Martin Armstrong: Putin takes Ukraine in Three Days

Martin Armstrong - always the smartest guy after the fact - reverses his forecast positions after his Ukraine war predictions flop

In World War III Beginning Stages Now Martin Armstrong writes (quote, emphasis added):

Feb 2, 2022
Putin has wiped out the air force and owns the skies over Ukraine. He could annihilate the country in less than 3 days, but he is not doing that to the West’s befuddlement. 

He is clearly whipping up fear in preparation of the sale of his snake oil with the promise to profit from the unfolding events: At the bottom of his page, he advertises his new War Computer Report that he has not even written yet.

 

A few months later in WWIII is not Worth Supporting Ukraine in a Land Grab he reverses his position as follows (quote, emphasis added):

Jul 16, 2022
Russia has been unable to use its air power because NATO is providing Ukraine with all the tactical information needed so they only need to turn on their radar minutes before launching and as such Russia cannot destroy those systems which have been supplanted by NATO.

Computer never wrong?

I can't report on one of his forecast failures without tripping over a bigger one in the process. Here it is:

Re-defines the objective of a failed forecast to match the new reality: War cycle high reserved for Middle East war (which did not happen) is re-defined and re-used for the Ukraine War

On Jun 12, 2014, Martin Armstrong gave us a lecture about conflicts in the Middle East driving his war cycle. In Brain-Dead Foreign Policy – Destabilizing the Middle East – Feeding the War Cycle he writes (quote)

The War Cycle is doing what it was intended to do. I have warned that this is going to be much worse that the previous cycles building in intensity and broadening to a global perspective.

On Jul 9, 2014, Martin Armstrong continues in  Crude Oil & The Future (quote)

It is poised to rally into 2017 and it appears this is lining up with our war models..

Computer never wrong?

I think I have made the point once again that his forecasts are complete bullshit. And he knows it. If you really need further explanation of how these forecasting tricks work, please read: Economic Confidence Model, just a play on numbers of 8.6 and Socrates Forecast Array Nonsense.

 

Please see also:

Major failed Predictions

Martin Armstrong's Informant Behind the Curtain

Martin Armstrong The Hyper Fool

Martin Armstrong Cult Member quits Socrates after 15 Years

Sufficiently dismayed

Below is the YouTube testimonial of a Martin Armstrong cult member quoted in full. It took him over 15 years to finally discover that he has been scammed. Not without the help of this site.

Please note that "Canadian Day trader" who practiced the well-established shill routine. Most likely, that shill is LateralusYellow, that figure that runs the Reddit Armstrong Economics Fan Forum.

 

In a YouTube post Bill W comments on the YouTube video  :

Martin Armstrong: The Collapse of the Republic  on June 26 2022:

@Lui Bunting  Ok!  I just spent 2.5 hours reading through your site.  It has raised sufficient questions for me to think carefully about my experiences.   Keeping it very brief, I have always enjoyed Martin Armstrongs historical take on economics.  I attending his Orlando conferences in 2016 and 2017 and then once more in 2019.   I met a Canadian Day trader at the 2016 event who seemed intelligent and unpretentious. He said that he now foley used Socrates for his trading and it earned him a very good living.   I finally joined the Pro Socrates for about 3 months in 2018.  I was still working and a member of many other sites and advisors at the time but decided I would see what it had to offer.  I was a bit disappointed and downgraded a level shortly after.   I have received about 4 or Martins reports including the Trade of The Century.  History lesson was great BUT I noticed there seemed to be a fair a mount of repetition in the material and there was really NO "how to do it" at the end of the book.  I also purchased the Manipulation of the World Economy book and once again found it interesting but somewhat repetitive.   Your site reinforced some concerns I have had about Martin's blog for a couple of years now.  I agree with a lot (not all) of what Martin says about what is happening in todays world.  However, I had already begun to get frustrated about the way he would answer questions on his blog.   The questions always seem to be, well from perhaps less intelligent folks and rarely did they address any detailed deep issues but rather broad and often self congratulatory  towards MA.   I also noticed the typos and wondered why these were not addressed.   As regards Socrates, I often purchased the market reports, not expensive, but noticed occasional errors in the reports that got the price for say gold or oil completely wrong in the report.  I could not understand why that would happen.   Finally, much is made of the Socrates tool being right at certain turning points e.g 1987.  The Sovereign Bond Crisis for me started around 2012 as the ECB and the EU embarked on a course which will bankrupt that EU market BUT that 2015 date didn't not seem to produce a big event.  I would argue the big event is happen now!  Additionally the much flaunted March turning point for this year seemed like a fizzle as well.    I think his predictions about the dollar and the US market soaring have some credibility since I agree with the thesis that money will likely flood into the uS when the financial crisis in Europe and probably the far East get going.   
HOWEVER, what your site has done is raised these nagging concerns I have been having about Armstrong, his writings and his model over the past 2 - 3 years.  I am blessed with funds and have never committed any to Martins forecasts (so no losses).  But I am now sufficiently dismayed so as to pull my $50 monthly subscription (not that big compared to a couple of others I subscribe to but certainly 2-3 times that for some other advisor sites that actually make specific recommendations.  Consequently you site has had an immediate effect.  Not sure why you dont post a link to your site for all of MA's videos.    Took a while to trawl through your material but thanks.

