. The name does not matter. Those who can't/won't support themselves love it.

'Eat the Rich' is their motto...every one except them is rich btw.

Envy is the theme song.

Politicians are the vehicle they use to get there...and the politicians know ultimately THEY will be the big winners.

It all sux and soon those who depend upon it will die.

Marx was wrong at the very heart of his writing...  http://fofoa.blogspot.com/2010/07/debtors-and-savers.html

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 05:13 | 6142899 Memedada
Memedada's picture

You are wrong. All forms of capitalism (even the most ‘free’ as practiced in a few third world countries) involve some form of taxation/redistribution. Often from the bottom and up (as practiced in US). Socialism is a term that describes an alternative to a capitalist economy. The defining difference being who owns the means of production. In US (and the rest of the world) EVERYTHING OF PRODUCTIVE VALUE is owned by a tiny minority (the 0,01%). In other words, we have an extreme form of hypercapitalism today. Free markets is not a prerequisite for capitalism – it’s an argument for a more productive form of capitalism. You can easily have capitalist societies with huge states and monopolies in several branches of the economy. The question is (defining which ideology is dominant) who owns the sh*t? Who gets the profit/surplus production?

 

Qui bono in todays political landscape? The owners of the whole circus. It’s fascism – a capitalist ideology where the state is set to service the ownership class and at the same time praise the ‘strong leader’ (and kick downwards on the immigrants, unemployed, mentally ill etc. etc.). That’s USA. Nothing socialist about that.  

 

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:09 | 6141408 TheABaum
TheABaum's picture

When his hygiene caused him to get "boils", he blamed nefarious forces.

When he impregnated his housekeeper, he made her leave the kid out to die.

He talked about work his whole life and did nothing.

His grave should be a public lavatory.

 

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 21:43 | 6142191 Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill's picture

I frequently urinated on his mausoleum, on the way back from the pub, when

I lived in Highgate.

Funny watching the busloads of soviet Russians and Chinese visiting it back then.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 15:52 | 6144826 MASTER OF UNIVERSE
MASTER OF UNIVERSE's picture

I Remote Viewed you pissing on that mausoleum well over a decade ago I figure. Pub crawling in Highgate sounds like a gas in and of itself. It reminded me of my drinking days. You are a lucky bastard to be able to Pub crawl in London.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:31 | 6141485 Westcoastliberal
Westcoastliberal's picture

Hmmm. Sounds a lot like Larry Summers.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 16:40 | 6141313 Oh regional Indian
Oh regional Indian's picture

Martin is right. This is the generational collapse happening right in front of our eyes...

https://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2010/06/18/of-tipping-points-and-shape-...

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 21:33 | 6142161 Shock and Awe (not verified)
Fri, 05/29/2015 - 09:25 | 6143401 Jack Ryan_00
Jack Ryan_00's picture

Interesting from Armstrong - Use dollars to hoard and gold coins.

http://armstrongeconomics.com/archives/31060

How to Survive a Banking Crisis...

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 09:27 | 6143402 Jack Ryan_00
Jack Ryan_00's picture

.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 16:50 | 6141342 q99x2
q99x2's picture

Nice image. I'm not for socialism. I'm for taking anyone with more than 10,000,000 to the pyramids for sacrifice and eliminating corporations completely, and eliminating government by humans completely. Radical no; not unless surviving is radical.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:00 | 6141386 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

What has Marty Armstrong Done to Clean up his Industry?

Bankers, Lawyers, Politicians, Lobbyist they are all Self Regulating and look at the millions of pages of laws & Tax Rules they have created.

Simplify, Streamline, Standardize.

Courts would go to Guidelines, Benchmarks to move cases forward without providing advantages for Wealthy who can hire huge legal teams and tie up cases till the other party runs out of money.

Sumerians carved the Law into stone. Harder for lawyers to change the law that way.

Hey Martin Armstrong!

You think your Industry doesn't stink with Accounting Control fraud?

Your Industry is Self Regulated and it has Trashed USA Beyond Repair.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 19:08 | 6141761 bombdog
bombdog's picture

You think your Industry doesn't stink with Accounting Control fraud?

