A gaucho appears in the distance, riding hell for leather...

[Bill Bonner’s Diary]( A Gaucho Appears in the Distance, Riding Hell for Leather... By Bill Bonner [Bill Bonner] SAN MARTIN, ARGENTINA – A horseman suddenly appeared in the field in front of us. He was riding hell for leather to the south. A real gaucho, completely at ease… as if he and the horse were one animal… lithe… agile… graceful… “What’s going on…” Elizabeth wondered. “That’s Pablo… and he’s on that Criollo… He’s really flying…” A few hundred yards away, we saw what he was after. A wild burro, or donkey, had gotten into the hay field and was eating one of the round bales. There are hundreds of burros in the hills. Like deer in Maryland and guanaco up at the ranch, they are a nuisance. Occasionally, hunting parties are organized to kill them. Back in the ’60s, someone had the idea of turning the burro into a farm animal. He raised them, slaughtered them, and made the meat into a kind of spam… or pâté. He called it Buro! “They sold a lot of it in the city,” explained Ramón. “I don’t think the city folks understood what was in it. It sold well for a while, but I haven’t seen it in a long time.” Our farm is well fenced. But when the water goes down in the river, the burros can get across. Occasionally, they show up in the pastures. Pablo raced toward the burro. Behind him, a black dog ran as fast as he could, trying to keep up. Seeing him coming, the burro began running in the opposite direction. But the burro was no match for the criollo. The horse easily outpaced him… and cut him off each time he tried to escape. By then, the dog was on the job, too. He knew what to do. He circled… yapped at the burro… Dogs are useful for herding animals. But they are not necessarily good at keeping them in one place; they frighten and annoy them. Pablo dismounted. He got down his lasso. But while he was thus occupied, the burro bolted. In a half a second, Pablo was back on his horse. But this time, rather than try to capture the burro, he and the dog drove it forward… all the way up to the gate. The animal passed through the gate, Pablo dismounted… and closed it. Then, he got back on his horse, waved his hat in the air… and with a shout, drove the burro back across the river. Meanwhile, Elizabeth had turned to look in the other direction. “I think the house is on fire,” she said. But we’ll come back to that in a minute. Let’s first turn to the coming economic, political, and social ruin of America… Recommended Link [Brace for an “aftershock” of the crash]( [image]( The man who called the 2020 market crash has an urgent new warning. “The coming days will be a financial disaster.” Keep in mind: He also called the 2008 crash, months before it happened. Along the way, you could have doubled your money 10 different times. He made 10 times his money just before Black Monday 1987. And during the dot-com meltdown in 2000, you could have made 14 times your money in just over 2 months by hearing him out. [Today, his newest warning could help you make a fortune]( -- A Page From Argentina’s Book There’s an advantage to spending time in a place like Argentina. It’s been through these things before. In fact, it makes a habit of it. Here’s the latest from Yahoo Finance: Argentina said it didn’t make $500 million in debt payments due Wednesday, starting a 30-day countdown to a possible default unless the government and bondholders can reach a deal on restructuring its massive foreign debt. Bloomberg tells us what happens next: Since the country is cut off from credit markets… it can’t borrow to fund stimulus programs, as other countries in the region are doing. Instead, the central bank is emitting massive amounts of money to cover government programs, threatening to drive up an inflation rate that is already among the highest in the world. Since the lockdown was announced March 19, the monetary base has increased about 20%, with the central bank sending 340 billion pesos ($5.2 billion) to the government during that time as dividends and temporary transfers. That’s causing the peso to lose value as companies and wealthy citizens try to convert excess pesos into the safe haven of U.S. dollars. Can you imagine doing anything so stupid? Covering current expenses by printing money? Allowing your money supply to increase by 20% in just a month? These gauchos… what a bunch of retards. That’s why economists like to study Argentina. It’s the only country in the world to go from one of the world’s richest… to sh*thole status… thanks entirely to government policy. But wait… …you say the U.S. is printing money to cover its operating expenses, too? The budget this year is exploding to $7 trillion. [Stunning Fact About the Top 2 Stocks During COVID-19 Crisis…]( Tax receipts were only expected to be in the neighborhood of $3.8 trillion – and that was before the C-virus hit. Now, it’s tough to say… maybe only $3 trillion… maybe only $2 trillion. That means the feds will have to borrow. But who’s got $4 trillion? The Argentines can’t borrow because no one will lend them money. The Americans can’t borrow, either, because nobody’s got that kind of money. And if they had it, they wouldn’t be fool enough to lend to someone on such a reckless spending binge. The only possible source for so much financing is the Federal Reserve. And the Fed’s only source is the “printing press.” So, in other words, the U.S. is following in Argentina’s tracks… but on a much bigger