It looks like nobody is immune against being a fool.exploited by Martin Armstrong.

Even Prof Dave Collum of  the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at New York Cornell University quotes Martin Armstrong's gossip on his Twitter account:

More dangerous than covid... on July 30 2022:

Judge Seals Middleton Case

Thereby promoting that criminal and supporting his noble cause. I guess that is where the New York tax dollars go. What an irony! Remember: Don't shoot the messenger, because that's MY job!

See also:

About Martin Armstrong’s Books 

Martin Armstrong's Socrates 

The World Economic Conference WEC

Martin Armstrong's Death Threat

This is an event like many others described on this site, and it is consistent with the many other events. As such, I will describe it as usual, exclusively based on facts and external references. I will describe how Martin Armstrong issues his death threat, and the events that lead to it and events that followed.

Socrates Subscriber Volume Meltdown

During and after my YouTube social media awareness campaign, the number of subscribers of his paid subscription service Socrates declined dramatically. Martin Armstrong recognized the connection and reacted as follows:

Self-incrimination

Martin Armstrong fully exposed the criminal nature of his business. The communication is documented in a public forum here. I am quoting him:

I have hundreds of people working for me creating YouTube accounts and other social media accounts posting positive reviews and feedback. I STILL GET fresh victims daily

...

Maybe you should come work for me? We could really use you around here. We have many aspects to our Ponzi scheme and you will be first in line and be a part of our inner circle purely based on the influence you have online and the threat you present against my business. We always pay our people the best and keep paying them for life just so they don't talk too much and God forbid tell the authorities...

MA

The above was his last-ditch attempt to lure me into a partnership in his business, to recruit me, and to motivate me for deleting thousands of comment messages from hundreds of his YouTube videos. After I declined, he finally issued his death threat against me as follows:

I want you DEAD! I will find out where you live trust me. I will put a contract out on your life, you don't know who you fucking with.

The digital signature "MA" stands for Martin Armstrong. I proved previously that he uses fake identities to publish his own messages as sock puppets, posing as his clients on internet forums and in YouTubue video discussions. See Martin Armstrong The Hyper Shill. In this case, he used the previously exposed identity Gumbi to send the above messages to me.

After these events, he continued business as usual. He instructed his inner circle shill LateralusYellow to write a new post in his own propaganda echo chamber about his flagship Socrates service, with the aim to revive the service, to get fresh victims. See: Nasdaq (composite) forecast, explanation in comments 

I recognize with satisfaction that I can now use his own terms such as "victims", "paid shill" and "inner circle" and stated facts without having to use speculative language. I just quote him.

You don't believe this? Then check out my Legal Disclaimer. and The Defeat of Martin Armstrong where I show you how he fails do defend himself against the exposure of the truth.

I do not need to ask you to believe anything because you can verify all facts yourself using the many 3rd party reference links on over 75 pages on this site.

Martin Armstrong guilty as charged for Contempt of Court because of his hiding coins based on the latest news

When Martin Armstrong got out of jail, the very first thing that he did was to try to "clear" his name. He even got (or probably paid) some movie makers to make a movie to clear his name. As good as he was in making up all the documented failed predictions, he is very good in this endeavor too.

But the truth eventually always comes out. He may be able to cheat most people most of the time, but you cannot cheat all the people all the time.

