14 Comments
Aug 20, 2023Liked by Rudy Havenstein

Double digit inflation always was the goal. Transfer real property to the oligarchs, enrich using cronies contractors (defence, pharmaceutical etc) with government debt, inflate away the debt by devaluing the currency. The clueless peons will complain a bit, but official CPI reads 3-4%.

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They depend upon people being, and thus do everything in their power to ensure that they are ignorant of history, science, finance, etc. in order to conduct class warfare and perpetrate their crimes with minimal transparency, opposition, and/or accountability. Add to that ignorance healthy helpings of fear, division, and distraction and you get a pretty clear understanding of why the situation is as dire as it is. But I believe more people are overcoming all of the above are becoming increasingly skeptical and aware of what’s going on and the methods of the ruling class to achieve their goals and to stop us from preventing them from doing so- or at the very least they correctly believe that they’re being lied to and the government claims and media narratives aren’t the full story.

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One of the things that I've always appreciated about Neil Young is that he's pretty much pissed off everyone at some point.

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I've seen Neil in concert a number of times. You never know what you're getting (a bit like Bowie). I think he's gone nuts a number of times, but when he's good, he's very good.

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Aug 20, 2023Liked by Rudy Havenstein

I don’t know about art, so I will stick with what I know - 50% gold, 50% land and a family business.

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Aug 25, 2023Liked by Rudy Havenstein

I walked through the City of London (financial district) at 5pm today, the Friday evening before the August monday bank holiday. Bars which would have had 200 people falling out the door in 2019 were empty, many closed.

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I was there once, in the 1990s, meeting with some Goldman Sachs guys for some strange reason. Went over to a pub with a buddy to hang out afterwards. Couldn't believe how much the suit and tie crowd was drinking during a short lunch break - and we were no novices.

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They're just following the playbook set forth in Reinhart's IMF working paper, "The Liquidation of Government Debt". 👇

https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2016/12/31/The-Liquidation-of-Government-Debt-42610

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Aug 21, 2023Liked by Rudy Havenstein

My wife and I are in the next to last line on the “saved for retirement” chart, and yet, given the current trajectory of all things macro, I can easily see myself as the old man sweeping the street in a muzzle.

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Aug 20, 2023Liked by Rudy Havenstein

Most people think it's the level of debt that creates the problem but it's the slowdown in economic activity that decreases the cash flows that allow the servicing of the debt, always with a delay. That's why inflation actually benefits debt holders as long as economic activity continues.

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I have no issue with productive debt which will generate cashflow to pay the debt back, but I see very little of that in government. Inflation is a stealth default by governments, the most regressive tax. This is my problem with it.

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Aug 20, 2023Liked by Rudy Havenstein

Agreed, but productive debt and government don't go together. I'm willing to let them define "R" in ROI as long as it could be measured with every piece of legislation. A trillion for climate, or homelessness, or war? Does it bring less heat, less despair, more peace? Requiring an "R" target with every piece of legislation and GAO measuring an publishing outcomes would be a good start.

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Like many people, I very much want to move out of debasement. It's poorly lit and reeks of mildew down here. 😁

Happily, as Tim May predicted in 1994, we have a number of competing fixed issue crypto currencies. As Naomi Brockwell reports on NBTV several of these (Monero, Zcash, PirateCoin) offer considerable transaction privacy. Which makes it much harder to prohibit, regulate, or tax economic events. And that, my friend, is a consummation devoutly to be wished.

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