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.

NY Fed’s John Williams believes the CPI data was distorted downward. Williams stated that the economic data blackout caused by the government shutdown caused CPI figures to appear lower than reality.

“There were some special factors or practical factors that really are related to the fact that they weren’t able to collect data in October and not in the first half of November. And because of that, I think the data were distorted in some of the categories, and that pushed down the CPI reading, probably by a tenth or so,” Williams told reporters at CNBC. “It’s hard to know, we’ll get some when we’ll get to December data, I think we’ll get a better reading of how much that distortion, how big the effect was, but I do think that that was pushed down a bit by these technical factors,” he added.

CPI rose at 2.7% on an annualized basis last month, according to the delayed data produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The data was collected during the second half of November when sales were prevalent. The October CPI release was not officially compiled but they provided a rough estimate based on “non survey data sources.” Obviously, it is not possible to compare November to October when the data is simply not there.

Williams has admitted what I warned all along—we cannot trust the numbers provided by the government. Yet, these numbers are used to create monetary policy despite obvious discrepancies. Williams voted in favor of a cut in December but does not feel an “urgent need” to continue easing.

Monetary authorities are trying to manage an economy they cannot measure properly. They are balancing a weakening labor market against inflation readings that they themselves confess may be inaccurate.

Those nets aren’t for leaves ?pic.twitter.com/RndbeWYhQb

— Curiosity (@MAstronomers) December 10, 2025

Our parents and grandparents once ran to bomb shelters to save themselves from enemy fire. In modern warfare, the people are most concerned about drones infiltrating civilian airspace. Netting can be seen across Ukraine that looks akin to bird netting, but it holds a more sinister purpose—protecting civilians from drone strikes.

Industrial mesh covers key roads and bridges to form tunnels capable of blocking small drones. The fishing nets are precisely that—fishermen from Sweden and France have donated hundreds of tons of used netting to Ukraine. Instead of catching deep sea monkfish, these horsehair fishing nets are attempting to counter the 500 daily drone attacks occurring across Ukraine.

“At first they were used by doctors protecting medical camps near the frontline but now they are being used on roads, bridges, the entrances to hospitals… it’s astonishing that something so simple works so well,” one charity noted. Ukrainian troops are also attempting to drop this netting on Russian drones mid-air.

Russia has employed similar anti-drone measures. A true grassroots countermeasure proved to be free. This simple technology has never been utilized before, as we are witnessing the dawn of drone warfare and the emerging solutions to combat the destruction.

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong, I understand the previous Japanese government did to you with the letter asking to confirm $10 billion when it was $1 billion and they never explained how they could make such a mistake. Here in Japan, we are still struggling as you had warned would be the case with the collapse of the bubble economy 36 years ago. The recently elected Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has proposed an ambitious 21 trillion yen ($135 billion) spending program that puts new stresses on already heavily overdrawn government coffers. Would you ever consider coming to Japan to advise the new government?

TK

ANSWER: Thank you for the offer, but I do not believe that the new government would want to hear anything I had to say. The plan fulfills Takaichi’s campaign promise to bring yet another “proactive fiscal policy” that she thinks would bring Japan out of its long economic decline since the collapse of the bubble economy back in 1989. She is tackling a new approach to spend with the intention to help people cope with higher prices through various subsidies rather than taking more painful steps to control inflation itself, which has failed. When inflation is caused globally that began with the lockdowns of COVID instigating shortages, no single country can defeat inflation that is not caused domestically alone.

Next year will be critical for Japan. This will be our long-term target object – 43 years from the 1989 peak. Japan is the textbook case of how aggressively targeting inflation can fail when CONFIDENCE, demographics, and debt dynamics overwhelm monetary tools. Those who create these theoretical economic solutions assume they can manipulate people and never grasp that the core issue remains CONFIDENCE. People must believe that there is a future. Until the government understands that, it will fail continually. This is why some academics hate my guts because the reality is that their schemes to manipulate society fail and they prefer to blame others for their failed theories.

In 2013, under Abenomics, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) formally adopted a 2% inflation target. Inflation never reached that level because there was no CONFIDENCE in the future. People hoarded their cash and did not spend. Households and firms did not believe inflation would last.