The funny thing is that Martin Armstrong essentially admitted that he hid precious coins worth $8 million away from court asset seizure meant to repay the investors who lost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Read this for yourself: "Cult Economist Jailed for Hiding Rare Coins Says They’re His Now"

Let's establish some facts based on the above article:

1. Armstrong was jailed for contempt in the court because he refused to turn over the assets.
2. Based on what the day laborer said, he found them while clearing out a house, apparently hidden away from court after seizure of assets.
3. Armstrong is claiming ownership of these rare coins.

Okay, Armstrong obviously was in possession of the rare coins at one point in time BEFORE he was jailed. The coins would be part of the assets that should have gone back to the investors who lost money by investing with Armstrong.

Well, I must say that after years of doubting the fairness of United States court, and naively believing the one-sided story from Armstrong, and thinking that just maybe Armstrong may be innocent at some 20% chance, now I can conclusively say that for myself:

Martin Armstrong was GUILTY as charged by US courts!

Readers, you should THINK for yourself, and don't take my opinions as yours. ALWAYS independently THINK for yourself.

P.S. As for the conclusion of this story: The money eventually went to the receivership for the investors defrauded by Armstrong, and Armstrong had to pay Heritage $291,439.30 compensation:

https://goldsteinlp.com/a-goldstein-law-partners-win-judge-dismisses-lawsuit-against-heritage-auction/

and

https://casetext.com/case/antoniak-v-armstrong-1  

and

https://cases.justia.com/federal/district-courts/pennsylvania/paedce/2:2018cv01263/540970/53/0.pdf 

Martin Armstrong's Informant Behind the Curtain

Martin Armstrong frequently quotes his "Sources behind the Curtain" to create the illusion of exclusiveness and quality of his blog posts which he presents to his audience as analysis.

Example: Sweden & Finland Joining NATO

As most people know, my sources are dammed good. When the Russians were building a secret unground facility, even Margaret Thatcher asked me if I had any information since their intelligence was coming up short.

The reality is that he does not have such sources. And he does not do any analysis, either. He has opinions,  biases and conspiracy theories gleaned from others. He is sitting at his home computer surfing the Internet, looking for sensational stories that confirm his opinions and biases. Stories that he can re-publish on his blog site while claiming ownership of them in his trademark self-aggrandizing pomp style. With the aim to lure fresh victims of his predatory business into his online store where he sells useless products and services (snake oil) costing hundreds.

It is obvious that his repetitive gossip on his blog site is of the lowest possible quality, re-published from dubious sources and / or plagiarized. Again, I do not make such a statement without providing the hard proof.

So far on this site I have avoided reflecting on the biased opinion pieces on Martin Armstrong's blog site because 1) there are too many of them and 2) I think that it is more constructive to concentrate on the big blatant lies, confidence tricks and manipulations which are indisputable and easy to debunk.

However in the following case, Martin Armstrong has crossed this boundary and is now himself providing unique insight into his working style - a piece of self-incriminating information which I think is on par with or even eclipses everything else written on this site so far:

On June 22 2020, the satire magazine, "America's Finest News Source", The ONION published the article Facebook Announces Plan To Break Up U.S. Government Before It Becomes Too Powerful.

On July 29 2020, more than a month later, Martin Armstrong writes on his blog essentially that same story, copied in large part from The ONION source:

Facebook Calls for the Break-Up of US Government

It has since been edited (after our exposé at Facebook Calls for the Break-Up of US Government).

His original version can be found at:

The Web Archive

I quote Martin Armstrong from his original (emphasis added):

Posted Jul 29, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

The high Tech leaders are to testify before Congressional House antitrust investigation into the market power of major tech companies. This will in Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, Apple, Google, and Facebook. The House Judiciary Committee has been pushing for them to return to testify in front of its investigation into antitrust. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has taken a very confrontational view toward the government. Where there remains a focus on the excessive influence that Facebook has in the political landscape, d influence, Zuckerberg just announced ahead of his testimony that his firm will be taking steps to ensure the breakup of the U.S. government because he believes it has become too powerful. He has stated:

“It’s long past time for us to take concrete actions against this behemoth of governance that has gone essentially unchecked since its inception.”

