Friday, December 1, 2023

"So We Never Live..."

"We do not rest satisfied with the present. We anticipate the future as too slow in coming, as if in order to hasten its course; or we recall the past, to stop its too rapid flight. So imprudent are we that we wander in the times which are not ours, and do not think of the only one which belongs to us; and so idle are we that we dream of those times which are no more, and thoughtlessly overlook that which alone exists. For the present is generally painful to us. We conceal it from our sight, because it troubles us; and if it be delightful to us, we regret to see it pass away. We try to sustain it by the future, and think of arranging matters which are not in our power, for a time which we have no certainty of reaching. Let each one examine his thoughts, and he will find them all occupied with the past and the future. We scarcely ever think of the present; and if we think of it, it is only to take light from it to arrange the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means; the future alone is our end. So we never live, but we hope to live; and, as we are always preparing to be happy, it is inevitable we should never be so."
- Blaise Pascal
The Marmalade, "Reflections Of My Life"

"How It Really Is"

You can’t make this stuff up. Some of the News-story headlines that didn’t make the Googleweb were pretty hilarious:

"National Christmas Tree topples to the ground at White House: 'Perfectly summing up Joe Biden's presidency.'" (Fox News)

"‘Fitting’: White House Christmas Comes Crashing Down" (Catholic News)

"White House Christmas tree falling called a 'metaphor' for Biden: 'It makes sense.'" (Fox News)
o
Hat tip to Robert Malone, MD MS for this material.


Bill Bonner, "The King's Head"

"The King's Head"
That government is best... which is occasionally decapitated.
by Bill Bonner

"The best government is a monarchy…with an occasional beheading."
~ Voltaire

Baltimore, Maryland - "Yes, Karl Marx was right about one thing. There’s a difference between people who work on the assembly lines and the people who own them. About $20 million of difference, per family. That’s the 21st century gap between what the average non-asset owner gained from his wages and what the average member of the asset-owning elite 1% gained. Our friend, David Stockman clarifies:

"Since money-printing went into permanent high gear after the dotcom crash in 2000, the top 1% of households have gained $20 million each in inflation-adjusted net worth. Likewise, the top 0.1% or 131,000 households at the tippy top of the economic ladder have gained $88 million each in inflation-adjusted net worth.

During the last 22 years the median real annual wage, as tracked by Social Security payroll tax records, has risen by only 14.5% or just $235 per annum. And, no, we didn’t omit any zeros from that figure. These piddling gains amount to just $4.50 per week on average.

These annual inflation-adjusted gains in the median wage compare to real net worth gains of nearly $1 million and $4 million per annum for the top 1% and top 0.1%, respectively. In relative terms, these annual wealth gains for the top 1% were 4,250X larger than the median real wage gain and 17,000X larger for the top 0.1%."

We, the Rabble: Pity the “People’… the non-deciders…the middle class… hoi polloi…the majority…the voters! They are like hungry mice waiting for crumbs to fall from the table. But ours is not a whine about ‘inequality.’ We take it for granted that all people are not created equal. Some are leaders. Most are followers. Some are thinkers; most leave the thinking to others. Inequality is inevitable…undeniable…part of the ‘way we are;’ we sort ourselves into teams, tribes, classes, castes, sects, clubs, nations and races. Some become members of the ‘upper’ class of deciders and influencers. Others, mostly do what they are told.

The elites – whether by conquest or ballot box – set themselves up as government…and use their power to rip everyone else off. We are exaggerating, of course. There’s always more to the story. And the ‘more’ here is that the elites are also very useful. They’re responsible for the administration of justice…for much of our science…some of our learning and great breakthroughs of capitalism…for making the trains run on time…keeping the airplanes from falling from the sky…and for much of the output that makes our modern lives more agreeable.

A Government of Laws: But over time, the deciders get more and more power. Power leads to corruption. That’s why the American Constitution was not meant to give them power, but to keep them in check. It expressly limits the power of government to certain things. Of the rest, it says: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people, respectively.” The idea was to prevent Washington from getting too big for its britches. This is also why Jefferson remarked that we may need a revolution every 10 years or so. “God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion,” he said.

Closer to our own time, Dwight Eisenhower warned, specifically, against the elite that he knew best: "We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."

All that was foreseen – by Jefferson, Voltaire and Eisenhower – has now come to pass. And now, a revolt of the masses is not only unavoidable; it’s necessary. Kings are fine. But you need to chop their heads off from time to time. And it falls to the young and the outsiders to do the job.

A Time for Change: In the US, RFK, Jr. is the frontrunner among the under 45. The Rolling Stone reports: "Robert Kennedy Jr. is polling ahead of President Joe Biden, and former President Donald Trump among voters under the age of 45 in key battleground states, according to a new poll from Sienna College and The New York Times.

The findings in the poll reflect another recent study conducted by Quinnipiac University, which surveyed 1,610 self-identified registered voters. The poll found Kennedy to be the leading candidate for respondents between the age of 18-36, securing 38 percent of the demographic compared to Biden (32 percent) and Trump (27 percent)."

Not surprisingly, the young voters want a change. They turn neither to the Left nor to the Right… They know the game is rigged against them; they know, too, that both Republicans and Democrats are in on it. So, they turn to upstarts, unknowns…and mavericks.

