The Weekend Vigilante
Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 4:25PM Hello from beautiful Acapulco,
Since our last Weekend Vigilante, I have gone from being a free man to being enslaved to marriage. Actually, nothing has really changed... marriage, after all, is mostly just a piece of paper. But it led a few dollar vigilantes to write in questioning my hate for the state. After all, to paraphrase Doug Stanhope, "Baby, this love is so beautiful, we've got to get the government involved in this!"
But, this had nothing to do with the state and everything to do with making my wife and kids feel more secure that daddy wasn't just going to take off in a few months. Now, marriage actually doesn't change any of that... if I want to leave, a piece of paper won't stop me. But, hey, if it makes them happy, then it makes me happy.
I've had a lot of requests for photos so I am putting one up here. The most interesting part was when the pastor overseeing the wedding went quite a bit more religious than I would have liked, intoning that "We have to put all our faith into God and that God will make sure our marriage will be forever perfect." He then handed the microphone to me to ask what I had to say in response. I stated, "To me, God is human energy... and I think we all need to take responsibility for our own lives and not put the fate of our lives in the hands of some unseen entity. Jesus, however, seems like a pretty good guy," I stated, "I like him because he was an anarchist."
I bet he wasn't expecting that response. I stopped short of mentioning that the iPad from which he was reading his speech was likely not created solely through faith in God but also through the hard work, innovation and vision of literally thousands of people working together through the miracle of the distribution of labor. I didn't want to preach, after all.
After that, however, we went on to have what I now know is a typical Mexican wedding... lots and lots of fun, drinks and dancing with good friends and family that didn't end until dawn. That, in my opinion, is what it is really all about.
EVERYTHING'S AMAZING AND NOBODY'S HAPPY
I recently came across this video which I had seen before and loved. It is from the comedian Louis C.K. on the Conan O'Brien show. It's a funny piece worth checking out.
It does a great job of describing our over-all state of affairs as humanity in today's day and age. In many ways, thanks to the developments of the free-markets, we all live far better than at any point in history. Even some of the poorest in most places today live better than kings used to even 200 years ago. Sure, a king had his castle and servants and food... but he could never imagine having his climate controlled (air conditioned) while he flew through the sky from London to Shanghai in under 12 hours with little to no chance of getting scurvy, dying of hypothermia nor being attacked en route and, upon arrival, videoconferencing with the Queen on his iPhone on the 438 km/h (268 mph) speed train.
Thanks to the advances of the free-market, we have incredible opportunities, options and abilities almost beyond our belief. But yet, as Louis C.K. points out, so many people are unhappy. This is almost completely due to statism.
Starting nearly from birth the state takes most kids away from their families and forces them into introctination camp detention centers with a sentence of 12 years. This, alone, is enough to take the soul out of most kids, and it does... driving them to drink, drugs and drowning themselves in junk food to relieve the pain of being in child prison for almost their entire formative years. Sadly, the kids who prosper in school are usually the most screwed up... as they actually love and enjoy their slavement. That's why when ever a mother tells me she is worried about her kid because he is doing very poorly in school I usually tell her that he is showing great potential! The ones that scare me get straight As with a smile on their face. They usually go on to another 8 years of 'law' school and then become our sick, sociopathic overseers in the universities, schools and in politics.
Then, after 12-20 years of brainwashing, many go on to live in cubicles that they have been so perfectly trained for and go on to spend their free-time away from the cubicle watching propaganda on TV that tells them that they live in the one and only great, safe country on Earth, all other places are either evil or dangerous and that they hate you for your freedom.
