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 is essentially admitting that he hid precious coins worth at least 8 million away from court asset seisure 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 established 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 seize 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 defrauded investors by Armstrong: https://goldsteinlp.com/a-goldstein-law-partners-win-judge-dismisses-lawsuit-against-heritage-auction/

Martin Armstrong's Informant Behind the Curtain

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

We on the other hand think that his repetitive gossip on his web site is of the lowest possible quality, re-published from dubious sources and / or plagiarized. Again, we do not make such a statement without providing the hard proof.

So far on this site we have kept away from the biased opinion pieces on Martin Armstrong's web site because we think that it is more constructive to concentrate on the blatant lies, confidence tricks and manipulations which are indisputable and easy to debunk.

However in the following case, Martin Armstrong himself has now given us unique insight into his working style - a piece of information which we think is on par with or even eclipses everything else we have written on this site so far:

On June 22 2020, America's Finest News Source, The ONION publishes 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 piece:

Facebook Calls for the Break-Up of US Government

It has 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

We quote Martin Armstrong(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 plagiarizes content without quoting his source.

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).

Here we 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 80, he claims to be an expert on the subject over night and 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.

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 

We have serveral proofs on his 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.

We 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.

The U-Turn

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.

Martin Armstrong The Hyper Shill

We have proven without any doubt in The Fan Email Confidence Trick that Martin Armstrong in his public blog is manufacturing fake client emails praising his services. He effectively executes the function of the Shill, without the need to employ one. This is possible because of the anonymity of the authors of these fake emails.

Here we 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 has good knowledge of the Socrates system, without identifying himself.

In this case, he uses and tries to control multiple foreign public internet forums that are available to him free of charge. To cut a long story short, we have identified at least 300 of his shill messages in a single bitcoin forum, Martin Armstrong Discussion.

We start with his latest ID / user handle Gumbi

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

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

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

But this is only the peak of the iceberg. Let us explore another discussion group at reddit.com: Armstrong Economics. We don't need to go far 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 making the effort of creating a new identity AFTER he was banned from the forum using his original identity.

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

The Sock Puppet Show

Here we 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.

The analysis of his technique was done by reading all of more than 8,000 comments on 136 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, Martin Armstrong has used hundreds of YouTube 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. He and his associates such as Greg Hunter on his own channel have also deleted critical comments aggressively and banned critical users from posting comments permanently. We 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 our other revelations.

However, we can identify two characteristic types of accounts: The temporary account and the permanent account.

A temporary account is used to create typically only between one and four messages within the entire scope and duration of all 136 videos considered. This could potentially and actually most effectively be achieved by buying comments 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 not 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):
@L. Jamin: Great great, go on with such videos, you have a mission! And you are one of the few trustworthy .

Here we get the classic type of message that would expose a scam even to the inexperienced observer:

(1 out of 1):
@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.

Following is a comment somewhere in between (1 out of 8):
@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.

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:

 @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: "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

Here we see two sock puppets talking to each other:

@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.

@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.

@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 who interviewed him before 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.

@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!

Armstrong failed to predict crude oil PANIC

Crude oil went to negative $37 on April 20. That was LITERALLY the single biggest PANIC of all mankind's history in all financial assets.

Let's see how Martin Armstrong does in his famous timing array prediction, where he always indicates the PANIC cycles information. Here is the image of what I collected from one of the links on the forum discussion:

The above is the timing array at yearly level, and for the year 2020, there is NOTHING, but there was a panic cyle in the year of 2016. One can check the historical prices of crude here. What happens in year of 2016 is STABLE compared to the year 2020. Hmm.... For the single biggest financial PANIC of all time, Martin Armstrong FAILED to indicate any panic cycles in his timing arrays, which is by the way, generated from a MSDOS program, indicated from the top window label of DOSBox 0.74. Apparently, Martin Armstrong hasn't ported his super-AI program from the ancient MSDOS world to the Super-Computer Sequoia.

 

 See also:

Socrates Forecast Array Nonsense

Comments on Socrates Forecast Arrays

The Book Sellout Bargain Confidence Trick

Critical Martin Armstrong observers have noticed his obscure tactics selling the book "Manipulating the World Economy" since it first appeared on Amazon. Today, long time bitcointalk.org member trulycoined gives us permission to re-publish his discoveries as follows:

I too had observed their claims and then pieced together what is likely to be a clever fraud, a confidence trick that is used by snake oil salesmen. Similar to the 'bait and switch' technique. Get this:

There is a seller on eBay - morgonz54 - who seems to have VERY easy access to MA's "much" sought after book Manipulating the World Economy that is allegedly printed in very limited quantities and sells out in 15 minutes:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/morgonz54/m.html?_nkw&_armrs=1&_ipg&_from&LH_Complete=1&rt=nc&_trksid=p2046732.m1684

In total, since opening their account end of Jan 2020, and listing MA's book since early Feb 2020, they have sold 137 copies of Manipulating the World Economy bagging around $41k in book sales, where the Buy It Now price is $300. There is still one active listing here, with another TEN copies available. Where are they getting all of this inventory from, especially if the book sells out in "15 minutes"?:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Manipulating-the-World-Economy-Martin-Armstrong/402241091575

If you check the first link I post above, the day with the busiest numbers of new auctions for seller morgonz54 is 24 March 2020. They put up FIVE separate Buy It Now listings for the second edition starting at 15:36 up to 23:05 hrs.