Naturally, too, the mainstream press and politicians try to discredit the reformers as ‘kooky,’ ‘far right’, and ‘extremist.’ Very little of what is written about RFK, Jr. or Milei, for example, looks any deeper. And it is quite true that the outsiders have skeletons in their closets and some weird ideas. But what would you expect? They would have to be half-crazy to challenge the political bosses. The danger is high (Donald Trump faces 91 charges in 4 indictments)…and the chance of real success is slim (even if you win the White House…you still have the courts, the press, the bureaucracy, the Deep State, the universities…and Congress itself…against you) .

The promise of democracy is that (eventually) the masses will wake up and ‘throw the bums out.’ But both Democrats and Republicans, and all the Powers-that-Be, are desperate to keep the bums right where they are. More to come..."

Dan, I Allegedly, "Experts Warn 'Buy Nothing!'"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly AM 12/1/23
"Experts Warn 'Buy Nothing!'"
"The financial world is on edge as banks face a staggering $684 Billion calamity that could send shockwaves through the economy! We're uncovering the truth behind the looming disaster, and you won't believe the risks to your own wallet."
Comments here:

Adventures With Danno, "Frustrating Trip To Kroger!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, AM 12/1/23
"Frustrating Trip To Kroger! 
The Good The Bad And The Ugly"
"In today's vlog, we are at Kroger and are finding some frustrating price increases on groceries! We do find some good deals in the store, but continue to see grocery items soar in price, making it harder for families to put food on the table!"
Comments here:

Thursday, November 30, 2023

Jeremiah Babe, "Warning! You May Lose All Your Money"

Jeremiah Babe, 11/30/23
"Warning! You May Lose All Your Money; Home Sales 
Crash, No Buyers; Too Poor To Retire"
Comments here:

Gerald Celente, "Trends Journal" 11/30/23

Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, "Trends Journal" 11/30/23
"The 'Trends Journal' is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present facts and truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for what’s next in these increasingly turbulent times."
Comments here:

Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Uno"

Full screen recommended.
Deuter, "Uno"

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Courting the Moon"

Full screen recommended.
2002, "Courting the Moon"
"A Mayan legend says that the hummingbird is actually the sun
 in disguise, and he is trying to court a beautiful woman, who is the moon."

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Blown by fast winds from a hot, massive star, this cosmic bubble is huge. Cataloged as Sharpless 2-308 it lies some 5,000 light-years away toward the constellation of the Big Dog (Canis Major) and covers slightly more of the sky than a Full Moon. That corresponds to a diameter of 60 light-years at its estimated distance. The massive star that created the bubble, a Wolf-Rayet star, is the bright one near the center of the nebula. Wolf-Rayet stars have over 20 times the mass of the Sun and are thought to be in a brief, pre-supernova phase of massive star evolution. 
Fast winds from this Wolf-Rayet star create the bubble-shaped nebula as they sweep up slower moving material from an earlier phase of evolution. The windblown nebula has an age of about 70,000 years. Relatively faint emission captured by narrowband filters in the deep image is dominated by the glow of ionized oxygen atoms mapped to a blue hue. Presenting a mostly harmless outline, SH2-308 is also known as The Dolphin-head Nebula.”

The Poet: Langston Hughes, “Life Is Fine”

 

“Life Is Fine”

“I went down to the river,
I set down on the bank.
I tried to think but couldn’t,
So I jumped in and sank.
I came up once and hollered!
I came up twice and cried!
If that water hadn’t a-been so cold
I might’ve sunk and died.
But it was Cold in that water! It was cold!

I took the elevator
Sixteen floors above the ground.
I thought about my baby
And thought I would jump down.
I stood there and I hollered!
I stood there and I cried!
If it hadn’t a-been so high
I might’ve jumped and died.
But it was High up there! It was high!

So since I’m still here livin’,
I guess I will live on.
I could’ve died for love -
But for livin’ I was born.
Though you may hear me holler,
And you may see me cry -
I’ll be dogged, sweet baby,
If you gonna see me die.

Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!”

- Langston Hughes

"What Foolish Forgetfulness..."

“You live as if you were destined to live forever, no thought of your frailty ever enters your head, of how much time has already gone by you take no heed. You squander time as if you drew from a full and abundant supply, so all the while that day which you bestow on some person or thing is perhaps your last. You have all the fears of mortals and all the desires of immortals… What foolish forgetfulness of mortality to defer wise resolutions to the fiftieth or sixtieth year, and to intend to begin life at a point to which few have attained.”
- Denis Diderot

Gregory Mannarino, "Economy Failing Faster, Unemployment Rising, Inflation Creeping Higher"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 11/30/23
"Economy Failing Faster, Unemployment Rising, 
Inflation Creeping Higher"
Comments here:
o

The Daily "Near You?"

Pasadena, Texas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"The Trick..."