After decades of this, many people find themselves not feeling too chipper. So, they go to the doctor, who is basically a salesman for the pharmaceutical industry (which can only do what it does by paying off government to allow them to drive natural and good remedies out of the marketplace). He won't tell you to maybe go outside and get some sunshine (in fact, he'll tell you the opposite... he'll say exposure to sunlight is dangerous and if you do go outside to slap on a massive amount of chemicals on your skin to protect yourself) and to actually eat some unprocessed, healthy organic food that isn't full of chemicals known to cause depression, cancer and other afflictions. He also won't mention that getting some exercise might make you feel a bit better. What he will do is prescribe you a number of dangerous chemicals... all of which only mask all the symptoms of the problem to the point where your condition will downgrade and then he will prescribe more pills for you until, at some point, you are an absolute mess and carry around a bag of pharmaceuticals the size of a toaster-oven.
This has now led to the point where so many people are depressed that over 1 out of every 4 women in the US is on some sort of medication for their "mental health". Sadly, all these drugs do is lobotomize them.
On my flight from Houston to Mexico there were three people in wheelchairs. 90% of the people on the plane appeared to be Mexican but the three people in wheelchairs were all white women from either Canada or the US... all appeared to be in their late 50s or early 60s. 80 year old Mexican women easily walk the beaches here in Acapulco but many 'northerners' are already wheelchair bound by their 50s and 60s, due mostly to years of bad diet, no exercise, pharmaceutical use and the taking of vaccines. In my own mother's particular case, it was the Swine Flu vaccine that had lost her the use of her legs.
The answer, if it is not already too late for you, is to take all the best things that free-markets and technology has given us and avoid all of the bad things that the state has given us in the western world. One of the easiest ways to do that is to expatriate outside the western world where the food system hasn't already been heavily polluted with chemicals, where vaccines aren't forced on yourself or your children, where the lifestyle is healthy and active and where you are not forced to submit your children to the government 'education' system.
FOLLOW-UP TO "THE FRAUD IN THE CAPITAL MARKETS"
TDV's correspondent at Doug Casey's Gultch in Argentina, Gary Kinghorn, created quite a stir with his submission yesterday entitled, "The Fraud in the Capital Markets".
Gary made a number of assertions in this article. First, he stated, that MF Global has shown that the entire COMEX futures market has become a completely lawless, fraudulent system. He also commented that in general the financial markets in the US have become very dangerous because there is no rule of law anymore. Essentially, the government and its henchmen can do and take whatever they want at this point.
We generally agree with this point.
He then stated that naked short selling in the US is a problem. We agree. He then said that many naked short sells never get closed out... and because the SEC has been negligent in this (another government agency not doing what it's supposed to do, surprise surprise), that a significant amount of trades in the US are actually being traded with, what are for all intents and purposes, counterfeit shares.
In this regard, TDV is agnostic. We do not know enough about this to say one way or another whether this is the case. It would not surprise us, however, as we've seen enough in the financial markets over the years to not be surprised by anything.
Finally, Gary states that he believes that the mining stocks have been a target of naked short selling... again, something we here at TDV would agree with. He then asserts that this activity is so predominant that "the lambs are going to get fleeced and drowned in a sea of corruption and fraud."
That is where we take a different tact than Gary. TDV Senior Analyst, Ed Bugos, wrote in with his comments:
The complainers of naked short selling, besides usually being a promoter, will try to argue that you can sell infinitely and drive the price down. I say, bring ‘em on. Create those opportunities for us! I can also tell you with 100% certainty that naked short selling is not behind any of our deals that have gone down in price. The weakness in the juniors is 100% explainable by the fear of a 2008 repeat... Also, on corporate governance, can Gary give us an example of a situation where as a result of this expansion in artificial share ownership (i.e. due to the buyer without stock) has affected a real vote of shares in any situation. I haven’t heard any such thing.
For the record, I agree that naked short selling is fraud, and that the current system facillitates it. I disagree that it causes any serious discloations in valuation or problems in corporate governance... or that it is as widespread as the author suggest. Also, I think a lot of people think that financial crisis are produced by these specific company collapses (ie. MF Global). Lehman didn’t cause the 2008 crisis. Remember, it was a liquidity crunch brought on by years of the removal of previous stimulus.
