"Free At Last"

"Free At Last"

by Jim Kunstler

"For now, the public seems to want nothing more than to breathe a little easier - that is without masks on our faces after a year of Covid-19 paranoia - and attempt to return to something like normal life. It’s like an “all-clear” siren went off the past week and a consensus swept the land that can be summed up as we’re done with that. There were zero cases of Covid-19 in my upstate New York county the past week and now the few people going around still-masked begin to look a little like whack-jobs acting out a stupid morality play.

The official Covid-19 narrative took quite a beating last month, but the bottom line of it all is hardly reassuring. The main theme of the narrative was the insistence by public health authorities at the highest level, staunchly supported by the compliant news media, that the disease did not originate in the Wuhan, China, virology lab. They kept the story going all year. Then, just days ago, the narrative flipped and is suddenly accepted as self-evident: of course, the virus came out of the Wuhan lab! (Jon Stewart shouted this out right in Stephen Colbert’s contorted face on TV.) Dr. Fauci’s email trail says as much, along with videos of his colleague Peter Daszek bragging on it as far back as 2012, with plenty of supporting evidence from various Chinese scientists.

But the flip-flop on Wuhan leaves some extremely uncomfortable questions that the nation is too distracted (or dishonest) to debate in the public forum, the public forum these days being mostly social media: Twitter and Facebook. And it’s not altogether clear whether they will continue to suppress discussion about the origin of the virus, and issues arising out of that - though they risk looking tyrannically obtuse if they keep up the gaslighting. And in these sorry years of anything goes and nothing matters, Zuck and Jack may never have to answer for their craven deeds.

The biggest question that the authorities want to evade is: if the virus did originate from the Wuhan lab, was it released by accident… or on purpose? The “Joe Biden” government is now forced to, at least, pretend that it will investigate. My guess is: they don’t want to know. It would raise enough subsidiary questions to leave a normal person panting with nausea. For instance: was China trying to soften-up the USA by disabling our economy? And soften us up… for what? Some observers who are hardly dumb or crazy think that China wants to reduce the USA to a vassal nation that can only supply China with food, oil, and other resources.

Sound far-fetched? Maybe. After all, we still have that fleet of submarines armed with multiple-warhead nuclear missiles circulating around the oceans as a kind of insurance policy. But Americans have to do something to make a living, and it sure isn’t going to be mass production of consumer goods, like in the old days. Meanwhile, the infrastructure of the service economy got gutted during the lockdowns - millions of businesses bankrupted, restaurants, yoga studios, concert venues, dog groomers, shops of all kinds, you name it - gone, and a lot of the people who took livelihoods from all that are financially ruined for good.

What’s left? Health care and pharma, two odious rackets preying on the psychological weakness of people so beaten down by adversity that they can only console themselves with junk food, liquor, sexual debauchery, and drugs, and then must beg the health care system to fix them - after which it squashes them to death with outlandish charges for services rendered? Or government, another reprehensible racket, seeking desperately now to control its citizens’ every move while everything it does is not only running wildly out of control, but via the most idiotic, suicidal policies - such as throwing the border with Mexico wide open to all comers, while it pays Americans to not work.

The leading government policy just now is to hector, browbeat, and coerce Americans to get vaxed-up with vaccines that appear to be pretty hazardous. The Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines so far (which is not very far) have produced more deaths and adverse events than all the other vaccines for all other diseases developed in the past thirty years, and we have no idea what the long-term effects will be of a spike protein that likes to damage blood vessels, brains, and reproductive organs. That’s another thing the news and social media don’t want the public to inform themselves about, not to mention the scientifically-based opinion that vaccinating a populace in the middle of an epidemic is pretty certain to provoke the evolution of new and more dangerous variants of the disease agent.

For now, all these mighty issues stand aside while Americans enjoy some early summer days of liberation from a long nightmare. Coincidentally, the Democratic Party has just now engineered two separate-but-equal Independence Days for America: Juneteenth, for People of Color, and the familiar old Fourth of July for everybody else. Isn’t that a fine way to reinforce the idea that we are irreconcilably so far apart?"

- https://kunstler.com/

"Maybe..."

“Maybe we’re not supposed to be happy. Maybe gratitude has nothing to do with joy. Maybe being grateful means recognizing what you have for what it is. Appreciating small victories. Admiring the struggle it takes to simply be a human. Maybe, we’re thankful for the familiar things we know. And maybe, we’re thankful for the things we’ll never know. At the end of the day, the fact that we have the courage to still be standing is reason enough to celebrate.”

