nourishing obscurity

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.

- Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)

UPDATE MONDAY EVENING – IT APPEARS TO BE A PEOPLE’S VICTORY.

Maybe top of the list of threats we face is the newly open cavalier manner in which the powers that be regard and treat the ordinary citizen, the laws they put in place to command and control and the manner in which they breach their very own laws – breathtaking in it’s ubiquity and insolence.

Here is a very worrying example from the United States but it could well be on this side of the pond:

If you read the Wiki entry on Martin Armstrong, you get a picture of a criminal who got his just deserts for a ponzi scheme but to be fair – they say that the neutrality of the article is disputed.  It’s only when you delve further that you see what actually happened and how devastating controlling information outlets can be in the wrong hands.

Brief bio

A millionaire at 15, he was a rare person, studying historical gold prices and developing a cyclical theory of commodity prices, beginning a company, Economic Consultants of Princeton, shortly after turning 21.  Armstrong continued to collect gold and antiquities which would later become a major bone of contention with the New York State justice system and the moment you dabble in those stocks, you attract the attention of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a far from unbiased group, in the same way the Fed is owned by the cabal of bankers.

In 1981, his Princeton Economics developed a financial prediction model called the “pi-cycle model” and published long term forecasts which are still monitored by the financial press. In the United Kingdom, for example, a popular financial magazine Money Week published an article on Martin Armstrong on March 27, 2007, titled “The strange case of the jailed market genius”. In that article they highlighted the model had predicted a major top in financial markets for February 27, 2007, with the next major bottom being June 18, 2011.

He was indicted in 1999 on charges of fraud and was told to hand over all his commodities, i.e. the gold and artefacts. He handed over some but said he didn’t have the rest and was jailed for seven years for contempt, not for fraud.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor was reported to have been part of the panel of appeals judges that upheld a lower court ruling to keep Martin Armstrong in prison for contempt of court.

A different take

First let’s review the facts… whatever you believe about his innocence or guilt or innocence of any crime, the facts are that he was never put on trial for any crime. He was held in contempt of court for not producing what the judge ordered him to produce, something which he claims he didn’t have. He was placed in MDC Manhattan, was locked in solitary confinement and at times was intentionally awaken every hour or so all night long, night after night, in an attempt to get him to sign a confession. He was repeatedly told that he would not get the chance to see his 91 year old mother alive again if he did not sign the confession.

One day a convict, “a known homicidal maniac”, was locked in his cell with him where he proceeded to beat and strangle him until he lost most of his teeth, and is still missing them because the prison system only has one dentist for over 5,000 inmates. He suffered a detached retina, broken ribs and other internal injuries that left him in intensive care.

They offered him a plea agreement to time served if he would plead guilty and after 7 years, he could take no more and agreed. However, after pleading guilty, the judge instead of living up to the plea bargain, sentenced him to the maximum amount allowable and he is now not scheduled for release until September of 2011, first eligible for parole in March 2011.

I’ll return to latest developments further down the article.

Habeas Corpus

Nathan’s Economics states:

For a refresher, Habeas Corpus is defined as follows: “Habeas corpus (pronounced /ˌheɪbiːəs ˈkɔrpəs/) (Latin: You (shall) have the body) is a legal action, or writ, through which a person can seek relief from their unlawful detention or that of another person. It protects individuals from harming themselves or from being harmed by the judicial system.”

Nathan reproduces, in the article, the relevant documents on habeas corpus, as they pertain to Martin Armstrong.

The least that can be said is that there was gross breach of procedure according to United States law.

This becomes relevant further on in the article.

Why all the aggravation in the first place?

Was it just the commodities he’d gathered which upset them so?  Was it the refusal to play ball with the government and plead guilty, locking him away or was it far more?

The answer can be found here and here and here.  Here is the intro to one essay:

In a nutshell, the reason Martin Armstrong needs to be silenced is that he was a player, not a pundit, he was alongside and one of the cabal which ratted on them and spilled the beans.  He’s not only a whistleblower extraordinaire but he can name names and point to events.