Now check the eBay account that MA links to from his blog - presumably this is his eBay account (caesar315eb) - and see the sold listings:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/caesar315eb/m.html?item=324141916183&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&rt=nc&_trksid=p2046732.m1684

Notice the day he lists the THIRD EDITION is on 24 March at 15:55 hrs, some 20 minutes after morgonz54 uploads the second edition to eBay. Now let's check the item LOCATIONS of both sellers:


morgonz54
Saint Petersburg, Florida, United States
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Manipulating-the-World-Economy-Martin-Armstrong/402132543898?hash=item5da0f7a99a:g:Y0EAAOSw7PNeLP4W

caesar315eb
Saint Petersburg, Florida, United States
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Manipulating-The-World-Economy-by-Martin-Armstrong/324113741479?hash=item4b76af36a7:g:1tgAAOSwzrZeelYq


Coincidence?

• Both accounts are located in the exact same city
• Both accounts ONLY sell MA's book Manipulating the World Economy
• Both accounts have listed the same item on the same day within <30 minutes
• The "non-MA" account also has his very "rare" 1st edition of MtWE and a signed copy at that.

MA busted. Yet. Again.

More likely, MA probably does manage or knows someone who can manage the morgonz54 account. Then his other account that is publicly promoted: caesar315eb is where he sells the "for public good" editions, where: "the price was kept low at $95 to enable everyone of all means to be able to purchase the book". Sure thing Martin!

Those either are legit sales on his "known" eBay account, or are sold to someone (himself?) to then list all of them back onto eBay under the pseudonym account - morgonz54 - at the $300, so that it maintains the mirage that MA is doing this for the public good ($95), but other people are taking advantage and selling the book at a huge premium ($300+). That then creates the scarcity/urgency psychology, which has netted MA tens of thousands of dollars if we believe morgonz54 is also owned or linked to him in some way. It also maintains the mystique around MA that his cultish following laps up and hands over $thousands for WEC's, reports and subs.

Also, see this 26 Jan 2020 blog post where MA seems to be "planting" the thought that $300 is "fair value" (not ignoring the contradictory statements if you compare his above quote):

"I have heard that the 2nd edition which sold out on Amazon in less than 3 hours has been selling in an auction on average at $275+ so I suppose $300 is reasonable... the 1st and 2nd editions always go for a premium... Even a 5th edition of Malthus will bring $3,000 these days."


He is also planting a thought in his readers mind that even the 5th Edition will be worth more than what they paid.

Expect the book trick to go on for a long time, especially now his WECs are all cancelled.

I am not sure if the eBay trick is not him using multiple accounts. eBay is very sophisticated in cancelling or deleting accounts that bid on auctioned items even with a VPN. However, if it is Buy it Now, it is very easy to create and use fake accounts, where the transaction is instant and the listing is not removed until payment is made. So that is also why none of the listings are auctions, meaning the purchases on MA's official eBay account might be fake as part of the confidence trick.

It seems a bit suspect that MA is releasing some book, but ONLY in limited quantities and naturally it sells out in 15 minutes. Why not sell it via his website as well? Probably because eBay has publicly visible sales data that adds to the game he's trying to play...

Also, why not sell it digitally? If there is this much "demand", he could be making a mint selling it digitally, but alas that doesn't have any urgency/scarcity behind it, so he is VERY much playing a psychological game here.

Classic snake oil salesman tactic and I remain convinced MA is a student of Cialdini. He is a great salesman and does not know trading or even economics that well. He is an expert in human psychology, trickery, sales... And scams.

And he went to jail for it. 



Other confidence tricks used by Martin Armstrong:

The Fan Email Confidence Trick

Martin Armstrong The Hyper Shill



A sample report: The Greatest Trade of the Century

Another WEC review by an actual attendee

Here is someone who paid $3500, talked to several other people who all have agreed that they got tricked into paying a huge sum for essentially nothing.

I won't quote everything, but here are the words directly from Chris:

I have been a regular reader of Mr. Armstrong’s blog for at least five years, but he hasn’t been revealing anything new lately.

I was intrigued with his concept of the 2015 financial big bang, so I paid $3,500 in 2015 to attend Mr. Armstrong’s WEC conference in Princeton. I figured it was close enough to home that I could drive, so the hassle of getting there was minimal.

Once at the conference he did reveal a number of predictions for 2016-2017, but the event was nothing more than a boot camp type of seminar, where if you wished to learn more he had a number of services you could subscribe to. A person could easily spend $10,000 a year and more for his stuff and I felt short-changed by his WEC conference.

I used his Socrates trading platform for several months and found it unrevealing. I went back to my methods and began making money again.

I met a number of individuals at the conference. From what I could tell, I did not come across any institutional investors. I spoke with about 20-25 attendees and they were in my position. I would estimate that at least half the people were retired and just managing their own money.

I have to admit, we were taken. Normal mutual fund management charges less than 0.6% for the management fee, without you doing ANYTHING. If you pay $3500, you should have about $583,333, or about $600K in portfolio.

Wake up people. You go to his WEC conference, and still cannot figure out what to do afterwards? I'm sorry to say that it's a horrendous investment. Chris also commented about Socrates, and I could have guessed easily. It SUCKS! Please click above to read the full text for yourself.

Here are four other reviews on Martin Armstrong's WEC, and nothing is positive.