Gary North has a fine piece on "Gold Procrastinators" on LewRockwell.com today. Here's an excerpt:
But what about investors? Do they invest to lose? I think a lot of them do.
Yes, they want to make money. But they want to make it conventionally. They want to make it as upstanding defenders of the American dream.
On March 23, 2000, the Standard & Poor's 500 index peaked at 1527. Today, it is around 1320. But the dollar has depreciated by over 30%. Anyone who took the standard advice to buy and hold a no-load index mutual fund of the S&P 500 has lost 12 years and 40% of his investment. He still believes the story. He will believe the story until an hour before he reaches room temperature.
...
Most Americans would rather lose all of their wealth than call into question the American dream, as promised by Keynesians, Federal Reserve economists, and Civil Service-protected federal bureaucrats.
People who bought and held in this fashion will be the people calling for the expropriation of people who saw the scam early and acted accordingly, by NOT losing their shirts. Their "unfair profits" will be taxed and/or confiscated.
ReplyDeleteThat's why you hold some of it offshore through services like the Perth Mint or Global Gold. There are also options like Das Safe for storage. Beyond that there are international trusts that are untouchable. Owning foreign property is also a good option because no matter how hard they try, they can't drag acreage back into the U.S. Or you buy some bitcoins. Or you simply leave some coins with your friends who are not/never have been U.S. citizens and they keep it for you in their house wherever that may be. The possibilities almost outnumber the excuses.
ReplyDeleteDavid,
ReplyDeleteThese aren't excuses not to act. Just be sure to act ENOUGH. It isn't just the hurricane that does the damage, but the people's reaction to the hurricane.
Good point! I am used to talking to "locals" and they throw all that stuff out as an excuse to keep them from doing anything at all, rather than a motivation to REALLY plan. "Well what are you going to do? We're f***ed either way. I guess I'll just go crawl in a hole and die."
ReplyDeleteAlso, along the lines of "acting enough," and especially if your ability to get out of dodge is limited, being discreet goes a long way to keeping the angry chimps from knocking down your door in search of more bananas after they've eaten everyone else's.
My further point is that people will stampede into all manner of immorality, partly out of desire to remove the evidence of their prior stupidity, the evidence that their current state wasn't inevitable and unforeseeable. All they need is a sufficiently large mob behind them saying that it isn't wrong, this time, to steal. The State, by establishing that theft/aggression is okay, destroys the underpinnings of society.
ReplyDeleteWhich is why we are in this situation in the first place. Public consent of government theft.
ReplyDelete