"The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable,
or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same."
- Carlos Castaneda

Scott Ritter, "Hamas Winning Battle For Gaza"

Full screen recommended.
Scott Ritter, 11/30/23
"Hamas Winning Battle For Gaza"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Democracy Now! 11/30/23
"'This Is Genocide': Attorney Raji Sourani on Israeli 
War Crimes & Fleeing Gaza After Home Was Bombed"
Comments here:

Dan, I Allegedly, "It’s Time to Tap the Brakes"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 11/30/23
"It’s Time to Tap the Brakes"
"3900 car dealers wrote a letter to the president to say it’s time to tap the brakes on ev car sales. Jamie Dimon says we need to get ready for a recession. EV cars are not working today."
Comments here:

Adventures With Danno, "Stocking Up At Costco!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 11/30/23
"Stocking Up At Costco!"
"In today's vlog, we are at Costco and are stocking up on some of these great sales going on for the month of December 2023! We take you with us as we show all the different deals and things we are adding to our stockpile!"
Comments here:

"How It Really Is"

Bill Bonner, "Nothing for Something"

"Nothing for Something"
One trillion in interest payments per year... 
just to keep pace with the past.
by Bill Bonner

"What a lousy way to thank me
After how I've tried,
Ah, don't you think I've got a right to cry..."
~ Marty Robbins

Youghal, Ireland - "Nowt comes from nowt. Every person on the planet has a mother and a father. And every thing had some other thing come before it, opening the door for it and making introductions. So it comes to be that when a generation of Americans got something for nothing, the next generation got nothing for something. It must pay $1 trillion-a-year just to keep up with the interest on the things their parents and grandparents consumed.

The young are getting tired of being ripped off. They are beginning to revolt. That may be the real meaning of Milei’s victory in Argentina. Milei ‘came out of nowhere’ to clinch the top job, running against one of the savviest, slickest, most professional politicians in Argentine history – Sergio Massa. Stephen Kinzer, writing in the Boston Globe: "The victory of Javier Milei, until recently a little-known economist who had served only a single term in Congress, is a symptom of global anger at sclerotic political elites. For decades, Argentina has been run by a corrupt and self-interested clique that has failed to provide the nation’s citizens with security or prosperity. This month’s election was a rebellion against that elite, which Milei calls “the caste.”

Milei’s victory is no aberration. Opposition candidates have won 17 of the 18 elections held in Latin America over the last four years. That same impulse is palpable in the United States. This is a main reason Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016, and why he may win again next year. When an entrenched political class runs out of energy and loses voter confidence, more people adopt a “throw the bums out” attitude.

The Political Caste: Argentina has no real immigration problem. Its problems are financial. The ‘political caste’ has spent too much money and fouled the economy. The US follows along. Today’s dollar is worth only about 55 cents, compared to a dollar in 1999. Some ordinary people have kept up with it. Many have fallen behind. But for all people working for wages, it has been a struggle. A lousy way to thank them all.

‘Inflation,’ though difficult to explain or control, is the price we pay for letting a corrupt and dissolute elite tell us what to do. They told us we should invade Iraq…fight in Afghanistan…support conflicts all around the edges of the empire…and boost the economy by printing money to increase ‘demand.’ Of course, the new demand was as phony as the fake money and the fake interest rates. But it had its effect; more money bought more things…now rusting, collecting dust, used up and derelict. The new money also increased prices for the assets that the deciders owned…and for the products that the non-deciders now want to buy.

The things we needed to buy with money we didn’t have can be put into three categories – the absurd, the useless, and the dangerous. Sanctions…trade restrictions…subsidies to selected industries…trillions for extra ‘defense’ … diversity programs…. sex change operations (even in the military)…we needed to fight drugs, poverty, global warming, urban decay, misinformation, infection, white supremacy and anti-semitism. We needed to do this….we needed to do that…to find those ‘weapons of mass destruction’…or to shut down the economy for ‘two weeks to stop the spread’…– and everything had a price tag.

Mo’ Money: Between 1999 and 2023, the Fed ‘printed’ nearly $8.5 trillion in new money to pay for these things. That, along with borrowing from private sources brought US debt to $33.7 trillion today. Growth rates sagged. Most people didn’t get richer…they got poorer. They sank deeper and deeper into a sea of debt – public and private….with interest rates rising to 21% on credit cards and 4.4% on the best credits in the world – US Treasury bonds.

Is it any wonder that the masses – especially the young – are in revolt? Dragging the burden of the past….how will they ever afford a proper future? They are among the malleable millions…the multitudes who pay taxes, count themselves lucky to have a paycheck and don’t ask too many questions. And now, they may go through their entire lives trying to pay for the things that only exist in hollowed out husks and discredited slogans...things their parents thought were necessary, but were unwilling to pay for. Haven’t they got the right to burn a bus or two?

Already, the cost of the interest on the US debt comes to aout $10,000 per family per year. Soon, the debt will pass $40 trillion…and then $50 trillion (there is no plan to cut it back). Extra borrowing will have to be met with higher interest rates and more money printing. At 8% interest, and $50 trillion outstanding, the interest charge will come to about $3 trillion per year (it is not all refinanced at once). That will be $30,000 per family.

Revolt of the Masses: There will be no question of paying it or even keeping up with it. Then, we will be with the gauchos…with collapsing public services…wallpaper money…galloping poverty…and voters ready for a change. We are seeing the cutting edge of this ‘revolt of the masses’… where else – in Argentina, itself. Javier Milei is unlike Donald Trump, in that he actually has ideas about how an economy works and real plans for how to rescue it from 70 years of crony mismanagement.

