| By Bill Bonner Wednesday, November 10, 2021 BALTIMORE, MARYLAND – Inflation is afoot. Breitbart is on the story: “Prices rose 8.6 percent from a year ago in October, the second consecutive month of the fastest annual pace of inflation in records going back 10 years. The Department of Labor said the Producer Price Index accelerated to show a monthly gain of 0.6 percent, up one-tenth of a percentage point from the September gain. That was in line with analyst expectations.” And the Daily Mail” reports that “meatflation” is getting serious: …the cost of bone-in ribeye beef has nearly doubled from $8.71 per pound in November 2020 to an astounding $16.99 per pound this week, according to the US Department of Agriculture's Retail Price Report that was released on Friday – an increase of over 95 percent. The Bureau of Labor Statistics will have a price misinformation update later today. Here, we pause to reflect on what inflation actually is… and where higher rates of it are taking us. Noxious Tax Democracy is best described as “two wolves and one lamb voting on what to have for dinner.” But after they’ve fully digested the lamb, the wolves are still hungry. What do they do? First, they borrow. And when that source is exhausted (excess borrowing raises interest rates, which depresses the whole economy… and lowers tax receipts)… they print. Inflation is just another way to squeeze blood out of a population of turnips. It is a tax levied on consumers. It’s a particularly noxious tax, in that it distorts and damages the entire economy. And when a country relies too heavily on it, it soon becomes a god-awful mess. Infectious Socialism Take our favorite basket case, Argentina, for example. Runaway debt? Out-of-control inflation? Pandering to the masses? Buying votes? Corruption… incompetence… absurdity – the Argentines have been there and done that for the last 70 years. Now, The Wall Street Journal is on the story: Argentina’s Welfare State Warning to America Socialist ideologues know that the welfare state is addictive. New entitlements create dependencies that, once born, demand to be fed and to grow no matter the party in power. Argentina proves the rule. Yes, “Peronism is Argentina’s most successful export,” jokes a friend in Salta. Juan Perón took a little from Mussolini… a little from Hitler… a little from Stalin. And then, he added a tango beat and chimichurri sauce. The result was a pampa variant of the socialist infection. And it has proved remarkably durable. [Featured: Introducing: The 3-Stock Retirement Blueprint] Patient Zero By April 28, 1945, Mussolini was hanging from a lamppost by his feet. Two days later, Hitler was in cinders. Stalin’s Soviet Union limped along until 1991, when President Gorbachev resigned and began doing luggage commercials for Louis Vuitton. And Peronism? General Juan Perón, who ruled Argentina from 1946 through 1955, and again briefly in 1973-74, was Patient Zero. He came back from Italy in 1941, bringing the dreaded disease with him. It has run rampant through Buenos Aires’ popular neighborhoods ever since. | Recommended Link | | SCREAMING Buy Alert This is a “SCREAMING” Buy Alert warning… Seven billionaires including Elon Musk, Mark Cuban, Peter Thiel, Mike Novogratz, and Marc Andreessen… Along with major banks like JPMorgan, UBS, and Goldman Sachs… Are all racing into one smaller cryptocurrency… (Not Bitcoin.) In 2021 alone, this small crypto soared 4X FASTER than Bitcoin… And over the next decade, this crypto could be worth more than Apple, Amazon, Google, and even Facebook… If you only buy ONE CRYPTO… This is the one you want. |
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Survival Tool What makes Peronism so “sticky” is that once groups acquire a taste for money that isn’t their own, they are very reluctant to give it up. Then, politicians need to keep the money coming or they can’t win an election. And since they can never tax or borrow enough to make good on all their promises (especially since they are simultaneously strangling the productive economy), they resort to the inflation tax… and blame it on greedy businessmen. Corruption runs wild. In the courts, in the bureaucracy, in the schools, in the medical system… and in private industry, too. Nothing is on the level. Nothing works as you think it should. At first, you attribute it to “incompetence.” But the Argentines are as competent as anyone else. They just react to different incentives. And in a corrupt system, corruption – petty and great – not only pays, it is a survival tool. [Featured: A message from Jeff Brown on the hottest investment in 2021] Life Goes On That’s the endearing and enlightening thing about the Argentine system. It has a kind of illicit flexibility that keeps life tolerable… even agreeable… in the midst of perpetual crisis. Coups d’état… military governments… mass murders… widespread terrorism and kidnapping… hyperinflation… humiliating defeats and depression – Peronism has survived them all. Even today, the inflation rate is around 50%… where it has been for several years. The U.S. dollar trades on “white,” “black,” and “blue” exchanges – at very different rates. Businesses routinely keep at least two different sets of books – one for the government and one for themselves. They trade invoices with each other to manage their tax burdens. And rich people flee to Uruguay or Florida. Still, life goes on… tolerably well, for many people. But a deeper crisis is coming. The Argentine government is broke. No one will lend it money. And if it keeps printing more money, it risks a Venezuela-style catastrophe. | Recommended Link | MISSING: Bill Bonner’s LAST and Most Important Book Recently, Bill Bonner published a new book, which details his final warning to investors. But shortly after it hit bookstore shelves, it disappeared, without a trace. Today, you’d be lucky to find a used copy online for $79. While some suspect Bill’s book has been “shadow-banned” by major retailers… the truth is far more interesting… and urgent. For the full story – including how you could claim a copy, free as part of this limited-time offer… |