A lot of bears are focusing on MF Global as if it will cause the dominoes to fall. It just doesn’t work that way, especially when the central banks are on to the company that is having trouble. Lehman came out of nowhere. It took the central bankers off guard. But the point is that the cause of a financial crisis is not a given company collapsing... that is inevitable as the result of the withdrawal of money growth. It is symptomatic; not causal. MF is only a symptom of the crisis.
The surprise factor is out of that one for now. Sure there could be a few surprises that cause markets to sell off here and there. But not like 2008.
There are a few things that should be noted here. First, Gary says this applies to the US markets only - he stated that he is not aware of this happening in the Canadian markets. The majority of the stocks we follow are listed in Canada and therefore are not applicable to this 'fleecing' that Gary foresees. Also, we should point out that Gary made mention of Casey Research (CR) specifically, yesterday... this was not meant to say that CR is any more at risk than any other investors in the mining stocks, including ourselves... the main reason Gary used CR as an example is likely just due to the fact that Gary is currently living at Doug Casey's Estancia in Cafayate and just used CR as an example for that reason.
But, CR also mostly follows Canadian listed stocks. So, if what Gary said scared you yesterday, it shouldn't scare you from owning most of the stocks in our portfolio... or in CR's portfolio.
From my own personal perspective, while I think Gary's points are very worthwhile, they don't concern me for the stocks we follow... even the ones listed in the US. The reason is that we are expecting a LARGE amount of inflation to come into the markets in the next few years and this inflation will overwhelm any artificial share inflation.
Also, at TDV, we recommend a general portfolio with only 15% of our assets in the junior mining stocks and 15% in the majors... for a total of 30%. And we have 30% in gold and silver bullion. The reason we have a relatively small amount in the stocks is because we foresee one of two things happening. Either a quick and terrible deflationary collapse that effectively closes every bank in the western nations... in which case we will still do well as our bullion will still be of value while most people who had their savings in euros or dollars would be completely wiped out. Or, in the scenario we favor, the central banks continue to paper over the problems for another few years, creating a large amount of inflation, eventually leading to hyperinflation. During that time we expect a bubble to occur in the mining stocks that will make the tech bubble look like child's play. And, if that happens, we will see the junior stocks return 1,000-10,000%. After all, that's what happened the last time we had a major gold mania in 1979-1980. Jeff Clark of CR's Big Gold newsletter dug up some of the returns of the juniors during that time period:
And, all of the problems that caused that bull market have all increased exponentially since then. So, in that regard, we aren't too worried about some naked short selling for the stocks we own. In fact, as Ed stated, we tell them to "bring 'em on"!
We enjoyed Gary's article and think it has some good info that investors should be aware of... but we don't think that the issues he raised apply very much to the stocks we, or CR hold, for the reasons outlined above.
BACK TO THE BEACH
That's all for this weekend... the beach beckons! Have a great weekend wherever you might be.
Reader Comments (5)
"To me, God is human energy... and I think we all need to take responsibility for our own lives and not put the fate of our lives in the hands of some unseen entity. Jesus, however, seems like a pretty good guy," I stated, "I like him because he was an anarchist."
I love it! (I was going to say "amen" but then I came to my senses....)
Louis C.K.'s video was very funny, there's nothing I get as much joy with as flying or sky-diving. VERY In-sightful comments he made, reminds me of the feelings I've had listening to "entitled" people that don't create anything but expect everything.
Believing in things that are ill-researched is also a faith-based system.
Part of the UN Agenda 21 plan is to replace existing organized religion with a Gaya/Luciferian religion that is friendly to the central banker government, and aligns with their fabricated global warming/carbon footprint efforts. Try not to align yourself with the anti-organized religion movement, as not all organized religion is bad. Central bankers are the prime reason for mankind's suffering over the last 300 years -- not organized religion, remember.
Congratulations on your marriage, Jeff. I wish you both great happiness.
P.S. Your wife is so beautiful! And her dress is gorgeous! Having your family put your feet to the fire over that piece of paper turned out pretty alright. ;) You are a very lucky man. :)