Normally, Milei would be as unelectable…well…as Trump himself. He used to teach tantric sex. We’re not sure what that is, but it sounds like it might be fun. He also believes his dead dog told him that he would become president. He is not a mainstream politician, but a ‘marginal’ one. And now, there he is in Argentina’s highest office. Does the US have its own Milei…stalking the 2024 election? Maybe. Stay tuned…"

Note from the Research Desk: The interest payments on the national debt are close to $1 trillion a year (see below). But that’s not the only rising cost since the pandemic. According a report published earlier this week in Bloomberg, it now costs $119.27 for a family to buy the same goods and services it cost just $100 to buy in 2020. Remember that next time someone tells you inflation is dead. Real people live in a world where the actual price level (higher) matters more than the rate of change (still high).

"Alert! Bombshell WW3 Info, This Changes Everything; The World Is About To Change"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 11/29/23
"Alert! Bombshell WW3 Info, This Changes Everything;
 The World Is About To Change"
Comments here:

Wednesday, November 29, 2023

Jeremiah Babe, "Walmart Is Morally Bankrupt As They Raise Prices; Credit Crisis Is End Game"

Jeremiah Babe, 11/29/23
"Walmart Is Morally Bankrupt As They Raise Prices; 
Credit Crisis Is End Game"
Comments here:

Musical Interlude: Prelude, "After The Gold Rush"

Prelude, "After The Gold Rush", Studio version.

Prelude, "After The Gold Rush", Live 

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Close to the Great Bear (Ursa Major) and surrounded by the stars of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici), this celestial wonder was discovered in 1781 by the metric French astronomer Pierre Mechain. Later, it was added to the catalog of his friend and colleague Charles Messier as M106. Modern deep telescopic views reveal it to be an island universe - a spiral galaxy around 30 thousand light-years across located only about 21 million light-years beyond the stars of the Milky Way. 
Along with a bright central core, this stunning galaxy portrait, a composite of image data from amateur and professional telescopes, highlights youthful blue star clusters and reddish stellar nurseries tracing the galaxy's spiral arms. It also shows off remarkable reddish jets of glowing hydrogen gas. In addition to small companion galaxy NGC 4248 at bottom right, background galaxies can be found scattered throughout the frame. M106, also known as NGC 4258, is a nearby example of the Seyfert class of active galaxies, seen across the spectrum from radio to X-rays. Active galaxies are powered by matter falling into a massive central black hole.”

Chet Raymo, "Lessons"

"Lessons"
by Chet Raymo

"There is a four-line poem by Yeats, called "Gratitude to the Unknown Instructors":

"What they undertook to do
They brought to pass;
All things hang like a drop of dew
Upon a blade of grass."

Like so many of the short poems of Yeats, it is hard to know what the poet had in mind, who exactly were the unknown instructors, and if unknown how could they instruct. But as I opened my volume of "The Poems" this morning, at random, as in the old days people opened the Bible and pointed a finger at a random passage seeking advice or instruction, this is the poem that presented itself. Unsuperstitious person that I am, it seemed somehow apropos, since outside the window, in a thick Irish mist, every blade of grass has its hanging drop.

Those pendant drops, the bejeweled porches of the spider webs, the rose petals cupping their glistening dew - all of that seems terribly important here, now, in the silent mist. There is not much good to say about getting old, but certainly one advantage of the gathering years is the falling away of ego and ambition, the felt need to be always busy, the exhausting practice of accumulation. Who were the instructors who tried to teach me the practice of simplicity when I was young - the poets and the saints, the buddhas who were content to sit beneath the bo tree while the rest of us scurried here and there? I scurried, and I'm not sorry I did, but I must have tucked their lessons into the back of my mind, a cache of wisdom to be opened at my leisure.

Whatever it was they sought to teach has come to pass. All things hang like a drop of dew upon a blade of grass."

Gerald Celente, "Joy Is A Crime, You Can't Be Yourself"

Gerald Celente, Trends Journal 11/29/23
"Joy Is A Crime, You Can't Be Yourself"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present facts and truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for what’s next in these increasingly turbulent times."
Comments here:

The Daily "Near You?"

Huddersfield, Kirklees, United Kingdom
Thanks for stopping by!

The Poet: Galway Kinnell, "Another Night in the Ruins"

"Another Night in the Ruins"

"How many nights must it take
one such as me to learn
that we aren't, after all, made
from that bird that flies out of its ashes,
that for us
as we go up in flames,
our one work is
to open ourselves,
to be the flames?"

~ Galway Kinnell 

"The Monstrous Thing..."

“The monstrous thing is not that men have created roses out of this dung heap, but that, for some reason or other, they should want roses. For some reason or other man looks for the miracle, and to accomplish it he will wade through blood. He will debauch himself with ideas, he will reduce himself to a shadow if for only one second of his life he can close his eyes to the hideousness of reality. Everything is endured – disgrace, humiliation, poverty, war, crime, ennui – in the belief that overnight something will occur, a miracle, which will render life tolerable. And all the while a meter is running inside and there is no hand that can reach in there and shut it off.

