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Bill Bonner

Some number of random thoughts all making sense within my fevered brain.

Submitted by Roanman on Fri, 04/27/2012 - 20:19

 

For the last two years or so I have predicted we will not see an uncoordinated crash of the euro, but rather a coordinated fall of multiple currencies US$, Euro, Yuan, Pound, Yen.

They all are/were in big trouble, but none of them could act on their own unless they wanted to expose themselves as bankrupt.

If they default, the banking system collapses.

If they inflate on their own, their holdings move away, so they had to find a way to inflate at the same time, so that the currency pairs don't reveal the problem to the public & since people are convinced that inflation is about prices, it all needed to go in sync.

Now, they‘ve done the first step to coordinate their printing presses.

Essentially all the big currencies on the planet are increasing the money supply in a linked fashion, keeping the currency pairs stable, devaluing the savings, keeping the banks afloat, keeping the system running.

If this is successful, the predictions of libertarians claiming the system will destroy itself by inflation will not come true.  We shall see.   Richard Russell

 

 

No portfolio is perfect or without risk.  Yet, too often we think of risk narrowly and ignore the greatest risks of all in the form of monetary collapse, social disorder, regime change, and emergency edicts.

Warren Buffett disparages gold because it has no yield.

The reason it has no yield is that is has no risk. Yield is what you earn when you take risk.

Gold has no credit risk, no currency risk, no maturity risk, indeed no risk of any kind. It is just gold.

In contrast, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway stock when priced not in dollars but in ounces of gold has declined in value by about 75 percent since 2000 from 280 ounces per share to 70 ounces per share.

Put differently, someone who bought gold rather than Berkshire in 2000 could today buy four times as much Berkshire stock using the same gold.

There has been similar appreciation in the value of fine art. Admittedly this is a selective example. Yet it is true that over centuries it is the hard assets not the paper assets that retain value through collapse and catastrophe.

The old money knows this ... they have seen it all before.   James Rickards

 

 

I guess two things stand out to me.  The first is it’s amazing how much complacency the various central governments can buy with the liquidity they are pumping into the market. 

You have the situation in Spain, which is looking like Greece on steroids, and nobody seems to care because of the liquidity coming into the markets.”

“I’m too old to wish for chaos, but it’s coming.  I think the market’s response to situations that make otherwise rational people seem nervous, is fairly amusing.  What we are seeing right now is the rising tide of liquidity floating most ships, particularly the conventional ships.   Rick Rule

 

 

“For every one person these days who dies fighting in US wars around the world, 25 other soldiers kill themselves. Veterans are killing themselves at a rate of one every 80 minutes. There are more than 6,500 veteran suicides every year. That’s more than all the American soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq in the last 10 years, according to a New York Times analysis. Being a veteran apparently doubles your risk of suicide. Economic conditions wrought by government policies around the world have contributed to the death toll.

 Europe is undergoing an epidemic of suicide in countries seriously hurt by the downturn. In Greece, the suicide rate among men increased more than 24% since the disaster hit. In Ireland, male suicides have shot up more than 16%. In Italy, economic-motivated suicides have increased 52%...

Life is hard enough on its own. Government makes it harder. Its recession-causing policies; its policy responses that do not work; its regulations that makes people crazy; its poverty-inducing taxes and inflation; and, most of all, its wars, have driven millions to despair. Why the state in particular? It all comes down to the sense of having control over your life. The essence of statecraft is the absence of choice and the inability to escape. Many operations of the state try to disguise these features…

The faces of people in line at the DMV, the sauntering mass in line to be screened by the TSA and even the blank stares you see in the post office lines. There is something about state policy that demoralizes us all. That takes a toll on our health and our outlook on life and even leads to tragedy.   Jeffrey Tucker

 

 

There are 240 million voting age Americans. About 130 million will likely vote in the 2012 election based upon recent voter participation results. This means that 110 million Americans don’t give a crap about who runs this country or they’ve come to their senses and realize our votes don’t matter. Between 1840 and 1900 voter participation ranged between 70% and 82% as Americans took their civic duty seriously and believed their vote counted.

Since 1913, when the politicians relinquished control of our currency to a private bank controlled by a small group of powerful men, voter participation for President has ranged between 49% and 62%. It hasn’t surpassed 57% since 1968. Now that corporations are people and our candidates are selected by a few rich men, the transformation from a republic to a corporate fascist state is almost complete…

There are high paying good jobs in America, but there aren’t many and on-line college graduates from the University of Phoenix aren’t going to get them. The highest paying jobs today require a high level of specialization and education, especially in the healthcare and technology industries. This disqualifies the vast majority of government run public school graduates…

The conversion of our country from making high quality things other countries needed to a debt driven service economy of paper pushers, hash slingers, and retail ‘specialists’ has slowly but surely destroyed the middle class. The masses are distracted by the latest technological marvel that allows them to waste another two hours per day posting how they feel about the latest episode of America’s Got Something or America’s Top Whatever. We have become a country that glories in our materialism and shallow culture while acting like a thug around the world with our unparalleled military machine…

