The Federal Reserve, market cycles, gold, concentration risk, and retirement strategy — written for people who want to understand the world as it is, not as we wish it to be.
Rumors have swirled that the Federal Reserve is quietly supporting large financial institutions — including claims that JPMorgan needed backstops because of positions in silver. Martin Armstrong argues the real drivers are far broader: systemic dollar funding pressures in repo and FX swap markets.
Without addressing the root causes of inflation — fiat money and fiscal imbalance — no political leader can meaningfully improve affordability. Short-term tweaks and optics fail to reverse broad price trends.
Milton Friedman insisted on asking uncomfortable questions, starting with a simple reality: government does not spend its own money. Every dollar comes from taxpayers, borrowing, or newly created money — and once that truth is forgotten, spending expands without restraint.
One in four unemployed Americans now holds a college degree — a sign of structural change in the labor market. The white-collar jobs that anchored the American middle class are being reshaped faster than many realize.
The middle class is cracking not because of one statistic, but because the foundations of a stable middle-class life have weakened. Middle-class status is no longer about salary — it's about owning assets that survive inflation, market cycles, and shocks.
Strip away the jargon and the Fed's primary function is surprisingly simple: the government issues debt, the Federal Reserve buys the excess, and new money is created in the process. That cycle explains why inflation is not an accident — it is the design.
Every new statement from Federal Reserve officials reinforces how disconnected monetary policymakers have become from the real economy — payroll growth collapsed from 168,000 to 29,000 in a single month while the Fed holds rates restrictive. The reset is not years away anymore.
Multiple fault lines are lining up simultaneously — Russia and Europe, the U.S. and China, Fed policy — and the global architecture that supported markets for decades is shifting. When geopolitics breaks down, finance breaks next.
Despite nearly $6 trillion in freshly printed money since 2008, U.S. manufacturing output is still below where it was 18 years ago. David Stockman's numbers show what happens when monetary policy inflates asset prices instead of supporting productivity.