All the while someone is eating the bread of life and drinking the wine, some dirty fat cockroach of a priest who hides away in the cellar guzzling it, while up above in the light of the street a phantom host touches the lips and the blood is pale as water. And out of the endless torment and misery no miracle comes forth, no microscopic vestige of relief. Only ideas, pale, attenuated ideas which have to be fattened by slaughter; ideas which come forth like bile, like the guts of a pig when the carcass is ripped open.

Somehow the realization that nothing was to be hoped for had a salutary effect upon me. For weeks and months, for years, in fact, all my life I had been looking forward to something happening, some intrinsic event that would alter my life, and now suddenly, inspired by the absolute hopelessness of everything, I felt relieved, felt as though a great burden had been lifted from my shoulders. At dawn I parted company with the young Hindu, after touching him for a few francs, enough for a room. Walking toward Montparnasse I decided to let myself drift with the tide, to make not the least resistance to fate, no matter in what form it presented itself. 

Nothing that had happened to me thus far had been sufficient to destroy me; nothing had been destroyed except my illusions. I myself was intact. The world was intact. Tomorrow there might be a revolution, a plague, an earthquake; tomorrow there might not be left a single soul to whom one could turn for sympathy, for aid, for faith. It seemed to me that the great calamity had already manifested itself, that I could be no more truly alone than at this very moment. I made up my mind that I would hold on to nothing, that I would expect nothing, that henceforth I would live as an animal, a beast of prey, a rover, a plunderer. Even if war were declared, and it were my lot to go, I would grab the bayonet and plunge it, plunge it up to the hilt. And if rape were the order of the day then rape I would, and with a vengeance.

At this very moment, in the quiet dawn of a new day, was not the earth giddy with crime and distress? Had one single element of man’s nature been altered, vitally, fundamentally altered, by the incessant march of history? By what he calls the better part of his nature, man has been betrayed, that is all. At the extreme limits of his spiritual being man finds himself again naked as a savage. When he finds God, as it were, he has been picked clean: he is a skeleton. One must burrow into life again in order to put on flesh. The word must become flesh; the soul thirsts. 

On whatever crumb my eye fastens, I will pounce and devour. If to live is the paramount thing, then I will live, even if I must become a cannibal. Heretofore I have been trying to save my precious hide, trying to preserve the few pieces of meat that hid my bones. I am done with that. I have reached the limits of endurance. My back is to the wall; I can retreat no further. As far as history goes I am dead. If there is something beyond I shall have to bounce back. I have found God, but he is insufficient. I am only spiritually dead. Physically I am alive. Morally I am free. The world which I have departed is a menagerie. The dawn is breaking on a new world, a jungle world in which the lean spirits roam with sharp claws. If I am a hyena I am a lean and hungry one: I go forth to fatten myself.”
- Henry Miller, "Tropic of Cancer"

"And If You Try..."

 

"How Milei Could Make Argentina a Beacon of Freedom and Prosperity"

"How Milei Could Make Argentina 
a Beacon of Freedom and Prosperity"
by International Man

"International Man: Javier Milei made history by becoming the world’s first anarcho-capitalist president. What is the historical significance of his victory? Are you optimistic?

Doug Casey: Milei’s election is a big deal - potentially a very, very big deal. He’s the first declared anarcho-capitalist in history to head any country. And not by stealth. He, all the while, said that the State is the enemy and should be abolished. Anarcho-capitalists believe that society can run itself without a State, which is a formalized instrument of coercion. It’s unprecedented for somebody to be elected to run a State that he wants to abolish. And propose that if it continues to exist, it should only have the police, military, and the courts. And even those should be privatized.

Am I optimistic? Looking at it from a long-term point of view, for the last hundred years, individual freedom has been diminishing, and State power has grown hugely all over the world. What’s worse is that the trend is accelerating. Many countries are on the ragged edge of turning into socialist or fascist dictatorships. That includes the US. Since Reagan left office, all of our presidents have been disasters of various types, with the current regime being the worst yet. In Argentina, the Peronists have run the country completely into the ground over the last 75 years.

Of course, maybe Milei’s election is just an uptick in a continuing downtrend because you can’t change a country’s national philosophy overnight. But destroying a State apparatus infested by Peronists, socialists, fascists, and other horrible parasites is a good start. If he can pull the apparatus of the State out by its roots, not just trim it back, the result might last for quite a while. I’m encouraged by the fact that young people and poor people are among his biggest supporters. They recognize that they’re the ones who the State damages the most. Could Argentina be the start of a worldwide trend towards free minds and free markets?

Since I prefer to believe humans are basically decent, I can’t help being optimistic - even if cautiously. He’s going to get lots of resistance from the Deep State, unions, the media, welfare queens, and other "usual suspects."

International Man: Perhaps there is no issue more important in Argentina than money. Milei has promised to "burn down the central bank" and replace the peso with the US dollar. He has made statements favorable to eliminating all legal tender laws and allowing whatever commodity the free market would choose as money - though he hasn’t articulated his exact plans. What do you think Milei should do regarding the money issue? What are the risks of adopting the US dollar and not having any monetary alternatives?

Doug Casey: First of all, he totally understands the government shouldn’t be in the money business. I know that shocks most people to hear, but trusting the government with money is like trusting a teenager with a Corvette and a bottle of Jack Daniels.