This result is not an accident. It was set in motion by the actions of a handful of rapacious, wealthy powerful men that have been calling the shots in this country for the last hundred years. It wasn’t a planned conspiracy but the logical result of man-made inflation, a fiat currency not backed by gold, the craving of rich men to become richer, a willfully ignorant populace, and a slow devolution of our society into a corporate fascist state. We praise and honor psychopathic criminals while scorning and ridiculing the middle class workers that built this country. The American dream has become a nightmare for the millions of unemployed and underemployed. The acceleration of debt accumulation and money printing guarantees this rotting carcass of a country will go belly up in the foreseeable future.”    Jim Quinn

 

 

“A decent man is too busy — improving his business, his home, his family — to take much interest in politics.  Besides, he knows it is a flim-flam.  He’s seen how hard it is to make any real improvement at home, even when you are close to the facts and on the job full time. Imagine trying to improve things far away, where you don’t really know what is going on! 

An honest man knows better than to interfere in other peoples’ business. His own business is tough enough.  He cares deeply about the things around him...and tries to make his world better in every way he can.  But he would be embarrassed to pretend to solve other peoples’ problems.  Even if he is only offering advice, he does so reluctantly...carefully...and tentatively.

If he is smart he knows that you can’t really make things better by bullying and threatening people. An economy works best by doing the one thing that the fixers can’t allow — letting people make their own deals, find their own jobs, and solve their own problems. It’s the one thing the fixers can’t do, and the one thing every candidate regards as political suicide — just getting out of the way.”   Bill Bonner

 

 

“To the establishment media, the race for the Republican nomination is over — Mitt Romney is the presumed winner.  Every globalist on the Republican side has come out and endorsed him — including those who don’t want him as president.

This reflects the concern Republican kingmakers still have about Ron Paul, who will now make a better showing than ever at the polls, due to the anti-Romney feelings among many conservatives and the growing anti-war sentiment.  

What is disturbing to the PTB is that Ron Paul continues to rack up delegates far in excess of his showing in primaries, which were not binding. ..... Huh?.....  However, I think they will pull out all the stops to keep a brokered convention from happening and make sure that Romney wins on the first ballot at the Tampa convention.”   Joel Skousen

 

 

"In bailing out the banking system, central banks have put their money on the wrong horse since banks are almost completely disconnected from their true role as a tool of the real economy. The labyrinth of complexity and intentional opacity is designed to hide this fact.

Real credit is shrinking throughout the system, but synthetic credit is alive, well and flourishing. The financial system now exists to its own exclusive benefit."   Jeffrey Snider 

 

 

The Magna Carta and Habeus Corpus

Submitted by Roanman on Sun, 01/01/2012 - 08:01

 

“The doctrine of habeas corpus goes back to before the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215. 

It [Magna Carta] was an ancient Anglo-Saxon limitation on the power of government. If the feds held a prisoner, a writ of habeas corpus required them to ‘produce the body.’ The government had to either release the person or charge him with a crime. For more than 800 years, this gave people some protection against government.

But now, in the Year of Our Lord 2011, the Congress of the United States of America, with the complicity of POTUS, himself, has seen fit to deny the right of habeas corpus to American citizens.

Henceforth, the feds can capture you, put you in prison and waterboard you every day for the rest of your life. 

They don’t have to charge you with murder or jay-walking or any crime at all. They don’t have to let you talk to a lawyer. Or to your spouse. Or to your Congressman.

They don’t have to read you your rights or provide any evidence against you. Like the Argentines in the ’80s, they just ‘disappear’ you. And you’re gone forever…

We’re talking about American citizens who can be taken from the United States and sent to a camp at Guantánamo Bay and held indefinitely. 

It puts every single citizen American at risk.

Really, what security does this indefinite detention of Americans give us?

The first and flawed premise, both here and in the badly named Patriot Act, is that our pre-9/11 police powers were insufficient to stop terrorism.

So now the feds, whose salaries we pay, can spy on us with drones we paid for too.

They can send a swat team to disappear us ... and keep us in prison.

The genius of modern democracy is that it makes the citizen a party to his own enslavement.

Rather than give up 10% of his output to his feudal lord and master, he gives up 30% to 50% to his democratically-elected bosses.

They tell him what to do. And he believes he is giving the orders!”

Bill Bonner 12/20/2011

 

Click anywhere above for the entire Bill Bonner piece title "Power Corrupts"

Click on the above photo for a very quick and simple site on the Magna Carta.

 

Bill Bonner goes off

Submitted by Roanman on Sat, 05/22/2010 - 13:30

 

I like Bill Bonner a lot.

I've read "The Daily Reckoning" for a long time and rarely skip his column.

But clearly, he has been spending way too much time with "The Mogambo Guru".

