QUESTION:  Dear Martin, If the Fed KNOWS that raising rates will cause a problem (to say the least) for 1) Bond Market 2) rates on reserves 3) Debt interest 4) sluggish US economy with numbers turning down now then why should they raise rates just because capital flows are coming here and pushing up stocks? Why […]

  The degree of crisis that we are now moving into is just off the charts. The G20 finance ministers have urged the Federal Reserve to “minimize negative spillovers” from potential interest-rate increases. With the collapse of the Swiss/Euro Peg, they have been stunned into the realization of cross-currency borrowing. For decades, bankers have been […]

The International Monetary Fund has been forced to change the calculation of its most important interest rate after aggressive monetary easing around the world threatened to turn it negative. Late on Friday, the IMF said it is introducing a floor of 0.05 percent for the interest rate on Special Drawing Rights, its own form of […]

  Part of the real financial crisis from the central bank perspective is that they have been trapped by the excessively low-interest rates that in reality has disarmed them from even trying to steer the economy. The bid on long-term rates has been strong over the last decade thanks to retirement plans. People have been […]

The head of the Bank of England, Mark Carney delivered a speech at the “Lord Mayor’s Banquet” in London’s financial district with the surprise announcement of an interest rate reversal. United Kingdom This is a departure from the policy of the ECB. Primarily, the British economy was saved by staying out of the Euro. The significant […]

What the ECB has done is the first time a central bank has gone NEGATIVE to try to force people to spend. There have been NEGATIVE interest rates in a quasi situation with attempts to support a currency peg. This has been the case in Denmark. We also saw rates collapse in Switzerland when the […]

QUESTION: Will you have to change your/Socrates opinion due to this extraordinary step? I please you to give as an idea, as Socrates seems to be currently not updated. ANSWER: We actually have a very comprehensive interest rate database. Above is a picture of world interest rates but based upon capital concentration back to 3000BC. That […]

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong – Is today (June 5th 2014) the first time in history that negative interest rates have been imposed by a central bank (or similar authority)? I don’t recall from your writings.  I know that you’ve written that the current student debt situation has never been encountered before. I have a feeling that today […]

  We have been getting a lot of emails asking if we will provide a manual and what exactly will be included in the various stages. We have so much work to do with front-end delivery systems besides trying to get four books out this year. So to say I have a full plate is […]

by Plato Translated by Benjamin Jowett   Socrates’ Defense How you have felt, O men of Athens, at hearing the speeches of my accusers, I cannot tell; but I know that their persuasive words almost made me forget who I was – such was the effect of them; and yet they have hardly spoken a […]