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Martin Armstrong is a financial, well, forecaster might be the right term, who has written extensively on historical patterns of economics.
He has a checkered past (I know that he went to jail for contempt of court, but what I have read it seems that was an injustice), but there is no doubt that he has introduced new concepts for us to read and analyze. While in jail, he produced a number of interesting papers looking at asset prices through history, including from ANCIENT history. He is one of the few who looks at cyclicality (time patterns) as well as a MACRO view of the markets (that is, he does not look at the price of gold alone, he looks at everything else too -- with a supercomputer).
He is now out of jail and has set-up shop as a macro-consulting company. On most days (including today, Saturday) he publishes a few easy-to-digest items looking at various issues of the day. His blog:
http://armstrongeconomics.com/armstrong_economics_blogWhat finally moved me today to start this thread is his post was his very interesting piece (from today) "Money -- Credit -- Debt & Derivatives".
It looks like derivatives are as old as money itself (maybe older!), take a look at the article:
http://armstrongeconomics.com/archives/31401* * *
I have been in various threads here at the forum where Armstrong's material has come up.
I look forward to reading your views on his ideas, and his proposed solutions (also controversial).