And that can't possibly be good for anybody's mental health.

 

“The West is doomed.

It is already second rate.

It just doesn't realize it yet.

The Chinese work harder.

They save more.

They are better organized...and probably smarter.

And there are more of them.

They are not burdened by two centuries of success ... neither by expensive social welfare programs, nor by a Goliath military-industrial complex, nor by thousands of lobbyists, lawyers, and educators.

The return on investment capital is higher.

You just have to pay off an official or two.

In America and Europe, you have to pay off the entire establishment ... the unions, the politicians (local, state and national), the hacks, the regulators, the pentagon, the meddlers, the do-gooders, the unemployed, the contractors, the public employees, the poor, the rich, the halt, the lame ...

... every leech in Christendom ....

It is just a matter of time before the Chinese take over.

Soon, they will be the richest, most advanced, most accomplished people on earth...its leading innovators, its greatest artists and architects ... its standout scientists ... and its top military power.”

 Bill Bonner

 Or, as Mogambo himself might say (WFD)

 

To quote Bill Bonner

Submitted by Roanman on Tue, 05/11/2010 - 06:17

 

Bill Bonner at the Daily Reckoning does a nice job here in analyzing the Greek debt crisis simply, and with the possible exception of a central banker or your garden variety EU bureaucrat, in language anybody can understand.

Click anywhere on the quote for the entire piece.

Recomended.


Greek communists are usually a reliable bastion of error and darkness.

Their ideas are appalling.

Their proposals are absurd.

The only thing they are not wrong about is their opinion of the ruling classes - whom they regard as morons.


China, history repeating?

Submitted by Roanman on Sat, 11/21/2009 - 14:41

 

From The Daily Reckoning

Bill Bonner

11/20/2009

“In the early 19th century, traders from Britain and America bought porcelain (china), silk and tea. Trouble was, they could find nothing to sell in exchange. The trade balance with China went negative, with China building up substantial monetary reserves (in silver). In 1830, a Chinese merchant, Hao Gua, who enjoyed a near monopoly on trade with the gweilos [foreign devils], was said to be one of the richest men in the world. Then, the English found something the Chinese would buy - opium. The fruit of the poppy was popular in many countries but, as usual, the Chinese over-did it. First, it was a favorite of the leisure classes. Then, it trickled down to ordinary workmen. Soon the coolies were neglecting their labors and China was in crisis. When the authorities tried to stop the drug trade, the English opened fire, humiliating the government and almost bankrupting it. People lost confidence in Manchu rule. By mid-century, nearly half the country was in open revolt. A Christian revolutionary had set up the ‘Heavenly Kingdom’ in Nanjing. He raised armies and challenged the Qing Dynasty to battle. For a time, it looked like he might win.
 
“In the north, meanwhile, infanticide of female babies had become common in Nien territory - a reaction to famine and scarcity. By mid-century, one out of four young men in the region couldn't find a bride; ‘bare branches,’ they were called. By 1855, these bare branches were ready to break. They armed themselves and organized. They drove out government forces and controlled a large part of the country before they were finally put down. Between natural calamities and war, some experts put the 19-century death toll at an unimaginable 200 million. And then came the 20th century! The Middle Kingdom staggered forward, from error to accident to catastrophe! From the Taiping insurrection to Mao Tsetung. Then, 30 years ago, Deng Tsaoping announced the new line: ‘To get rich is glorious,’ he said. Suddenly, the Chinese began saving every penny. Building factories. Cutting prices. And beating the barbarians at their own game.

“Again, they exaggerated. While Americans built too many shopping malls, the Chinese built too many factories. Then, in 2008-2009 came the ‘greatest collapse in world trade in history,’ says Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman. Americans - their biggest customers - rediscovered thrift. You might think China would realize it had too much capacity and back off. Instead, it rolled more steel. It built more factories and offices...entire cities.

“If stimulus spending is a measure of stupidity, the Chinese are three times as dumb as Americans. Both governments respond to correction by doing more wrong than they did before. Loans in China are rising by about 40% of GDP annually. The money supply is soaring at nearly 30% a year. ‘We estimate that [fixed capital formation] accounted for 70% of China's growth in 2008 and close to 90% of China's first half of 2009 growth,’ says a report from Pivot Capital.

“It is just a matter of time until this capital spending bubble blows up. But China is full of bubbles. In another example of its central planning, it made the ancient practice of infanticide state policy. One couple/one child was the rule. Missing girls was the result. Then, when the boys grew up, they discovered that their brides were missing too. The working age population of China is collapsing. There were 7 workers to every old person in 1990. Now, there are barely 4. By 2035, there will be only 2. What happened to the workers? They are the missing children of the missing girls who then became missing mothers. And by 2040, 397 billion old people - more than the total populations of France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK combined - will be missing the support of those missing workers.”

Bill Bonner, The Daily Reckoning, 11-20-09
 
 
 

 

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