Massive QE beginning in the early 2000s, expanded after 2013. The BoJ balance sheet grew to over 130% of GDP (largest in the world). Money did not circulate. Banks parked liquidity back at the BoJ or bought JGBs. Corporations hoarded cash instead of investing except for US Treasuries and the hoard resulted in the collapse of the Velocity of money.

You can print money, but you cannot force CONFIDENCE or risk-taking when the people are uncertain about the future. People MUST have CONFIDENCE in the future. Failing that, they will hoard money and refuse to invest. This is well established even with all the hoards of Roman coins from the 3rd Century AD. This is why there are many Roman coins that have survived because people burred their cash during the 3rd century when the CONFIDENCE in Rome surviving collapsed especially after Emperor Valerian I was captured in battle by the Persians exposing the weakness of Rome.

From 2016 onward, the BoJ capped the 10-year JGB yield near zero. Bond market liquidity evaporated. Investors exited the market entirely. Because of the rising debt, stimulus spending was offset by future tax fears. The people did not trust the FUTURE!

Japan is a mess. The academics have been totally wrong and Japan is on the edge of default. I do not think I can solve the problems of Japan with just one meeting. This is a very complex crisis compounded by so many mistakes it will take a serious reset. I do not believe that it can be turned until they come to realize that their theories are just wrong and that typically necessitates the crash. The academics rejected Keynes until after the Great Depression when all their previous theories failed. Unfortunately, the same will be true with the ECM. They will cling to Keynesianism until it all comes crashing down.

What politicians and academic economists refuse to look at, is that it is impossible to create social justice without the loss of individual liberty and economic efficiency. Just look at communism and the slow decay of Europe as the EU tries to create social justice at the expense of everything else. They confound civil rights and equality with material equality and that has failed every single time.

Merry Christmas to everyone around the world.

Christmas is a reminder that history does not move in straight lines. It moves in cycles. Every civilization has faced moments where confidence was tested, institutions were stretched beyond their limits, and the public was told to trust systems that were clearly no longer working as intended. Those moments always separate illusion from reality.

The Economic Confidence Model has always shown that turning points are inevitable. Declines do not last forever, nor do booms. Christmas arrives regardless of markets, wars, or political agendas. That alone should tell us something important about resilience.

I wish you peace, clarity, and the confidence to think independently in the year ahead.

Merry Christmas!

— Martin Armstrong and the Armstrong Economics team

PRIVATE BLOG – Beware the Illusion of Peace in Europe

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

https://ask-socrates.com/

Donald Trump signed an executive order allowing most federal employees to take time off on Christmas Eve and December 26. “All executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government shall be closed and their employees excused from duty on Wednesday, December 24, 2025, and Friday, December 26, 2025, the day before and the day following Christmas Day, respectively,” the order stated.

As for the markets, the NYSE and NASDAQ will close at 1 PM ET on Christmas Eve, which is the usual cadence when the holiday falls on a weekday. December 25 and January 1 are full stock market holidays, and if they fall on a weekend, the following day is considered a market holiday.

The US markets partially close for Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. This ensures that the US can align with other international financial centers that remain open or operate on restricted hours. It also balances traders’ desire to wind down for the holidays while maintaining liquidity and price discovery for year-end trades.

The president cannot directly order the NYSE or NASDAQ to close unless there is a national emergency, as we saw during 9/11. The exchanges set their own market holidays.

NYSE full-day market holidays in 2026:

• Thursday, January 1, 2026 – New Year’s Day (observed)​
• Monday, January 19, 2026 – Martin Luther King Jr. Day​
• Monday, February 16, 2026 – Presidents’ Day (Washington’s Birthday)​
• Friday, April 3, 2026 – Good Friday​
• Monday, May 25, 2026 – Memorial Day​
• Friday, June 19, 2026 – Juneteenth National Independence Day​
• Friday, July 3, 2026 – Independence Day (observed, since July 4 is Saturday)​
• Monday, September 7, 2026 – Labor Day​
• Thursday, November 26, 2026 – Thanksgiving Day​
• Friday, December 25, 2026 – Christmas Day

NYSE early closings in 2026

• Friday, November 27, 2026 – Day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday): early close at 1:00 p.m. Eastern (1:15 p.m. for eligible options)
• Thursday, December 24, 2026 – Christmas Eve: early close at 1:00 p.m. Eastern (1:15 p.m. for eligible options)