I have been digging for more contrarian views of MA and have found some real gold dust. I must admit I still don't know what to make of him and this was really only after attending his WEC 2018 of all things that made me begin questioning his claims, plus "pi day" in November 2018. That was built up to with some fanfare and it passed by like any other normal month.
Digging up MA's EARLIER claims is where it gets interesting. His more recent post-2015 stuff is where it begins to look a bit dodgy. Also, I have been fascinated that he uses his website as a means of controlling your perception of him. No real social media or press presence. That is perhaps something to raise suspicion. In terms of older articles, first this:
https://www.quora.com/What-do-economists-think-of-Martin-Armstrong-and-the-documentary-The-ForecasterWhere a well articulated answer that even included scans of reports at the time (2008) correctly called a bottom in the markets - even though it was published AFTER that event and then forecast 2011 would see new lows. That was via his machine/Socrates, not MA's personal opinion. So clearly then, the machine is flawed:
If he was 100% legit, why doesn't he address this or even LOG all predictions/dates in a public file or on his website so they can be scrutinised or he can "defend" them when they don't occur?
Additional opinions here:
https://www.realistnews.net/Thread-martin-armstrong-adds-17-years-to-his-doom-prediction-2015-75-to-2032-95Major calls between 2008-2015, via MA's "model":
▪ Called the DOW to be at 30,000 by 2015.
Never happened.
▪ Forecast US property would peak then crash from 2015 onwards.
Never happened.
▪ Called another significant date on "pi day" in Nov 2018.
Nothing happened.
▪ Never spotted the "sale of a lifetime" in the stock market Mar 2009.
Why not?▪ Forecast May 2019 would see a major economic storm erupt.
Pending.
▪ Forecast Jan 2020 would see a global economic crisis emerge.
Pending.
Article in De Welt 3 May 2015.
https://www.welt.de/finanzen/article140453591/US-Finanzprophet-Armstrong-sagt-Ende-des-Euro-voraus.htmlMA explains:
"Be sure to keep your fingers off government bonds. They are hopelessly overrated. Here it will come to the big crash. My model predicts October 1st."That never happened. Thus, this argument that the significance of 2015.75 was just that, is clearly MA and his cultish following backtracking. In his own words, his model predicted a "big crash" on that day. It never happened. instead it was explained as a "reversal".
Days later in that same paper (7 may 2015), MA makes ANOTHER prediction:
https://www.welt.de/finanzen/geldanlage/article140550440/Es-wird-zu-einem-grossen-Crash-kommen.htmlWhen asked "What does your model say?" (about the future):
"The big crash is coming. 2017 or 2018"Erm... That never happened either.
So that is now two occasions where the machine was wrong and also in the space of four days, MA has given
three alternative dates to the "big crash" and even worse, has been (without realising?) inconsistent in when the crash is coming. His machine allegedly predicts major events "to the day", so why so ambiguous about this alleged crash?
"2017 or 2018"
I could predict that yet I make no claims to working out the inner workings of the universe nor having an AI supercomputer I've been developing since the 1970s.
Month's later at €2,500 a ticket, this happened:
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/armstrong-economics-upcoming-events/world-economic-conference/berlin-world-economic-conference-nov-28th-29th/In Martin's own words, I am indeed beginning to connect the dots!...In another article that same vintage year (2015) for MA:
https://www.lavanguardia.com/lacontra/20150625/54432509475/la-contra-martin-armstrong.html"In October of this year will begin a debt crisis of governments (historically, none has survived) that will reach the high point in 2017"
The high point never occured since global gov debt has continued rising - currently $244trn.
Machine was wrong again.
Another interesting contrarian read:
https://dev.peakprosperity.com/forum-topic/meeting-martin-armstrong/In this article:
https://www.tradingfloor.com/posts/is-martin-armstrongs-debt-crisis-upon-us-6299991MA is quoted as saying:
“The fact that we have the stock markets crashing into the 2015.75 turning point rather than making a major high is indicative of the future we should expect to unfold”The DOW actually spiked into October, fell by the same amount in Dec that same year and the rest is history. This "crash" and "major high" never happened.
Also, in the book
Not My Grandfather's Wall Street published 2015, there is a chapter titled:
Marty Problemsit sheds a little more light on what he was doing at the time (circa 1999). In effect, he is still doing today what he was doing back then, only he wasn't registered with the relevant authorities to give advice on futures to institutional investors. I suppose now his client base is retail, he is free to do what he pleases (different rules & regs) and can still charge high sums for analysis that is no much better than the next guy. His just has a LOT more theatre and storytelling sat behind it.
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As others have mentioned on here, I wonder if the Socrates/pi model is just as a flawed as any other quant theory at any major financial institution, but it also hides or is linked to incriminating him for any crime he
may have committed all those years ago?
Thus to the problem: if the authorities were to get their hands on his "machine", he goes to jail for a long time. If he keeps up this charade that the machine is in fact some major discovery/his IP, and therefore will not forfeit it to the authorities. To maintain this charade, he then pushes out "forecasts" from said machine, and that also explains why post 2015 he has been wrong on so many things.
In his own words, he "does not have much time left on this planet" and is thinking about his "posterity". It isn't too much a stretch to think he is using Socrates to get his "own back" on the state and if that means screwing retail investors out of cash, well so be it.
It is after all classic bait and switch sales tactics that uses the fact, fact, BS trickle of content. This creates a lot of confusion where his fans can continue pointing to all the times he was right or said something logical, but dismiss the BS as a "reversal" or turning point rather than anything significant.
I still think he is interesting for an alternate perspective on socioeconomics.
But I am increasingly sceptical of his machine/Socrates predicting the future. if even Google/FB cannot nail AI with all of their money, resources and connection, I seriously doubt some former convict who has lied about buying office space in St Pete (it was a virtual office) and hasn't coded a decent website has nailed it either.
Additionally, think of all the electric/computing power needed for an AI machine to forecast events decades into the future to an accuracy of on the day. Using his argument of everything is connected and the laws of physics, it doesn't add up. The latter would mean VAST quantities of energy use unless of course, maybe he did have a machine up until he was incarcerated and it no longer exists.
Now all his "forecasts" are made up or from memory, hence why he keeps calling things wrong ever since he was released from prison? That assumes he had such a machine in the first place...