He insists that while the government may have begun with good intentions, its history showed a culture of recklessness and a dangerous disregard for the consequences of its decisions. In this respect, he is absolutely correct for there are far too many instances where the economic declines have unfolded BECAUSE of government intervention. Zuckerberg continued:

“Unfortunately, those at the top have been repeatedly contemptuous of the very idea of accountability or reform, and our only remaining course is to separate the government into smaller chunks to prevent it from forming an even stronger monopoly over the public.”

Zuckerberg concluded his comment with repeated assurances that despite a likely legal battle ahead, no one government could stand up to the fortitude of Facebook. That is a very interesting position. This public statement is what I have been looking at behind the curtain which definitively points to an organized coup. My warning to Zuckerberg is he better count his fingers after shaking hands with the Democrats when they promise not to break up Facebook in return for his support to seize the White House in November.

---

BUSTED!

This piece proves that he searches content matching his biased ideas and selectively publishes it. He plagiarizes content without quoting his source. And it proves that he does not care about the analytical value of the content - whether it is a lie or not - as long as he is convinced that the story will generate the clicks that he needs to capture fresh victims of his scams - every day. Some people call him "career shit-weasel" and they are right.

See also:

Disinformation

 

Martin Armstrong becomes Covid-19 Coronavirus Expert overnight

It is impossible that Martin Armstrong fails to monetize an opportunity such as the covid-19 pandemic (without actually providing any practical value as usual).

See also: Martin Armstrong's Populist Hot-Button Topic Campaign

Here I document the methods that he uses to do so. In a nutshell, he has been playing it both ways, down-playing  the pandemic and fear-mongering, using the old and tested Government Conspiracy Theory trick. As usual, even at his age of  71, he claims to become an expert on the subject overnight. He ridicules the professional experts and accuses them of corruption. As usual, he gets things wrong and changes course midstream.

On Jan 27, 2020, in Coronavirus still appears to be Normal Virus and on Feb 5, 2020, in Why Exaggerated Nonsense on Flu?, he clearly downplays the pandemic which later earned him criticism from his followers who made the wrong trading decisions based on his failed market forecasts:

I give up. Time to buy.

He goes on about all his amazing forecasts and how he is a legendary trader but he is none of these things the Corona virus has exposed him as just another salesman trading of lies of making great calls in the past.

On Mar 23, 2020, in We do Have to Get Beyond the CDC he uses the Fake Fan Email Confidence Trick to promote his name as a potential Government Advisor in the subject:

COMMENT: Hi Mr Armstrong,

I don’t know if there are advisers around the president that ae keeping you from explaining to him what is at stake so I started a Whitehouse petition to get you to see him. If you want to post it I am sure the many readers will get the numbers needed. If not, only this email to you is who I am going to inform the petition is posted.

Bring in the expert Martin Armstrong to stop the destruction of the world economy

That's just marketing and confidence building for his real clients - the little guy, because: Not surprisingly, he has a new e-book for sale at $9.95 to turn the crisis into revenue: Coronavirus & Next Great Depression.

What is it? apparently a cut and paste job. Here is a review:

 mberger47 in The Monetary Crisis Cycle Report

His recent report on the Coronavirus was 100+ pages of history lessons and 2 sentences of valuable information.

That's just a teaser - the real payload is MAY 2020 Virtual Conrona Conference $300.

As expected, to make the point that this was just a confidence trick, the actual petition Bring in the expert Martin Armstrong to stop the destruction of the world economy turns out to be a flop because it reaches only 871 signatures, not even 1% of the required minimum of 100,000 to be even considered.

The Ferguson Model Code Review 

I have several proofs on this site that Martin Armstrong searches other web sites aligned with his narrative for content that he then plagiarizes with the aim of profiting from it. Here is another example:

In May 6 2020, a suitable article appears at lockdownsceptics.org: Code Review of Ferguson’s Model

Two days later, on May 8 2020, Martin Armstrong again uses the Fake Fan Email Confidence Trick to imply that he was asked to review the same code: I have Reviewed Ferguson’s Code – It’s a Joke

I have been asked by a source in Britain to review the Ferguson model code for my opinion.
...

This clearly shows the vast chasm between trading models and academic models where the money is never on the line.

I don't want to go into the details but a text comparison of his article shows that it it has been copied from lockdownsceptics.org with a small amount of re-shuffling. You are welcome to check this out here

He does not waste any time bragging about the superiority of his Mickey-mouse Socrates code where he reveals that it contains only 150,000 lines.