Why do you even bother turing up here and posting? You just don't like what he says about socialism and it hurts you and I get that, but please, get a fucking clue.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 01:20 | 6142745 Bay of Pigs
Bay of Pigs's picture

You can fuck off you clueless prick.

MA was going on how great his fund was just the day here....and yet who was he managing his fund for?

None other than the fraud ridden and totally corrupted Deutsche Bank.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 04:03 | 6142870 bombdog
bombdog's picture

+1 You're right, I was out of order.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 23:15 | 6142498 Crawdaddy
Crawdaddy's picture

Marty is a tool of the mafia gang that controls all this nonsense. He is busy pushing out click bait  doom porn articles to keep his bills paid. As he stands now, he is a man with no honor.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 02:34 | 6142813 cornflakesdisease
cornflakesdisease's picture

Armstrong is Dollar, Inc. shill.  Funny he didn't frequent this side of the table before the boys threw him out in the cold.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:26 | 6141469 Freedom In Your...
Freedom In Your Lifetime's picture

Pretty sure their are plenty of people with >$10 million that earned the money honestly via producing actual goods or services without relying on force to make people purchase those goods or services.

Up that threshold to about $500 million or more and I'd suspect the vast majority would be psychopathic parasites.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 19:51 | 6141887 dark_matter
dark_matter's picture

$500M is a good number. That let's Mitt Romney off the hook.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 16:53 | 6141356 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

Lawyers are Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO) just like Banks.

TPP is full of Self-Regulatory Organizations.

I think people should start thinking about this.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 16:55 | 6141364 Occams_Chainsaw
Occams_Chainsaw's picture

TPP will be the final blow.  The oligarchs have been slowly draining everything away and are now ready to deliver the 'money shot'.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 16:54 | 6141361 Temporalist
Temporalist's picture

This sounds like the story:

How to catch wild pigs

http://www.crossroad.to/Victory/stories/wild-pigs.htm

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 16:56 | 6141372 crashguru
crashguru's picture

Is he calling the distribution from the bottom 50%  to the top 5% socialism or what is he talking about?

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:05 | 6141395 Temporalist
Temporalist's picture

Well bailing out banks and industries by the govt is.  Those who benefit is actually cronyism and that is in every system.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 05:18 | 6142908 Memedada
Memedada's picture

And why is that 'socalism'?

Who’s the ‘socialist thinker’ who advocates a financial capitalist Ponzi Scheme? Who are the ‘socialists’ who argues that when the manufactured bubbles bursts the financier class should be bailed out?

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 16:58 | 6141377 who cares
who cares's picture

So we are now a little bit confused. The last time the government saved the big crooks who claimed to be the capitalists, and made them richer and all the rest poorer. Next the government will have to save them again, when this new big bubble burst again, and probably make them infinetely rich and the rest will probably starve. But the fault of all this will of the old asnd sick people who need social security and medicare just to survive. Figure!!!

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:10 | 6141403 flysofree
flysofree's picture

It's a perfect Thatcher world, everyone can get rich from asset appreciation especially housing. Who needs mining, steel industry etc when all the government needs to do is to offer housing tax subsidies instead of spending tax dollars on National Health Care System.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:02 | 6141391 MASTER OF UNIVERSE
MASTER OF UNIVERSE's picture

Martin Armstrong conveniently neglects to mention that Margaret 'the milk thief' Thatcher, and Ronald 'Mr. Deregulation' Reagan conspired to bring down the USSR through their newfound 'financialization' Ponzi scheme cooked up by The Committee to Ruin the World. In brief, Martin Armstrong is an establishment whore attempting to give everyone on Z/H a handjob of propaganda that somehow all this TBTF business is somehow to be pinned on Gordon 'the dimwit Limey' Brown and all those spineless Limey types in the UK that forgot what real work was like right after the Second World War. Moreover, I am a Grumpy Marxist and take umbrage at Armstrong's naïve whoremongering ways.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:06 | 6141397 TheABaum
TheABaum's picture

"a Grumpy Marxist"

Translation: A misanthropic menace.  