Milei correctly believes the government should be basically just a night watchman. It should have nothing to do with the economy or money because they’ll inevitably use regulations and fiat currency to corrupt the society and steal from their subjects. The Argentine government is especially notorious for printing money. That’s the root cause of inflation. Inflation makes it much harder for poor people to save and elevate themselves.

And it’s not just inflation. They have multiple exchange rates, which make it very convenient for government officials to buy money at an artificially low exchange rate while everybody else pays perhaps twice as much. And who can risk paying 100% interest rates? And how can you conduct business when your currency is a laughing stock, worthless outside the country?

Americans don’t really understand the importance of a sound currency because they’re used to a relatively stable dollar. Not so long ago, we used to have expressions like "sound as a dollar" and "the dollar is as good as gold." A sound currency is a major reason why America has prospered. An unsound currency is a major reason Argentina is a basket case. So, yes, money is the number one issue in Argentina. Going from the peso to the dollar is a positive move, but regrettably, it only amounts to jumping out of a raging fire into a frying pan.

The ideal Argentine currency would be gold or silver coinage. Under Milei, Argentines can use any currency that they wish - gold, silver, Bitcoin, or US dollars. Initially, it will largely be dollars, if only because Argentines have hundreds of billions of them hidden abroad and under their mattresses.

Argentina also suffers from a perennial lack of capital, which is a huge problem since capital is critical to prosperity. Few people want to put serious capital into the country. Not just because of the insane currency problems we’ve just discussed but also because of onerous economic regulations and very high taxes. That’s why Argentinians hide their money out of the country. And why foreigners don’t want to invest there.

Milei is looking to freemarketize the country. With sound money, free banking, the abolition of most all regulations, and a very radical reduction in taxes, Argentina could become a gigantic version of Dubai or pre-takeover Hong Kong. It would draw capital in from anywhere and everywhere. It would be an investment magnet rather than a sinkhole for money.

International Man: Milei has vowed to privatize state-owned companies. How would you suggest he does this while ensuring it doesn’t create a new class of oligarchs as it did in Russia in the 1990s?

Doug Casey: For years, I have proposed to many governments that when they privatize, not to do so by selling State assets but by distributing them in the form of shares directly to the people. After all, the people theoretically own all State assets. Make it a reality with share ownership. That plan is pure capitalism but is also about "power to the people." How can you give people more power than giving them direct tradeable share ownership?

They tried something similar in Eastern Europe in the 1990s. But it was complicated; the people didn’t understand what they were getting and typically sold their ownership rights for pennies on the dollar to would-be oligarchs.

To avoid that problem, Argentina should distribute shares pro-rata to all citizens. The shares would be "lettered" and unsalable for a couple of years while prices stabilize, then saleable at perhaps 5% per year over 20 years. Many people would keep them because the dividends should be attractive, and the share prices should go up radically as the economy booms in an inflation-free, regulation-free, and largely tax-free environment.

This is the ideal way to privatize. If the industries are sold, they’d be bought cheaply (perhaps due to corrupt payoffs) by foreigners and the well-connected rich, creating antagonism. At some point in the future, they’d be subject to nationalization again for some reason. However, a future government won’t be easily able to re-nationalize these businesses if the people own all the shares. Ownership by the public would, in addition, help defang the unions, which are a major impediment to prosperity in Argentina.

International Man: Historically, Argentina has stayed out of large global conflicts and remained relatively neutral. In recent years, Argentina joined the BRICS+ countries and became more geopolitically aligned with Russia and China. Milei has said he will reorient Argentina towards the US and Europe geopolitically. What is your advice to Milei on how he should conduct Argentina’s foreign affairs?

Doug Casey: I hope Milei comes to recognize that America today is not what it once was. America, the ideal, is wonderful. But America, the current nation-state, is very different. Henry Kissinger once said something to the effect of: "It’s dangerous being America’s enemy, but it’s even more dangerous being America’s friend." He’s right.

Foreign policy-wise, Milei ought to emulate the example of Singapore, Switzerland, or Dubai and be completely neutral. As Jefferson said, a friend to all, but allied to none. An Argentine ambassador should do no more than make small talk and be friendly. Quite frankly, the country doesn’t need a foreign policy. It should be up to 45 million individual Argentinians to decide who they do or don’t want to deal with.

International Man: If Milei succeeds and his reforms stick, what are the investment or speculative implications for Argentine assets? What are the lifestyle and other international diversification implications?

Doug Casey: If Milei’s reforms stick, within a decade, Argentina could become the most prosperous country in the world. Look at what Pinochet’s limited reforms did for Chile. It changed from a backward mining province into the most advanced and prosperous country on the continent. Milei’s reforms could transform Argentina into both the freest and the most prosperous country on the planet.

Argentina has many advantages. It’s geographically isolated, away from the winds of war which might blow in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s a giant country almost the size of Western Europe but with only 45 million people. It’s got absolutely everything in the way of resources, climate, and scenery. Argentina is the perfect country whose only real problem is its insane government. But that’s about to change.