Much worse than that, he is accurate.  Wiki:

Armstrong was a frequent contributor to academic journals and was often sought for comment on financial topics. As an investor, he proved that his market timing approach predicted both the high-water mark of the Nikkei in 1989, months ahead of time, and also the July 20, 1998, high in the U.S. equities market.

In short, he knows what he’s talking about and what he’s talking about is the coming depression, the collusion of the bankers, the Fed and the government and the true state of the world economy which, if it were known and people stopped believing the claptrap which says we’re out of the woods, would precipitate collapse on a global scale.

So many other pundits have said the same but few had Martin Armstrong’s inside knowledge.

Authorities act to silence him

What has possibly precipitated this is the recent interview with The New Yorker – “The Secret Cycle…” , in which is said:

Now exposing corruption in high places is one thing but the PTB are largely ignoring all calls that they are doing anything untoward but in Armstrong’s case, there is a distinct edge to it.  Against two writs of habeas corpus, he is being transferred to the notorious MDC Brooklyn, where he will be in isolation and won’t be able to produce any more work for distribution.

Not only that but it is the same situation as when he was beaten up and lost his teeth, then denied dental care.

Why?  Why?  Why are the authorities so scared of a man whose ideas, though having been proved to be accurate, are distinctly left field, even bringing in elements of astrology as predictive indicators?

The answer is that he was consulted by the high and mighty, including Goldman Sachs, his theories were taken on board by he major players in working out how to beat the market and they all dabbled in Armstrong Economics:

So what we have is a bunch of people in key trading for big stakes, rubbing shoulders at government level and speculating with other people’s money for their own gain.  It is a scandal of such enormity that it simply can’t be allowed to get out.

Why don’t they just kill Armstrong?

Why didn’t they just kill Eliot Ness?  Why not kill Garrison?  They waited two years to kill McFadden.

He’s too well known.

Remember that when he is released in 2011, if he’s still alive and not lobotomized by that time, he will start writing again and this time, he’s likely to name names.  Why does he have to be shut up right at this time now?

The answer is, and you can see yourself from the expenses scandals, the bailouts, the misuse of people’s savings and so on that things are not as being portrayed to the people.

Man in a Shed wrote a post recently on “We have grown used to the lies …“  and it was made abundantly clear that a lot of people are lying big time, far more the higher one goes and I’ve run posts myself which show that the fish rots at the head. Since 2006, I’ve been publicizing what They are up to and only now is the corroboration coming thick and fast.

Others more august have been giving the fine print for quite some time.

What can be done?

The tragedy of Martin Armstrong is that there is little that can be done except publicity via email, calls on political leaders, having posts like this one publicized more widely and somehow the connect with the ordinary population made in such a way that they would not be frightened off by “conspiracy theories”.

Nathan suggests some things which can be done.  Above all, the name should be kept in the limelight and that will prevent them actually snuffing him out.  What they do to him inside is another thing and I feel helpless in this.

Traders Talk has some of what Armstrong predicted in 1999.

Here’s a nice comparative to the Great Depression.  And Martin Armstrong says:

The Great Depression was not invented by the stock market. It was created by the forces of unsound international finance and sumptuary laws imposed upon the subjects of various nations both in the United States and in Europe. There is no doubt that the fate of the stock market in the future will be largely dictated by the swings in confidence within the international monetary system. …

In conclusion, the fundamental explanations of the ups and downs of the stock market and the world economy cannot be simply drawn between an inference with interest rate actions or with corporate earnings. The impact of public confidence is by far the most profound influence in both the investment world as well as the world economy.

Capital flowing back and forth between nations affords the closest relationship with the movement within the stock market and this perhaps can be most readily seen through the movement of foreign exchange markets as well. The issues are never purely domestic. No matter what market one may look at in whatever nation you may reside, the international influences will always be a subtle guiding force behind the more illuminated domestic issues of the day.

– from “The Greatest Bull Market In History”, Martin Armstrong

Filed under: Politics & economics, Society & human issues