- “Grey’s Anatomy”

"Stock Market Melt-Up Followed By 80% Crash THIS YEAR"

Adam Taggart, Peak Prosperity,  AM 6/18/21:

"Stock Market Melt-Up Followed By 80% Crash THIS YEAR"

"At the Mercy of the Foxes"

"At the Mercy of the Foxes"

by Bill Bonner

YOUGHAL, IRELAND – Our subject today has a little of everything – ambition… betrayal… idealism… cynicism… democracy… revolution… corruption… you name it! But today’s setting is not the USA. Still, we will turn to the U.S. media for a big surprise, before taking up our parable.

Here’s a rare event… where the reporter got the story almost right. The Hill: "Biden Approaches Economic Point of No Return." "…Inflation grew by 5 percent last month, the sharpest increase in 13 years. American families have noticed, with prices of gas, building materials, cars and food shooting upward significantly. Inflation is a scourge with a simple solution, but one the Biden administration feels it cannot afford: cutting spending and money-printing at the Federal Reserve. The latest inflation numbers are a blaring red warning sign that is both valuable and honest - it is the last point in which President Biden can put the brakes on before the specter of 10 percent (or higher) inflation."

The elite control the government. And most of the money the feds print goes to them. Giving it up would mean huge losses. Stock and bond prices would be cut in half, as money-printing and rate-rigging came to an end… Earnings would be reduced, too, as boondoggle programs were trimmed back.

And now, so much of the economy has come to count on ultra-low interest rates and stimmy money, the feds can’t “taper” off. Instead, they have to provide more and more fake money… until the whole system blows up. Inflate and Die, in other words.

Cunning Foxes: A return to “normal” won’t happen voluntarily. But once you have corrupted your economy and your political system, it almost never does. And so, we come to our marvelous story. What a delight! It caresses our cynicism so tenderly… and demonstrates our theory of government.

In a small, early democracy – like a New England town – a government may be run “for the people” and “by the people.” But in a larger setting, it doesn’t take long before a small group gets control. They are the people the great Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto, called “the foxes.” They manipulate elections… They “sponsor” candidates… They run for office or lobby the legislators… promise pay-offs, contracts, and giveaways… and control the media and the bureaucracy themselves. They become a more or less permanent “deep state”… using the government itself to keep themselves in power. Usually, the process is hidden behind empty slogans and claptrap politics. But sometimes, it becomes as plain as day.

Pacific Paradise: And so it has… in the bright sun of the Central American isthmus between Costa Rica and Honduras… between the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico… somewhere between paradise and Hell. There, on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, where the sea breezes keep the temperature from getting too hot… we’ve had a vacation house for many years. The location is stunningly beautiful. The people are charming, gentle, and nice. And it is far enough from the capital, Managua, to avoid getting involved in politics. Surfers surf… fishermen fish… retirees lounge by the pool… and neighbors gather in the evening to watch the fat, tropical ball sink into the vast Pacific…

But in Managua, the president – Daniel Ortega – huddles with his henchmen in his guarded compound… and goes over the list of those he will arrest next. The Wall Street Journal reports: "Daniel Ortega, who is seeking a fourth consecutive term as Nicaragua’s president, has launched a broad campaign of repression, according to analysts, human-rights activists and Western governments."

Iron Circle: Danny Ortega’s clique of insiders – the “iron circle” – is in a trap, too. It has to use naked force in order to stay in power. And the more violence it uses… the more people are appalled… and the more violence it must use to keep them in line. Mr. Ortega was once a world improver, too… fighting, he said, for a freer, fairer society. Had he been in power in the 1960s, he might have taxed banks to support his activist agenda. Instead, he robbed them and was put in the hoosegow in 1967. He stayed in jail for seven years, until 1974, when a group of revolutionaries – called “Sandinistas” – crashed a Christmas cocktail party in fashionable Managua and took hostages. It was in order to liberate the hostages that the dictator of Nicaragua at the time – Anastasio Somoza – agreed to let Daniel Ortega go free. Then, the Sandinistas went on to chase Somoza out of the country.

World Improver Turned Dictator: And after losing power… and then regaining it as a more modest “Christian, Democratic, Socialist” candidate, Mr. Ortega, now 75, holds power… and has become a dictator himself. His family owns the TV stations. Opposition is outlawed. And just to be safe, he recently began arresting everyone who looked as though they might pose a threat – including Hugo Torres.