If he succeeds, I think there will be a rush of millions of Europeans who will see that Argentina has got everything that Europe does - including the favorable aspects of its culture, but none of the disadvantages. It’ll draw the best kind of immigrants, people with capital and education that are anxious for freedom and are self-supporting. Very unlike the migrants currently overwhelming North America and Europe.

What’s just happened is something of world historic importance. I urge you to get on a plane and investigate firsthand. It’s summer there now, and the weather is beautiful. The prices of everything from steak dinners to estancias are at giveaway levels. They won’t be for much longer."

"How It Really Is"

 

Full screen recommended.
The Atlantis Report, 11/29/23
"Inflation Is Now Guaranteed, 
'Rate Cuts In 2024' Signals Major Warning"

"Central banks in major economies including the US and European Union have raised interest rates aggressively for more than a year to curb inflation that reached 8.7% globally in 2022, the highest level since the mid 1990s. The most recent insights from the International Monetary Fund depict a volatile economic landscape, characterized by persistent struggles for the world economy to regain stability. Escalating food prices have a widespread impact across diverse demographics, resulting in a surge in demand at food assistance centers. The United States, grappling with a 40-year high in inflation at 9.1%, witnesses an increasing number of first-time families seeking aid due to soaring grocery prices and rising fuel costs. Meanwhile, the 2024 outlook indicates a trajectory of sluggish growth, heightened inflation, and geopolitical tensions that keep the global economy on the edge of uncertainty. Moody's indicates that elevated interest rates will affect households in the coming year, urging vigilance as central banks navigate unpredictable climate conditions and geopolitical events that could introduce volatility to energy and food prices in 2024. Inflation is now guaranteed, and rate cuts in 2024 are signaling major warning."
Comments here:

Joel Bowman, "Anarchy on the Pampas"

View video here.
"Anarchy on the Pampas"
More chaos and carnage as Argentina 
stares into the post-Peronist void...
by Joel Bowman

"I'm done with the race tracks,
I'm quitting all gambling,
a dead heat I don't want
to ever watch again,
but if a young filly
looks a sure bet on Sunday
I'll gamble all I have,
what can I do then?!"
~ Carlos Gardel Por una Cabeza 
(English translation)

"The gauchos have placed their bets… now we wait to see, along with the rest of the weary world, whether their long-shot outsider proves to be a sprinter…or a stayer. You’ll recall that the long-suffering Argentines recently elected to office the world’s first (self-described) libertarian president, in Sr. Javier Milei. Now we shall see, for better or worse, whether the people are ready for the freedom to which they lay claim. Here we recall Henry David Thoreau’s wonderful opener in his essay, "Civil Disobedience":

"I heartily accept the motto, “That government is best which governs least”; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which I also believe – “That government is best which governs not at all”; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government they have."
~ Henry David Thoreau,"Civil Disobedience"

A New Paradigm: Adroit readers will notice Thoreau’s dangling qualifier… “when men are prepared for it.” For their part, the Argentines have been “preparing” for liberty for the past 75 years. That is, they’ve been running (and re-running… ad bloody nauseam) some version of state-sponsored utopia since before most people alive can remember. From paternalistic Peronism on the “left” to military dictatorship on the “right,” the porteños have lurched from one extreme of the political pendulum to the other.

What, then, can we expect from this newest foray…led, as his critics never tire of reminding us, by a “chainsaw-wielding tantric sex coach who names his canines after dead economists”?
Hopelessly sanguine, your man on the scene here reports a contagious optimism in the city’s buenos aires. Could it be that the people here sense an emerging distinction between political paradigms old and new? That the simple-minded delineation between so-called “Right” and “Left” no longer applies as it once did? That the choice between two candidates working for the same, elite establishment is really an illusion of choice?

Libertarian philosophy – cousin to what the great Leo Tolstoy called “spiritual anarchism” – proposes a distinct paradigm from these tired old textbook definitions. In place of Right vs. Left, it proposes Freedom vs Authoritarianism. In lieu of Progressive vs. Conservative, Democrat vs. Republican, Liberal vs. Labour – loose words and hack parties that change and morph from nation to nation, era to era, election to election – the libertarian sees only 

Freedom vs. Tyranny: He favors voluntarism over violence, in other words. Cooperation over coercion. Freedom over force. Rules over rulers. And when his fellow men are prepared for such a world, they shall finally stand up and deserve it. Stay tuned for more Notes from the End of the World…"

"Saludos!"

"Do You Believe..."

“Do you believe,’ said Candide, ‘that men have always massacred each other as they do today, that they have always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates, brigands, idiots, thieves, scoundrels, gluttons, drunkards, misers, envious, ambitious, bloody-minded, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools?”
“Do you believe,” said Martin, “that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they have found them?”
- Voltaire

Bill Bonner, "The Fate of Our Species"

"The Fate of Our Species"
The stamp of our lowly origins and the true face of mankind...
by Bill Bonner

"Out of the crooked timber of mankind, 
no straight thing has ever been made."
~ Immanuel Kant

Youghal, Ireland - "What a delight….what a stroke of luck…for the elite, that is. And for us. We beg Dear Readers to bear with us….as we peel back the layers of this prickly fruit…no doubt stabbing more than a few fingers as we go. We promise no ‘pay-off’…no takeaway…no call to action. Instead, like a condemned man looking in a mirror, maybe we can catch a glimpse of who we are. And here we see the future and the past…the face and fate of our whole species…of ourselves, who always were…and who we shall be forever.