scale. But wait… you say the Fed is adding to the money supply… just like Argentina? The first week of March, the Fed held assets of $4.29 trillion, mostly U.S. Treasuries. Now, it has about $6.36 trillion worth, all of it bought with “printing press” money. That is an increase of… are you ready for this… 48% – or more than twice as fast as Argentina. Bad Memories Argentina’s inflation rate is already over 50%. But that’s nothing compared to its inflation of the 1980s. Anyone over the age of 40 can remember when prices rose an average of about 300% per year. That kind of inflation does to an economy approximately what the coronavirus does. Things shut down. Businesses can’t make plans. They can’t invest for the future. They let workers go. People stay home. Their money loses value so fast, they try to get rid of it as soon as possible. This feeds even further price increases… and less production. Typically, the government proposes scapegoats… enemies… and jackass solutions – all of which make things worse. Price controls, for example, discourage the little output that was left. High taxes and capital restrictions drive away investors. And wars – meant to distract people from the financial mismanagement and rally them behind the government – waste the little wealth that is still available. Recommended Link [Urgent: To Any American Who Owns A Cell Phone]( [image]( If you own a cell phone, then mobile service providers hope you never get to see this video going viral. It was shot in downtown Denver by a multi-millionaire, who exposed sensitive truths about cell phones and 5G. His experiment will strike a bad chord with cell phone companies. But you’ve got to see what this man “leaked,” and what it means for phone users in the weeks ahead. [Click here to see this developing story]( -- Monetary Madness When it comes to making a mess of an economy, the Argentines are pros. In 1982, the military dictatorship went to war with Britain. That was a disaster. Inflation soared as the government tried to pay its expenses with printing-press money. By the following year, it had to issue a “new peso,” worth 10,000 old pesos. When that failed to stop inflation, in 1985, another currency appeared – the austral – which was traded in at the rate of one per 1,000 pesos. [A Sneak Peek Inside Apple’s 5G iPhone?]( Of course, changing the currency did nothing to halt inflation. As long as the government was funding itself with printing-press money, people didn’t care whose picture was on it. By 1989, the inflation rate hit 12,000%. Riots broke out in the streets. Finally, the austral was tossed onto the monetary trash heap and a new “convertible” peso was introduced. One new peso was equal to 10,000 australes. Convertibility was the key. The new currency was linked to dollars. And for a time, this worked reasonably well. Inflation almost disappeared. The economy began a rebound. We remember well when this period of relative stability and prosperity came to an end. Because we happened to have a meeting with Argentine president Carlos Menem. We were with a group of investors. We knew the “convertibility” system was under pressure. As usual, the government had spent too much money. But if it abandoned the “dollar peg,” all hell would break loose… with another default, devaluation, inflation… and all the other problems the Argentines know so well. So we put the question to Señor Menem directly. “Will Argentina abandon its peso-dollar link?” “No, definitely not,” came the reply. “We depend on it. Our economy needs it. Foreign investors require it. We will never give it up.” Three weeks later, the convertible peso was history… and Argentina was on another wild ride of monetary madness. Banks were closed. Dollar deposits were forcibly converted to pesos… and savers lost two-thirds of their money immediately. Since then, it has been downhill. From one-to-one convertibility in 1991, you can get 90 pesos per dollar today, on the black market. “Here in Argentina, we know we’re crazy,” says our neighbor, Ramón. “Now, we’re glad to have company.” Recommended Link [The Tech Boom Hidden in Executive Order 13859 (buy these 3 stocks)]( [image]( The Executive Order you see here could ignite the [biggest boom of the next 10 years](. It greenlights massive investments in artificial intelligence (AI) technology. In fact, the Department of Defense is now reviewing 592 different AI projects. Google is spending $3.9 billion; Microsoft, another $690 million. And a huge chunk of that money could flow through just three stocks. (One of them controls 80% of a key AI component.) But you need to get in now. Early investors could have already seen rare gains as high as 737.5% in just 5 weeks. [Click here to see details of three stocks that could soar next]( -- Fire in the Valley Meanwhile, smoke was billowing from our office roof. And in front stood Monzon… a mountain of a man, grinning. Everything about Monzon is big. His head. His hands. His smile. He was raising the roof of a barn across the river when the quarantine struck. Since it is a farm building, he’s been allowed to continue. During the week, he stays here, sleeping in a shed and cooking over an open fire. On weekends, he goes home to a nearby village. Often, he gets drunk and doesn’t come back until Tuesday. We had asked him to come over and take a look at our fireplace. It’s our only source of heat. But it smokes badly. And cold weather is coming. “Monzon, you’ve set our