As Ortega stifled dissent, almost all his old comrades turned against him. Torres was one of the commandos who liberated Ortega from jail and later led the Sandinista army against the American-financed “contras.” But last Sunday, Ortega’s cops closed in. Remarkably, Torres was able to send out a video before they put the cuffs on: "Today’s paradox of life is that someone who abandoned his principles, Daniel Ortega, the man I helped free 46 years ago, is now my captor."

If Mr. Torres had been able to see what was coming, he might have thought twice about joining the Sandinistas in the first place… “Does it really matter who rules Nicaragua?” he might have asked himself. Or, at least, he might have left Daniel Ortega behind bars. Government is never “all of us,” he might have realized. Some rule and some are ruled. The key is not who rules, but how much ruling he can get away with.

Vicious Circle: Mr. Ortega has been ruling – in the name of the people, of course – for the last 14 years. He has no intention of giving up now. Which is okay with us. We don’t much care who rules… or what they call themselves. Democrat. Republican. Sandinista. Communist. It doesn’t matter; we just don’t like anyone telling us what to do.

After working so long and so hard – and robbing banks is dangerous work! – Ortega must figure he deserves whatever power he has gotten. And there’s no reason some jumped-up Democrat should be allowed to take it from him. But the more Ortega rules, the more he must rule, in order to remain the ruler. The poor man is trapped. If he permits a free and fair election, he will most likely be defeated. Then, he will be at the mercy of the foxes, too."

- www.rogueeconomics.com

"This Diminutive Stature..."

"The minds of men were gradually reduced to the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished. The name of Poet was almost forgotten; that of Orator was usurped by the sophists. A cloud of critics, of compilers, of commentators, darkened the face of learning, and the decline of genius was soon followed by the corruption of taste. This diminutive stature of mankind was daily sinking below the old standard."

- Edward Gibbon,

"The Decline And Fall of The Roman Empire"

○

"Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the 'transcendent' and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don't be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you."

- Christopher Hitchens

Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up 6/18/21"

"Weekly News Wrap-Up 6/18/21"

by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

"Vice President Biden went to Europe this week for the G-7 and a big meeting with the person Biden called a “killer” aka Vladimir Putin, President of Russia. The G-7 meetings the public was allowed to see showed a weak and mentally lacking Biden. He had cheat sheets to remind him to blame Trump for everything. (I kid you not. There are photos.) His handlers shouted down reporters asking off-script questions, and Biden even started calling President Putin by the name Trump and caught himself mid-word. Biden was exposed as the incompetent and illegitimate imposter, and America suffered for it. President Putin stuck it to Biden in an interview where he called Trump “talented” and “extraordinary” unlike “career man” Biden. Ouch!!! In short, VP Biden’s trip was an unmitigated disaster for “We the People.”

There is more news about the CV19 vaccinations that the mainstream media and RINO’s like Ohio Governor Mike DeWine say are safe. DeWine wants to mandate them and force the experimental jabs on people. He’s the idiot with a lottery to bribe people to get the experimental Jab. The Vax is anything but safe, and the death and injury numbers prove it. That’s not stopping Vax makers from arm twisting to get the Vax totally approved by the FDA. It’s being fought by medical people who have still not been bought off by Big Pharma.

The Fed wants its cake and eat it too. It says inflation is rising, but it will be “transitory.” The Fed says it will start fighting inflation by the end of 2023. Say what? We have inflation, but we will starting fighting it in 2 years??? Meanwhile, the Fed is going to keep pumping out $120 billion a month propping up the repo market. That’s $1.2 trillion of money printing per year just for that alone. This is like telling a drunk you have to stop drinking in two years, and then asking where do you want me to put this case of whiskey?"

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks about these 

stories and others in the Weekly News Wrap-Up 6/18/21:

- https://rumble.com/

Gregory Mannarino, AM 6/18/21: "Out Of Control Inflation, A Currency Crisis, An Economic Freefall, Runaway Central Bank"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 6/18/21:

"Out Of Control Inflation, A Currency Crisis,

 An Economic Freefall, Runaway Central Bank"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"How It Really Is"

 

Gerald Celente, “The Trends Journal", “Interest Rates Rising, Will The Markets Take It?”

“Interest Rates Rising, Will The Markets Take It?”

Gerald Celente, 6/17/21:

“‘The Trends Journal’ is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over hype and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in the increasingly turbulent times."

- https://trendsresearch.com/

Strongly language expressed as only Gerald would dare - bravo!

I couldn't agree more! - CP

"Welcome to Hell on Earth, Venice Beach"

Full screen recommended,

Dan, I Allegedly PM 6/17/21:

"Welcome to Hell on Earth, Venice Beach"

“We Are Going To Suffer The Worst Collapse in History; Financial Chaos Guaranteed; Meltdown Has Begun”

Jeremiah Babe, PM 6/17/21:

"We Are Going To Suffer The Worst Collapse in History; 

Financial Chaos Guaranteed; Meltdown Has Begun”

Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind, "Dream Ten"

Liquid Mind, "Dream Ten"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Here in the Milky Way galaxy we have astronomical front row seats as M81 and M82 face-off, a mere 12 million light-years away. Locked in a gravitational struggle for the past billion years or so, the two bright galaxies are captured in this deep telescopic snapshot, constructed from 25 hours of image data.

Their most recent close encounter likely resulted in the enhanced spiral arms of M81 (left) and violent star forming regions in M82 so energetic the galaxy glows in X-rays. After repeated passes, in a few billion years only one galaxy will remain. From our perspective, this cosmic moment is seen through a foreground veil of the Milky Way's stars and clouds of dust. Faintly reflecting the foreground starlight, the pervasive dust clouds are relatively unexplored galactic cirrus, or integrated flux nebulae, only a few hundred light-years above the plane of the Milky Way.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130925.html

○

"Dwell on the beauty of life.

Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them."

- Marcus Aurelius

“Taking A Break From What You Are Doing”

“Taking A Break From What You Are Doing”

by Madisyn Taylor, The DailyOM

“Sometimes finding the answer is as easy as taking a break and stepping back from the situation. Sometimes we can get so wrapped up in our thoughts that we wind up going round in round in circles, finding it difficult to concentrate on things and, because we are so distracted, not really accomplishing much. There may be signals - mental, emotional, and physical - that tell us we need to slow down and relax. Since we are so involved in things that are external to us, however, we may easily overlook what is really going on inside of us. It is during these times that we need to step back from the things that occupy our minds and take time out to connect with our inner self, giving our minds, bodies, and spirits the time they need to reenergize and heal.

At first it may seem that by taking a break we may not be as productive as we would initially like. In reality, a healthy period of rest is something that gives us a real sense of the unlimited nature of our true potential. Spending a couple of minutes walking outside, doing a few yoga poses, meditating, or simply becoming attuned to the rising and falling of our breath enables us to let go of our worries. This act brings our focus back to the things that are truly essential for us, such as our sense of oneness with the universe and our inner peace and well-being. As we begin to get in touch with this part of ourselves, we will find that our usual everyday troubles and worries become less critical and that we not only have much more room in our lives to really reflect on the issues that mean the most to us, but we are also able bring to all the situations we encounter a much more positive and healthy outlook.

Giving ourselves respite from our daily concerns is like giving a gift to ourselves. By stepping away from the problems that seem to saturate our thoughts, we lessen the weight of our troubles and instead become more receptive to the wisdom and answers the universe has to offer us.”

- http://www.dailyom.com/

○

"Sometimes, in a summer morning, having taken my accustomed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in a revery, amidst the pines and hickories and sumachs, in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sing around or flitted noiseless through the house, until by the sun falling in at my west window, or the noise of some traveller's wagon on the distant highway, I was reminded of the lapse of time. I grew in those seasons like corn in the night, and they were far better than any work of the hands would have been. They were not time subtracted from my life, but so much over and above my usual allowance. I realized what the Orientals mean by contemplation and the forsaking of works. For the most part, I minded not how the hours went. The day advanced as if to light some work of mine; it was morning, and lo, now it is evening, and nothing memorable is accomplished."

- Henry David Thoreau  

"If Only..."

“How do the geese know when to fly to the sun? Who tells them the seasons? How do we, humans, know when it is time to move on? As with the migrant birds, so surely with us; there is a voice within, if only we would listen to it, that tells us so certainly when to go forth into the unknown.”

- Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

“I Can’t Wait For the Day When Life Finally Makes Sense”

“I Can’t Wait For the Day When Life Finally Makes Sense”

by Rania Naim

 “I can’t wait for the day when life finally makes sense, when we find the silver lining in every tragedy, when we learn the lesson from each mistake and when we understand why our hearts needed to get broken a few times to let love in.

I can’t wait for the day that we understand why we met the right people at the wrong time or the wrong people at the right time and why our lives didn’t align to bring us together. I wonder if it’s because they’re the wrong ones for us or because we still have a lot of growing up to do and we’re meant to be with someone who understand who we’re becoming not who we were.

I can’t wait for the day that we understand the lesson behind every struggle. Why we struggled to be successful, why we struggled to find love, why we struggled to reach our dreams and why we lost people who meant the world to us. I wonder if we needed these lessons to learn how to appreciate life and feel the pain of others or we just needed to learn that there is no living without suffering.

I can’t wait for the day that we understand why we had to hate ourselves to love ourselves, why we had to destroy ourselves to build ourselves up again and why we had to start over just before we got to the finish line. I wonder who saved us or who inspired us to save ourselves.

I wonder if we are meant to be reborn a few times so we can learn how to truly live. I want to know what triggered us to change and how we can no longer recognize who we used to be.

I can’t wait for the day that we understand why we keep falling for the wrong ones over and over again, why we can’t forget those who hurt us and why we sometimes can still forgive them and take them back. I want to understand how our hearts operate, how they function, how they move us to do things we would never do and lead us to places that we know we shouldn’t go to. I’m curious to know why we listen to it, why we follow it blindly like it never got us lost before, why we trust it even though it left us broken and why do we always go back to it for questions when it keeps giving us the wrong answers. I wonder if there will come a day when we stop listening to it and if we’ll ever be truly alive without it.

They say everything happens for a reason and I truly believe that, but I also want to know what this reason is and why it chose us. Why some reasons keep recurring and why some reasons leave us even more perplexed. I want to understand why we go through certain things, what’s the message behind it and what if we never respond to this message, what if we just ignore it and keep living, what will happen then? Will our lives get lost in translation? 

I can’t wait for the day that life makes sense – some days I understand why certain things happened and others I’m not so sure, but all I know is that somehow we’ll connect the dots and someday we’ll complete the puzzle, until then, we have to learn how to live our lives without trying to understand it and we have to learn how to be comfortable with the irony and uncertainty of life; otherwise we’ll lose our common sense trying to make sense of the life we’re living.”

- http://paulocoelhoblog.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Tel Aviv, Israel. Thanks for stopping by!

"Protect Yourself From Inflation"

"Protect Yourself From Inflation"

by Bill Bonner

"The arithmetic makes it plain that inflation is a far more 

devastating tax than anything that has been enacted by our legislatures."

- Warren Buffett, 
in Fortune magazine, 1977

YOUGHAL, IRELAND – "Yesterday, a dear reader asked how the average Joe can “get a leg up” in a dangerous and difficult world? It won’t be easy. Here’s the latest mouthful from Bloomberg: "Fed Officials Rattle Rate-Hike Saber as Price Pressures Surprise" What Bloomberg is trying to say is that the Federal Reserve is hinting that it might… possibly… perhaps... raise rates.

Wednesday’s Fed forecast suggested that two increases are likely in 2023; none before. In other words, it said nothing. It could raise rates twice… three times… four times… even 10 times… and still be well below the level of consumer price increases. Which is to say, the Fed is now “behind the curve”… following the trend of events, not leading it… and hopelessly stuck in an Inflate and Die trap. But that is just to say that the “average Joe” should prepare now: Consumer prices will probably continue to rise. And if not now… later.

Price Crime: So let’s look at the leg we’re trying to get up. Most people get their income from selling their time. A man with a backhoe can dig a trench faster than 10 men with shovels. The capital – the backhoe – is what makes a man’s time more valuable. But inflation takes away the backhoe. Here’s Warren Buffett to explain: "High rates of inflation create a tax on capital that makes much corporate investment unwise – at least if measured by the criterion of a positive real investment return to owners."

Remember, there are two sources of price increases. One is natural, normal, and honest… caused by changing economic circumstances and signaling a real change of value – like the invention of the backhoe. The other is phony – a product of the Fed’s money-printing.

We have no quarrel with higher prices – if they’re the first kind. But the second kind are a scam, designed to mislead, confuse, and ultimately defraud. It is a crime perpetrated by the feds. Naturally, it favors the feds themselves and the elite, the top 10% of Americans they represent. They’re not going to rip themselves off. It’s the others – the less well-off 90% of the population – that gets robbed.