 

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:54 | 6141564 MASTER OF UNIVERSE
MASTER OF UNIVERSE's picture

Close, but no cigar, TheABaum. America has cornered the market in being misanthropic towards everyone but the 1% classless kleptocratic Corporatist class. This Corporatist class is the true menace to all in the World because they are not adhering to human principles when they fully advocate for the Corporation which is not a human being. Countering American Hegemony and the fascism of Corporatism is not misanthropic. Furthermore, someone has to do it or imbeciles like Martin Armstrong will get away with murder and remain as undetected shills for Corporatists and the Casino Capitalism Cartel of Collusion collectively known as the Mafia. Whores like Armstrong must be outed IMHO.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 19:00 | 6141740 bombdog
bombdog's picture

I don't particularly like his style, but this is one of his better articles. If you stop trying to out people for not adhereing to your narrow world view, you may actually get a clue, learn something new. I'm not holding my breath though.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 21:56 | 6142231 artless
artless's picture

That is because The US is a fascist state and has been for all our lives. What is practised here in terms of an economic system is not any remotely to be considered capitalism and anyone who thinks it is can be lanled properly a complere fucking moron.

Free markets are just the logical extension of LIBERTY. So you are a "grumpy marxist". Good for you. All that shows me is that you are fucking moron at best and a potential threat to my liberty, my property, and my person at worst should you actually ACT on your socialist wet dream and TAKE BY FORCE either by proxy (government) or by your own doing WHAT IS MINE.

And in such a case you and everyone else who believes in the crap spewed by any of the collectivists are lucky that you are not shot in the face because such an action would mearly be self-defense.

Your welcome.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 16:18 | 6144943 MASTER OF UNIVERSE
MASTER OF UNIVERSE's picture

Wall Street's ethos is kill, or be killed. This means that Wall Street would kill myself and the other 99% unless we defend ourselves against their ethos over the long run of time. If we the people choose to take it up the wazzzzooooo we stand to be killed by inflation brought upon us by individuals that are constantly colluding on schemes to take our livelihoods, food from our mouths, heat for our homes, pension contributions, et cetera. As if the motherfuckers on Wall Street are benevolent, eh, Artless. Self-defense works both ways, Artless. Moreover, the Corporation of the United States of America is insolvent and about to start genocide of the American population. When that manifests, and is obvious to Americans that are part of the 99% that are being rounded up for detention and killed, what will you think of your government then? Will you align with them to kill the 99% of Americans that they want to kill?

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 19:57 | 6141878 dark_matter
dark_matter's picture

"Can you imagine the damage to society if they had actually intended this mess?"

I think what Martin misses is that all is going according to plan. He talks as if TPTB are going to wake up one morning and say "Whoops, we over did it and destroyed the middle class". He calls the architects of the plan "clowns". Well maybe but we're talking It, not Bozo.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 21:07 | 6142086 tarabel
tarabel's picture

 

 

Well, if what you aver is true, hats off to Maggie and Ron for getting rid of the Soviet Union without triggering a nuclear exchange.

Oh, and didn't Karl Marx die as something other than a "Marxist"?

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 22:06 | 6142265 mortem-tyrannus
mortem-tyrannus's picture

Grumpy Marxist my unwashed hairy ass. You sir, are self evidently an ignorant cunt.

Fri, 05/29/2015 - 02:38 | 6142816 cornflakesdisease
cornflakesdisease's picture

Thanks and well put.  Sorry but Armstrong gives a lot of half truths too.  I don't even consider anything by anyone that has a truth to lie ratio in there comments.  I have personally spoken to the guy and he told me adimently there was no market manipulation, there are no globalist boys pulling the strings, etc.  He's a shill and a hack on par with Jeffrey Christain.  It pains me that zerohedge posts his garbage here.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:04 | 6141392 Bobbo
Bobbo's picture

Hm.  Socialisn v Capitalism?  Dunno about that. 

More likely because of the advent of the privately owned super-bank.  Super-bank super-power.  Super-bank super-corruption.

In olden times it might not have been bank power, it might have been owner-power, king-power, thug-power, emperor-power, and so on.  On another day, perhaps actually happening today in conflict with the privately owned banks, it might be a bureaucracy technical-power fueled on a big black budget, completely capable of interfering with any form of technology we can imagine--but, SWIFT in particular! 