house on fire!” “No, patron, I just cut a hole in the roof and lit a fire to see how the smoke would rise. And now I see what is wrong. I’ll fix it.” [image]Monzon and helper fixing the chimney Regards, [signature] Bill Like what you’re reading? Send your thoughts to feedback@rogueeconomics.com. Note From the Publisher You’ll notice a kind of “cosmetic” change in your Diary subscription. Don’t worry. You’ll still get absolutely everything you get right now. But going forward, Bonner & Partners will be called “Rogue Economics.” Longtime readers will recognize the idea of rogue economics… Bill launched the Diary of a Rogue Economist in 2013, to just a few thousand subscribers, when he formed his own boutique publishing business. Over the last seven years, his daily diaries (which became Bill Bonner’s Diary in 2015) have reached millions of readers. And his small, niche business has grown into one of the largest and most successful publishers in the industry. As part of that growth, we’ve introduced new voices… Diary readers regularly hear from tech expert Jeff Brown, world-traveler Tom Dyson, famed speculator and “anarcho-capitalist” Doug Casey, crypto guru Teeka Tiwari, longtime trader Jeff Clark, commodity analyst Dave Forest, and many others… In other words, we’ve been sharing more than just Bill’s ideas. And it’s time for our name to reflect that. Otherwise, nothing will change. You’ll still find Bill – his stories, insights, and wisdom – where you always have. It’ll just have a slightly different look. And you can expect more unique ideas from other big thinkers in our pages. Best regards, [signature] Amber Lee Mason Publisher P.S. As always, let us know what you think – good or bad. You can now write us at: feedback@rogueeconomics.commailto:feedback@bonnerandpartners.com. FEATURED READS [Why Big Business Got Small Business Administration Money]( portion of the loans set aside for the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program was awarded to big businesses… and people are asking questions. MAILBAG Various ideas about the coronavirus, after Wednesday’s Diary, “[Great Victory for the American People… or Just Another Fraud?](... It does kill young people. Not as many as old people. And even if it only killed old people, that would not seem to be a reason to let it go unchecked. Of course, I am old. You need to separate reasonable actions to control the virus, like social separation... from those unreasonable ones like excessive spending in the short-term to goose the economy. – Jonathan D. Might as well rename it! We are living a unique and confusing era full of virtuality, fear, uncertainty, and manipulations. I came from France to America in the late ’80s with the hope of finding El Dorado and the American Dream, living behind family, savoir faire, and so-what of a provincial life. It took me some time to realize that the American Dream was 20 years too late, at least from a chap from France. I realize with time and a constant mind-tracking of events, indexes, and numbers that I am a peon in a paradoxical vortex that shapes our daily lives. Now we have an “invisible” enemy and another twisted socioeconomic equation that quickly separates the non-believers and the obsessed of COVID-19, reminiscent of political polarization that we know so well, especially in the outskirts of Washington, D.C. – PJ M. Coronavirus is a creative way of destroying our rights and our wealth by the control freaks who concocted the crisis. It's just the flu. Nowhere in history has the flu been used as an excuse for such destruction. Fear keeps people from thinking rationally. Protection from coronavirus is as simple as maintaining a strong immune system. Beware of the harmful vaccine that is sure to follow. It will likely contain high tech markers and trackers. Expect coercion to be used for its acceptance, such as an offer of some freedom for those who get vaccinated. – John H. How do we separate reasonable coronavirus responses from unreasonable ones, as Jonathan suggests? Write us at feedback@rogueeconomics.com. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT… [“SHEEP BRAIN-20” Pandemic Is Next]( Coronavirus will end. But a new “epidemic” is just getting started… It’s “sheep brain” disease. And it could cause far more damage than coronavirus. “Sheep brain” is spread by the dangerous belief that government “stimulus” will solve real economic problems – with no dire consequences. Obviously, coronavirus is a serious health risk. But the $2.2 trillion stimulus plan poses an even bigger threat to your retirement savings. [One independent research firm has discovered an alarming fact about the new bailouts](. It turns out, politicians are dusting off an 87 year old plan developed during the Great Depression… The plan called for “unlimited” money printing as part of a radical scheme to make a more “fair and equal” society… But former congressional staffer Dan Denning says there’s a darker motive… A radical faction inside the government is using the current crisis to shove through a nightmare agenda that – if successful – could end financial freedom in America. There’s still time to protect your wealth. But this window of safety is closing. [Go here to read Dan’s in-depth presentation.]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Get Instant Access Click to read these free reports and automatically sign up for daily research. 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