We begin with ominous, but inevitable news. Barrons: "November’s last auction of Treasury notes ended with a whimper, rather than a bang. Nearly $40 billion of government debt that matures in seven years was up for sale on Tuesday. The highest yield accepted by investors was 4.399%, well above the average of 4.258% for the prior six such auctions. The government had to offer higher yields to entice investors to buy the debt. Treasury issuance through October this year is 32% higher than at this time in 2022."

Crooked Timber: How did we get in this situation – with $33.7 trillion of debt…annual interest payments of $1 trillion per year…and rising? Why did voters go along with so many crack-pot schemes and jackass programs?

We’ve seen that it’s not always easy for the ruling classes to get the square pegs of their subjects to go into the round holes they’ve prepared for them. Immigration, for example, may or may not be a good thing…but bring in too many immigrants and ‘The People’ won’t like it. Still, it is amazing what they will put up with. Yes, that is another characteristic of our kind: the crooked timber bends with the prevailing winds.

The masses are so gullible…so child-like; they are so ready to believe anything – even the evening news! Easily bamboozled, they can be formed into a lynch mob or convinced to heave a giant stone across the Egyptian desert. We saw Monday with what zest they went after protestants in France in the 16th century…and how they fought for 7 centuries to rid the Iberian peninsula of the moslems. But they often were held cowed and captive themselves….docile and dumb for generations.

Outnumbered, Outgunned: The rabble can be roused to heroic acts of sacrifice and absurdity. But they also make good slaves. Have you ever wondered why slaves remained slaves? Herodotus tells us there were 7 Helot slaves in Sparta for every Spartan soldier. They were treated worse than mere slaves…hunted and killed merely to keep their population down. Yes, the Spartans were armed and well trained. Still, why did the Helots never rise up? In the state of Mississippi, there were 450,000 slaves in 1860 – more than half the population. During the war almost all able bodied White men had left the state to fight against the Yankees. In Mississippi, slaves were valuable property, worth about as much as a new car today. Owners were eager to spare them, not to kill them. Why didn’t the slaves take advantage of the situation…while their masters were away at war?

The masses – Black or White…free or enslaved – can be convinced of almost anything. Easy to mislead, a piece of cake to embezzle or boss around…most play the roles given to them. But there are limits.

That is the ‘more to the story’ of the Dublin riots. The anger was not directed only at immigrants. There is rising anger (especially among the young) against the whole elite class…their wars…hypocrisy…double dealing…self-serving grifts...and a $308 trillion global debt pile that is to be loaded on the backs of the young.

A Greater Conspiracy: We’ve seen that immigration is a clear benefit to the elite. And here, we turn to Karl Marx for insight. Wrong about so many things, he was right about this: there is a difference between the people who work on assembly lines (the proletariat) and the people who own them (capitalists, bourgeois…investors). The former live on wages. The latter (grosso modo) live on the difference between wages paid and revenues received. The working class may rue the day the immigrants arrive; their wages will be held down by competition, while their housing costs go up. But asset owners rejoice; both sides of their ledgers improve. Their sales go up and their labor charges go down.

But it is not just immigration. Wars…trade barriers…sanctions…giveaways to favored groups…subsidies…regulations…fake money and fake interest rates – all benefit a subset of voters with political power. Rarely do they improve things for the majority of honest working stiffs.

In America, for the last 70 years, our revulsion at communism was so great, we missed the point. The interests of the sweating classes are not the same as those of the capitalists. Given an opportunity, the factory owners and politicians will conspire against the public, just as Adam Smith said they would. And then the public policies of the government twist towards the self-interest of the powerful few, at the cost of the powerless many.

Here at Bonner Private Research we are about as far from Marxism…or any sort of political activism…as you can get. But, culling the facts from the propaganda and noise, we can’t miss a kind of ‘class struggle’ going on right now. An arrogant and incompetent elite have rigged the system in their own favor. What’s surprising is that ‘The People’ have put up with it for so long."

"World War III Prelude, 11/29/23"

Full screen recommended.
Col. Douglas Macgregor, 11/29/23
"Turkey Sends An Ultimatum To Netanyahu, 
2M Soldiers Are Ready To Flatten Israel"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Hindustan Times, 11/29/23
"Erdogan Brands Netanyahu 'Butcher Of Gaza'; 
Turkey Seethes At Israel Over Gaza"
"Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has branded Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu the 'Butcher Of Gaza.' He redoubled his attack on Israel while addressing the members of his party at the Turkish Parliament. "Netanyahu has already written his name in history as the butcher of Gaza. Netanyahu is endangering the security of all Jews in the world by supporting anti-Semitism with the murders he committed in Gaza," said Erdogan in televised statement. He has earlier called Israel a "terrorist state" and Hamas "a liberation group".
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Geopolitics TV, 11/29/23
"China & Iran Are Joining Forces To 
Stop Israel In Gaza, Palestine!"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 11/29/23
"Prof. Jeffrey Sachs: Can Israel Restrain Itself?"
Comments here: