I was reading Michael J Panzner's book When Giants Fall, a
scary-yet-scholarly look at how the hell we got into this mess, and I was
impressed with how the title so perfectly describes America (the heretofore
ravenous, gluttonous engine of global economics based on the fraud of an
expanding fiat currency) falling on its fat, stupid face.
And falling on its face, dead to the world, is what America so richly deserves,
as it was built upon the idiocy of ignoring the Constitution ("Money shall be
only of silver and gold"!), and then committing the folly of a fiat currency
("create as much paper
money as the Federal Reserve wants!") and insane degrees of fractional reserve
banking ("we can loan as much as we want without limit!") so that socialists
and commie-think morons in Congress can deficit-spend us ("free lunches for
everybody!") into ruination.
For those who take everything literally, be aware that there was nothing in the
book about giants actually falling and hitting the ground with a big "thud" or
anything, but there was plenty about why it fell, mostly reasons that fall into
the categories of stupidity, ignorance, corruption and greed.
Unfortunately for me, it's taking me a long time to read it because I cannot
read much of the book without suddenly leaping to my feet and shouting, "We're
freaking doomed!" and running to the cozy safety of the Cozy And Safe Mogambo
Bunker (CASMB), whereupon I nervously sweep the perimeter with the periscope
and thank my lucky stars for gold, silver and oil, because I know that no
matter how bad things get, those three things will go up in price.
And this "sell high" part of what will happen in the future is what comes after
the "buy low" part, which is Right Freaking Now (RFN), and it will be RFN for a
long time to come as the dollar loses more and more buying power due to the
sustained over-creation of money necessary to soak up the enormous, monstrous
debt that the federal government will be peddling for years and years.
I am sure that Mr Panzner comes to the same conclusion, although if you call
him up to confirm this and, after he answers, "Hello?" you ask, "Do you
recommend buying gold, silver and oil because they are sure to go up in price
with the roaring inflation in consumer prices that will consume us because the
loathsome Federal Reserve is creating so much excess money and credit so that
the despicable Congress can spend a third of gross domestic product, or GDP -
and deficit-spend a seventh of GDP! - and anybody who says otherwise is some
kind of mental defective or has some kind of mutant spore from outer space, or
CIA thought-control waves, controlling his brain? Yes or no?" he will say,
instead of just answering my simple question, "What?" which is certainly not
responsive!
Naturally, your eyes narrow to suspicious slits, and you wonder why he is
evading my simple question! What's he up to?
Perhaps the answer is hidden in his vision of the future, which would be
important to someone like you because you are intelligent and clever enough to
discover some profitable venture in it, whereas I am too stupid and dull-witted
to see entrepreneurial opportunity, and can only look at gold, silver and
energy as investments of choice due to the wonderful simplicity of the lesson
of the last 4,500 years of history whenever a country was so stupidly ignorant,
greedy and selfish as to produce an excess of money.
Since I have never seen you before, I know that you are a stranger around here,
a stranger that doesn't usually hang around with lowlife bums like me, pathetic
mental midgets who are incapable of putting simple picture-puzzles together, or
forming coherent thoughts to reach any conclusion that is not laid out in front
of me, usually with someone literally standing right there, pointing out the
obvious, to make sure I don't miss it.
So, for you smart people who can see the silver lining in a dark cloud and
prosper while all else is misery and suffering, he writes, in a paragraph that
I consider to be as chillingly prescient as it is succinct, "Businesses will
find it hard to thrive ... amid increasing violence and conflict, shortages and
logistical interruptions, and a breakdown of markets and financial mechanisms.
Individuals will be forced to rethink livelihoods, lifestyles, living
arrangements, and locales. Political structures will be in flux. Around the
globe, gangsters, maniacs and mobs will compete with established regimes for
the reins of power. Nuclear attacks, domestic terrorism and other threats that
once seemed so remote to most Americans will become an all-too-frequent
reality. So, too, will breakdowns, epidemics, and other fallout stemming from
economic deterioration, growing social unrest and criminality, and a forced
shift toward greater self-sufficiency."
He concludes that "For many Americans, the years ahead will be nothing short of
a modern Dark Ages", although he obviously does not mean you, personally, since
you are so smart that you will make fortunes despite any "hard times", and he
obviously does not mean me, either, because I own gold, silver and oil! Whew!
So while you make your fortune "the hard way" by poring over annual reports and
prospectuses to laboriously winnow the wheat from the chaff, I will just lazily
watch gold, silver and oil go up and up in price, as is seemingly guaranteed by
the entire historical record of the world, although I may be the first to
actually ever wax lyrical and say, "Whee! This investing stuff is easy!"
It does not explain, however, why Junior Mogambo Ranger (JMR) Doug B sees it as
"Gee, this psychopathic world-domination stuff is EASY!" or why I agree with
him and say, "And so it is, JMR Doug! So it is!"
Richard Daughty is general partner and COO for Smith Consultant Group,
serving the financial and medical communities, and the editor of The Mogambo
Guru economic newsletter - an avocational exercise to heap disrespect on those
who desperately deserve it.
(Republished with permission from
The Daily Reckoning. Copyright 2009, The Daily Reckoning.)
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