Contrary to his repeated claims that he created the computer code for his Socrates himself, he is so illiterate that he cannot even use a pocket calculator to calculate a percentage. He under-represents the number of Covid-19 infections and deaths in India by a factor of 100. See: What’s Happening in India?

Out of a population of 1.4 billion, there have been 17.6 million infections to date, which is 0.0125%.
... and the total deaths have reached 198,000. While that does sound like a lot, it is still 0.00014%.

 

The U-Turn #1

In Black Death Plague Returning in Asia on Jul 15, 2020, he makes a U-turn, splits his narrative into two by creating his own more lethal Coronavirus strain that causes pneumonia (as if this was actually novel in comparison with the "concocted" one as he sees it)

First, there is a new coronavirus that causes pneumonia, which is far more lethal than this concocted version that appears to have been manufactured to set in motion this Great Reset.

He once again uses this new fear campaign to sell his e-book "The Great Reset", a Government Conspiracy Theory that among other weird alleged objectives aims to depopulate the world. It feels like he has learned from Zero Hedge and from his own criminal case that conspiracies make money!

Zero Hedge, Russia, and the Business of Conspiracies

And keeping the audience happy is what really matters. An audience comprised of racists, anti-Semites, extreme right-wingers, and conspiracy wingnuts is a valuable one. They are all credulous fools, and, as all dime-store preachers know, the credulous are easily monetized. Conspiracies are big business.

Self-Destruction

In Is Europe Deliberately Crushing their Economy for the Great Reset? on Oct 30, 2020, he creates the conspiracy theory that European leaders are using the pandemic to "crush" their own economies:

There is absolutely NO possible way these people do not know what they are doing. This is a deliberate action to use COVID-19 to crush the economy and the people into submission.

Endless U-Turns follow

Later, after it becomes inescapable that the Covid-19 pandemic is real and cannot be denied, he changes subject once again and endorses in his blog the Wuhan lab gain-of-function origin theory. 

Then he campaigns against vaccination and calls Fauci a murderer.

Subsequently he supports the idea to buy an island to escape vaccination.

Re-definition of Democracy

In Democracy Index he claims that all nations lost their democratic status:

How could any country that forcibly restricts its citizens’ movement and forces them to inject unknown substances into their bodies be deemed a “full democracy?” No one is allowed to speak out against their government or protest unless their protest aligns with the government’s agenda. Full democracies are extinct.

 

This is just an extract of the enormous barrage of inconsistent disinformation material in his blog. It makes it fairly obvious that as usual, he tries to cover as many subjects as possible to increase the search engine ranking of his site, to cover as many fringe opinions as possible, and to attract as many readers with grievances and fools as possible. To get the clicks that he needs to lure fresh victims of his predatory business into his online store. Where he sells - as solutions (way out) - useless products and services (snake oil) costing hundreds. 

In November 2021, the US Covid-19 death toll eclipses 1918 Spanish Flu estimates.

Finally, he once again completely discredits himself when he posts this garbage on his blog:

Hospitalizations More Likely Among Vaccinated is a blatant lie because of two reasons:

1. The MSN linked article does not exist, is made up
2. ResearchGate which he quotes without providing a link as conducting the study does not do such studies.
   

Martin Armstrong The Hyper Shill

I have proven beyond any doubt in The Fan Email Confidence Trick that Martin Armstrong in his public blog is manufacturing fake client emails that are praising his services. This is corroborated by dozens of third party accounts. He effectively executes the function of the Shill, without the need to pay anyone. This is possible because of the anonymity of the authors of these fake emails.

Here I demonstrate how he takes this concept one step further.

The battle over Control of an Internet Forum

Again, he acts as a shill, praising the qualities of his own services, posing as a client, or as someone who claims to have good knowledge of the Socrates system, without identifying himself.

In the following scenario, he uses and even tries tries to take control of a foreign public internet forum that is available to him free of charge. To cut a long story short, I have identified at least 300 of his shill messages he sent using multiple accounts in that single bitcoin forum, Martin Armstrong Discussion.

I start with his most recent account / ID / user handle Gumbi

Gumbi exposed himself as Martin Armstrong when he threatened to sue me, the anonymous poster in that same forum AnonymousCoder for defamation. See Gumbi IS Martin Armstrong and following posts for the time line of events.