It is not impossible that there are other things happening.  But I think there is not only overt war in the world, and semi-covert war of owner against population, but another one between privately owned super-bank and rogue-"Operations" (guess who) super-bureaucracy.  Bank against tech.  We are caught in the middle.

By the way, Bureaucracy, if you do not grasp the meaning, is another word for Fascism: that bundle of twigs with the battle axe in it.  And, ... who might that be?

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 18:14 | 6141619 AnonG-Man
Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:04 | 6141396 silverer
silverer's picture

New plan: no college.  Instead, a dowry for a foreign born person for your kid.  Have your kid marry them, get that other passport, and your kid can start a new life off the sinking ship of USA, instead of bartending for the rest of their life.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:09 | 6141407 Oscar Mayer
Oscar Mayer's picture

On the Push to Ban Cash:

The Ban on Cash - Part II

Banks are, by far, the largest debtors on the planet, that's why they are pushing to ban cash, ban the money they owe.

They've done this before, when they got into debt they couldn't pay, they had the money banned, it was gold.

 

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:19 | 6141437 TexasDan40
TexasDan40's picture

Is there any way to protect my 401K that is held by my employer?

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:37 | 6141510 BandGap
BandGap's picture

Nope. I think the best you can do is borrow against it with the stipulation you pay it back incrementally.

Years ago I had personal IRAs from old employer (401K) rollover plans. Cashed out of the IRAs a few years ago at significant expense (taxes and penalties).

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 19:02 | 6141744 Farmer Joe in B...
Farmer Joe in Brooklyn's picture

I just quit my job recently, in large part to take my chips off the table and invest in more durable goods (solar panels, a well, pm's, beans, and bullets).

The taxes and fees are a bitch  (~50%). But as a 37yo, it is almost certain to get wiped out or confiscated within the next 5 years...never mind waiting until I'm 65.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 22:01 | 6142246 artless
artless's picture

Oh shit please tell me that your question just lacks a /sarc tag.

Dude, I do actually feel for you.

Sort of.

I would plan for it to be worthless and for the potential to wake up one day realising that all that money they took out of all your checks all those years with the enticing promise of matching funds and exponential gains is gone.

Just sayin'

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:20 | 6141444 Wahooo
Wahooo's picture

If socialism collapses, then the family will return to its role at the center. That's a great thing.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 18:57 | 6141734 Farmer Joe in B...
Farmer Joe in Brooklyn's picture

I strongly suggest rallying around your family now, before the collapse. They may be all you have.

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 21:33 | 6142158 Johnny Websters
Johnny Websters's picture

Not after the UN steps in to "save" everyone. Soros, Rothschild, Kissinger etc have been planning this for a long time. Have you read Brave New World? 

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:20 | 6141446 fremannx
fremannx's picture

"Government is now on the hook, which is part of the reason why they are moving to eliminate cash to prevent bank runs and to force society to comply with their demands."

The "War on Cash" was begin in Cyprus. Now it has spread to Greece and soon coming to a country near you...

http://www.globaldeflationnews.com/more-proof-that-central-banks-have-de...


Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:32 | 6141454 falak pema
falak pema's picture

The problem with Oligarchy capitalism is that you run out of people to rob.

Europe now facing the bigger threat of Brexit : 

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/28/france-warns-of-dangerou...

Grexit is gonna take back stage to this challenge.

When the thieves of Oligarchy world fall out who cares about the homeless. This is war between Anglosaxon capitalism and Rhenan Capitalism to which France is now attached by the banker's rope.

Martin Armstrong sure barks the same song of "don't touch the banks" they are our future ! Save them and bleed the people through austerity.

Thatcher...hahahaha...as icon. Citizen Kane's Xanadu legacy.

We are running out of people's money because SHE gave it to the bankers all pumping WS on debt.

Imagine pulling Marx out from the naphthalene smelling cupboard! After Keynes's ghost we get Marx.

What happened to those who CREATED this mess? The Banks and Paulson and Greenspan? Memory lapse?

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!