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Broken Status Quo Meanwhile, an important election is coming on Thursday. The Peronists are facing a big challenge. But not necessarily a big change. As The Wall Street Journal puts it, the opposition is “not much more than a milder version of the status quo.” Alas, the status quo – now becoming familiar north of the Rio Grande, as it has been south of the Rio de la Plata for many years – is a shambles. How easy it would be, in theory, to fix it. No more free lunches. No more deficits. No more bribes. No more money-printing. But how impossible it is, in practice, to do it… Regards, Bill
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Employers might be offering higher wages to attract new workers, but many Americans find those increased incomes only go so far. Widespread price increases mean it’s not just food, fuel, or energy… MAILBAG The controversy continues in the climate change conversation, after Bill’s Monday essay, “Saint Greta”… I get a kick out of the climate change hoax. We have had five Ice Ages long before cars, coal plants, etc. What caused those? Scientists have told us that it came from carbon based on volcanic activity. When there were periods of high volcanic activity, the Earth got warmer. When there was less volcanic activity, it got cooler. Without critical thinking, we allow idiots like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) to suggest that we eliminate meat from our diet because cows fart and give off methane gas. My question is, does she fart? – Hipolito C. Truly the most intelligent and well thought-out explanation of the subject that some people call “climate change.” I call it “weather.” – James M. Two hundred years ago, Saint Greta, unless her family was wealthy, would probably have had to bust her behind from dawn to dusk, and probably later, in support of a household dependent either on fishing or agriculture. No lengthy trips across the Atlantic to moralize her elders for her! No way! If she had crossed the Atlantic at all, it would have resulted in the same laborious lifestyle here as in the Old World. Say what you like about fossil fuels, they have, as you stated so well, Bill, meant a wealthier and healthier life for billions. – Brian H. Great article! I recall the pics of Ms. Greta's car interior, a pollution unto itself! I took a glaciology course as part of my Geology degree, and it was fascinating to see the geological record recorded in the advancement and retreat of glaciers over the millennia, like reading ages in tree stumps. There have been periods of advancement and retreat of glaciers. Now is no different. Actually, the most recent news I heard from NASA is that there is no decrease in Arctic ice mass, nor decrease in polar bear populations. As well, Antarctic ice mass is increasing! There will always be alarmists and hypocrites who defy all they preach with their actions! A la Gore, et al.! – Robert W. Yet not all dear readers are in agreement with Bill’s thoughts on climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic… I am finding it harder by the day to reconcile your lucid analysis of the economy and your simplistic, if not to say fantastical, views on climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. I also am baffled by your increasing forays into religion. Given your apparent faith in an all-wise deity, it baffles me why you have even bothered to write on the economy. I don’t dispute your right to think and say anything you please, but you would be doing your readers a big favor declaring yourself one way or the other. – David H. I have concluded (not for the first time) that you are a mouthpiece for “the elite.” No surprise, considering that you are among the top 1% of said wealthy. If there’s any doubt of that, your vitriolic diatribe against Greta Thunberg proves it. You say, repeatedly, that there is no proof that humans’ burning of fossil fuels is causing the planet to overheat. That’s a lie, and you know it. Prevention is a prudent thing to do… except for you of the wealthy elite, of course! You're heavily invested in fossil fuels, so you are terrified of Greta Thunberg and any other voices calling for the reduction of fossil fuel use. Why don’t you wise up and invest in “green,” alternative, sources of energy? That way, you’d be helping Planet Earth and your pocketbook at the same time. – Dale A. Interesting article, as always. In general, not only do I like your theses, but also find them logical and well reasoned. However, in this case, I would ask you to consider the following: much as there have always been natural events that cause problems for humankind, maybe the problem now is more related to the number of humans that now exist and the rate at which we continue to expand our numbers… Regardless, keep up the commentaries, they always stir up some thought. – Peter W. Is climate change more serious and real than Bill led on? Should we allow someone like Greta Thunberg to dictate our public policy? Write us at feedback@rogueeconomics.com. | IN CASE YOU MISSED IT… 👉“Penny Trade” shoots up 115% in ONE day!👈 Everyone knows about penny stocks… But have you heard about “Penny Trades”? One recent “Penny Trade” cost 14¢ and shot up 115% in ONE day. But that Penny Trade wasn’t done… because it closed out for 671% total gains the very next day. There’s more: -
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