Martin Armstrong as Gumbi in a private message to me using that forum's messaging facility:

I will sue you for defamation if you keep this up

Martin Armstrong sent 166 messages alone using this single ID. I also know that additionally, he used at least the IDs over45, Strike Eagle 26 and m96. The combined message count of these sock puppet identities is over 300.

over45 is a character with an evolving personality who introduces himself to the forum as a follower who wants to learn about forecast arrays, then claims that Socrates saved him tons of money due to among other trades the trading of the pharma stock (Biogen BIIB) crash which he claims Socrates predicted for him, while at the same time claiming that he is not trading actively:

Not going to happen because if you read my posts you'd know that I don't have access to the reversal system and am not an active trader.

He then ends up threatening to sue the anonymous poster AnonymousCoder very much in line with Gumbi.

Put your money where your mouth is then. You know that you would lose the case and would have to pay. So once again you hide behind your anonymous identity posting falsehoods and misrepresentations and impugning the reputation of Armstrong. Your skimming and understanding of legal doctrine is flawed. Your encouraging of people to commit copyright infringement should get you kicked off this board immediately and banned. Every basher post and action is documented for prosperity through internet archives. Instead of deflecting and continued BS - make your case in a legal setting. That should not be a problem since you are 100% sure of yourself. There are ways to find out who you really are - don't think there isn't. If the world economy wasn't crashing as we speak I would spend more time on this - but there are things to do to prepare. Thanks to Armstrong I am in am much better position than most since the crash began. Same can't be said for most others. Socrates is worth every friggin penny and then-some.

But this is only the peak of the iceberg. Let me explore another discussion group at reddit.com: Unofficial Armstrong Economics Fan Forum. It did not take me long to prove that it is under exclusive control of Martin Armstrong.

Any new topics critical of his narrative get deleted. He was recently forced to tolerate some controlled opposition when the number of critical messages exceeded some threshold.

Please refer to this post that was deleted by the "moderators" - the author was simply trying to prove that he was a real Socrates user not a troll. And that Socrates user did that with the effort of creating a new identity AFTER he had been banned from the forum using his original identity.

The Routine Control of "viewer" comments on YouTube Videos:

The Sock Puppet Show

Here I demonstrate how Martin Armstrong controls the narrative in the comments section of interview and presentation videos published in his own and affiliated YouTube channels. It is a generic method that is also applied to other media such as comments on pages of affiliated web sites.

Before I get into the details, Martin Armstrong is so confident about his method that he openly brags about it here at the Crime Scene as Gumbi:

I have hundreds of people working for me creating YouTube accounts and other social media accounts posting positive reviews and feedback. I STILL GET fresh victims daily 😋

The analysis of his technique was done by reading all of more than 8,000 comments on more than 300 YouTube videos. It was supported by computer software that allows to aggregate, sort and group comments to identify authors and their comments with their respective timing.

In a nutshell, I found (confirmed by his own admission) that Martin Armstrong has used hundreds of YouTube shill accounts to post extremely favorable  fake user comments with the aim of creating the illusion that his knowledge is superior, and that his products and services are of high quality and in high demand. Starting with his earliest videos on YouTube, it becomes highly obvious that he created his sock puppet show on them, a show that is to a high percentage, often 100%, made up of his own comments. Example in a 2012 interview Martin Armstrong as @lynd scott:

a Martin Armstrong interview with no comments ! ? that's crazy. Martin Armstrong is one of the greatest minds out there, thanks for the interview !

He and his associates such as Greg Hunter on his own channel (which has since been removed by YouTube) have also deleted critical comments aggressively and permanently banned critical users from posting any comments. I have not fully quantified with statistics the use of this technique because it appears that at the time of this writing, Armstrong's business is already collapsing due to my various other revelations. But you are welcome to inspect interesting types of messages and specific shill accounts here with The Martin Armstrong Scam Messenger.

I identified three characteristic types of shill accounts: The temporary (pooled) account, the active third party shill account and the permanent Martin Armstrong shill account.

A temporary account is used to create typically only one message within the entire scope and duration of all 350 videos considered. This can most effectively be achieved by buying comments for a nominal fee of 60 cents from a 3rd party provider. These providers also sell view counts so it is no surprise that the number of views seen on Armstrong videos (as on any other videos) cannot be trusted.