Time Lag: And it’s been going on a long time. Earnings for people in elite industries – medical care, education, media, defense, Wall Street, and government itself – have all gone up smartly over the last 30 years. Those for people in manufacturing, construction, mining, hospitality, and other uncool industries – where they produce real goods and services – have been mostly flat. And now, as inflation increases, so will the rip-off.

As we explored yesterday, wage increases don’t keep up with price increases. Prices rise daily… weekly… monthly. Wages tend to be adjusted more slowly – on an annual basis… and in response to the previous year’s inflation. The wage-earner inevitably falls behind. The same is true for people who get Social Security; the adjustments lag the damage.

False Premise: But the whole idea of the Fed’s intentional inflation was a scam from the get-go… Going back to the mid-20th century, economists noticed something they called the Phillips Curve. It purported to reveal that as inflation rose, workers got higher wages and suffered less unemployment. This was shown to be false in the stagflation of the 1970s. But the “stimmy” fantasy survived. And the feds still claim they can stimulate the economy by inflating it with fake money. They even set an annual inflation target – 2% – as if they knew exactly how much a bar of soap should cost. The idea is laughable. But it still guides Fed policy.

Official Rip Off: Even before the 1970s, the French economist Jacques Rueff, explained the real reason the Phillips Curve was nonsense… and why inflation was so harmful to the working classes. As prices rise, the relative cost of an hour of labor goes down. As labor becomes cheaper, the demand for it increases. In other words, inflation only seemed to benefit the proletariat because it made the working man poorer! And now, ripping him off is official policy – intentional, deliberate, and disastrous. The government is spending trillions it doesn’t have. The Fed is printing the cash to cover the deficits. And the costs will fall – principally – on the masses.

The elite are better able to protect themselves. They own property. And stocks. Their jobs, too, are more secure. They are also more sophisticated financially, and can move their money into inflation-resistant assets. The shrewdest of them may take advantage of the chaos to buy valuable assets at discount prices. (As the inflation crisis deepens, however, even many of the elite will suffer as their incomes fail to keep pace. That – when it no longer pays for the elite – will mark the beginning of the end of the inflation cycle.)

Ideal Investment: But what can you do to safeguard your wealth while prices spiral? We mentioned real estate yesterday. At today’s low interest rates, a rental unit could turn out to be a very profitable asset. As prices rise, you should be able to raise the rent. And your fixed mortgage payments will become more and more affordable. But real estate requires attention and work – which might not be practical.

As for stocks, energy companies typically do well in an inflationary period. They already have their rigs and refineries in place, so there’s little extra cost to keeping the juice flowing. And they can increase prices without causing a significant drop in consumption. That’s why energy is on the buy side of our Trade of the Decade.

[Paid-up Bonner-Denning Letter subscribers can read all about Bill’s latest Trade of the Decade here. To subscribe, click here. And colleague Tom Dyson has created a model portfolio of energy-related stocks for his Tom’s Portfolio subscribers. To subscribe, click here.]

Infrastructure businesses may be even better. Toll roads. Hospitals. Airports. They have pricing power… and relatively little need for further investment. What you want for your business investments is the same thing you want for yourself – a steady, reliable stream of income with no need to spend more money to get it. The ideal investment may be in a “royalty” or “streaming” company. These are businesses that own the rights to a stream of income – from, say, gold mining – but are not actively mining themselves. As the price of gold goes up, their revenues increase in value, while they have few offsetting costs.

The Boy Scouts’ Motto: But money is only a part of it. Inflation discombobulates a society. People get confused… distracted. They feel betrayed. They don’t know who to trust or what to believe. Our colleague Dan Denning emphasizes the need to be prepared socially and psychologically… as well as financially.

You want to be in a place where you are comfortable and safe, where you are as little exposed to chaos and rising prices as possible. You may not be able to increase your income; your time may become less valuable. So use your time to make yourself more independent. Plant a garden. Rick up some firewood. Sit on the porch and read our book, Win-Win or Lose. Buy gold. Sell bonds. Be happy. Amor fati."

- www.rogueeconomics.com

Gregory Mannarino, AM 6/17/21: "And Again... The Economic Meltdown Is Worsening. Important Updates"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 6/17/21:

"And Again... The Economic Meltdown Is Worsening.

Important Updates"

"The Test..."

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise."

- F. Scott Fitzgerald