Such comments have a standalone, rather isolated nature in a way that they are sometimes not even tailored to the content of the video. More importantly, one cannot engage their users in a conversation - they do not respond. Examples:

(1 out of 1 from a temporary account):
@L. Jamin: Great great, go on with such videos, you have a mission! And you are one of the few trustworthy . (This comment was deleted when Martin Armstrong removed ALL comments from that video because of too many of my own critical responses)

Following is a comment somewhere in between (1 out of 8 from a permanent account, most likely from a member of his inner circle because the first message appears in 2014 while the last one is in 2018):
@Les Samuelson: thanks Greg Hunter; Martin Armstrong is the best at the macro picture. His website is spectacular. Your show is the best -- look forward to it every week. (This video has been removed because Greg Hunter's account has been terminated by YouTube)

Permanent accounts are most likely held by Martin Armstrong or one of his close affiliates. They engage in discussions if responded to. Following are messages from permanent accounts:

This is the classic type of message that would expose a scammer even to the inexperienced observer: (1 out of 4):
@Travis Bruce: By following Socrates I have made profit on every single trade for the last half a dozen years. Before Armstrong, while listening to people's opinions I lost money on the majority of trades I executed. There are two sides to every trade, a seller and a buyer, and I'm happy to be on the right side every time. Thank you Socrates and Martin for discovering the hidden order in all things and sharing it with the world for such a minimal price.

@User Name is definitely one of Martin Armstrong's own permanent accounts. I have had conversations with him through this account.

(2 out of 113 messages):
@User Name: "Martin Armstrong is a tip-top expert. Thank you very much for this interview! "

@User Name: "Thank you for this interview with Martin Armstrong. That guy is a superstar. :-D))"


@Cole G is most likely a paid shill.

(1 out of 7 messages):
@Cole G: "Do you agree with Martin Armstrong?" About as much as I agree with Einstein.

@E R I love you, MARTY!!! You’re the most righteous and courageous man alive. Honestly, I don’t know what I’d do without you... God bless you and keep you safe always ... I wonder what this person does with him ...

Here  Martin Armstrong again exposes himself by digitally signing a fake account shill message with his real name:

Martin Armstrong as @Aaron Peters in Markets, Silver – Ross Clark. World Economy - Martin Armstrong. Authoritarians - Bob Hoye. AMY, ABN

Sincerely, Your imaginary nemesis. Living rent free inside your head, Marty

This demonstrates again that he is schizophrenic.

Here we see two sock puppets talking to each other:

1: @lnsk: Martin Armstrong is my hero. When one researches his world, it will be hard to not say that he has selflessly worked towards the betterment for the whole of humanity. I am anxiously awaiting my chance to view The Forecaster. I will not be surprised if it is limited here in America. As a person who chose the lifestyle of supporting a family over supporting a career can be exposed to the importance of what Martin has developed, it frustrates me that his brilliant work is being suppressed and that many are denied...especially since even I could find it! Thank you Mises for this exposure contribution...even though Martin is not an Austrian Economist.

2: @Cole G: Truly a man for the history books. Not only did he figure all of this out, but he's also developed an Artificial Intelligence to carry on his work. Talk about leaving a legacy on the world.

Not enough? Here is a conversation between three of them speaking that same trademark Martin Armstrong lingo:

1: @lnsk: Hero to humanity..if they listen. I met Martin, very personable and humble.

2: @TrendTraderTrender: I have met him too, just an amazing guy

3: @D James: A bounty to the universe. Who knows someday i can meet him personally just like what you did. Amen!  

Still not enough? Here is a Smoking Gun, the Trojan Horse. 

In a nutshell, here is how it works: He hosts a popular foreign YouTube video on his blog site. Then he launches a coordinated shill campaign in the comments section of that foreign video, using it to advertise his services (Socrates) on that foreign video for trading - which is illegal because it has in its fine print a disclaimer that it is not suitable for trading. Here is the video hosted on his blog site. And here are the shills:

1: Martin Armstrong as @Bobby Gill (quoting himself as Martin Armstrong): Martin Armstrong of Armstrong Economics brought me here... "Katarina Jovanović has done a very good job at research. What she explains here is the very essence of the difference between Socialism & Capitalism. The former cannot tolerate class and must always eliminate all oppressors. She even goes into the correct analysis that Hitler eliminated the Jews based upon the ideas of Karl Marx. While it is true that Marx was a distant cousin of the Rothschilds, he was not supported by them and remain very hateful of such capitalists. All one needs to do is actually read his Communist Manifesto to gain understand of that Marx’s ideas even fuelled Hitler and World War II. Katarina lived the horrors of Socialism." - Martin Armstrong

2: Martin Armstrong again as @Brad Studio: Lui Bunting is really Ray Dalio who is mad at Martin for exposing his “cash is trash” theory which he lost 20-30% of his portfolio

3: @Bobby Gill again selling Socrates / Private Blog: ‘Brad Studio’ not sure why ‘Lui Bunting’ is even crying for - martin offers most of his info for free & low cost on the private blog. Maybe it’s Gates or Fauci or Ferguson who’s crappy coded model isn’t even as good as excel, never mind Socrates 😆

Here again, Socrates is advertised illegally in the video Martin Armstrong: The Gold Standard is Garbage:

1: Martin Armstrong as @black shadow: Hearing Martin Armstrong is like getting a Christmas gift a day early.
 

2: Martin Armstrong as @originAL Nomad: We have a FB group for traders who follow Socrates - https://www.facebook.com/groups/ecmtraders

3: Martin Armstrong as @black shadow: @originAL Nomad  Very cool.
 

More shill posts:

@samlaunch: Martin Armstrong is the world's greatest forecaster. His Socrates AI (Artificial Intelligent) computer can't be beat. The thing about the computer is that it can predict events decades in advance. Thank you, Greg Hunter for this super interview with Martin Armstrong.

@samlaunch: Armstrong for President!

@samlaunch: Unbelievable! This is advanced investing! Thanks, Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Lutz. This is a remarkable interview on what makes the world/people turn. I've just listed to this audio today, January 17, 2015.

Here is a single purpose temporary account used only once one day before the release of Socrates (which is timed coinciding with the publication date of the video):

@Eco Gold: This guy should have the Nobel price , but probably he wont accept it as they will need to bribe him . absolutely genius Mr Armstrong . We are all waiting for Socrates

In the following sequence, we can see that the Armstrong team (@Cordialis) has no problem making an official announcement after posing as a client prior to that, using the same account:

@Cordialis: Martin Armstrong is just fantastic. We desperately need to hear more from this expert, so please, please invite Armstrong back again as soon as possible. It's a very fine interview, this video here.

@Cordialis: Armstrong's Socrates is online now, here it is: https://ask-socrates.com/

Typically, at the launch of a a video,  number of different characters, the "Sock Puppets" start interacting with each other in a fake conversation. Martin Armstrong maintains in his head a resident pool of sock puppets, each of them having one of his multiple more permanent YouTube accounts with a different character such as the gold bug, the highly religious Christian who always quotes the bible, then different puppets each asking about specific subjects such as forecast arrays so he can suggest additional services to buy. So every video in its comments section is primed with this puppet show, creating the illusion of a highly interested diverse client community.

The use of fake "Viewer" comments on YouTube Videos:

Asking the host for new Interviews

We can see exactly how Martin Armstrong uses one of his well known fake YouTube accounts to approach the YouTube channel owner (host) who interviewed him to ask for a new interview. By trying to create the illusion that one of his cult members wants the channel owner to post a new interview with him. So he not only thinks that his cult members are fools - he also thinks that his interview hosts are fools and cannot remember his shill account names.

@User Name: Absolutely brilliant interview. Martin Armstrong had many viewpoints you can't get from anyone else. No wonder, he's regarded as the worlds foremost forecaster! 😀 Dacapo! Please get this man back for a new interview! Quickly!

Martin Armstrong as @Marc Andersson: Time to bring on Mr. Armstrong again perhaps? Would love to listen to his views of the Evergrande collapse. 

Now please let me complete that @Marc Andersson case. Just as an example. I could do this hundreds of times because as this fraud has admitted, he has hundreds of accounts. So what else has this special purpose sock puppet @Marc Andersson to say? NOTHING EXCEPT the following, shown as links with the text:

Bring him back again!!!

Martin Armstrong is a legend. Show some respect.

Love Armstrong! You have to have him on every week!

Yeah Martin Armstrong is so great. Keep him coming back!!

Armstrong is a living legend and a true prophet when it comes to financial markets. The guys on Real Vision should really listen to him, but they are to posh to invite him for an interview!
 

See also:

The Martin Armstrong Scam Messenger