On the beach in the second plague year

[Bill Bonner’s Diary]( On the Beach in the Second Plague Year By Bill Bonner Tuesday, February 16, 2021 If everybody had an ocean Across the U.S.A. Then everybody’d be surfin’ Like California You’d seem ‘em wearing their baggies Huarachi sandals, too A bushy bushy blond hairdo Surfin’ U.S.A. – The Beach Boys [Bill Bonner] RANCHO SANTANA, NICARAGUA – Our life here is taking on a delicious monotony. We rise at 6. By 6:30, we are on the beach, taking our morning walk from one end to the other and back. It takes about an hour… a nice start to the day. [image]Early-morning stroll on Los Perros Gone Surfin’ This expanse of sand is called Iguana Beach on one end and Los Perros on the other. The two sides are separated by two seasonal rivers. The one on the Los Perros side, where we are, reaches the ocean only during the rainy season. The other one runs all year round. In normal times, the surfers are already out on the water at 6:30. About halfway up the beach is a famous surfing break called Panga Drops. (A panga is a local fishing boat.) It attracts surfers from all over the world. Last year, there were several women from France surfing here. You could spot them because they wore very stylish outfits, a great contrast to the usual t-shirt and “baggies” of the California crowd. [image]A young surfer But 2021, like the year before it, is a Plague Year. Getting here is a challenge. Especially if you’re coming from Europe. “U.S. borders are sealed to foreigners, except for essential travel,” explained a friend. “I don’t know whether they’d consider passing through Miami to go surfing in Nicaragua to be essential travel or not.” And then, you may get stuck in Miami, [as we did]( waiting for your onward connection. Recommended Link [Millionaire’s Big Prediction From Living Room Couch]( [image]( Teeka Tiwari – America’s No. 1 Investor – just made an outrageous prediction. Recorded live from his living room couch… He blasts Congress, reveals nasty truths about America… And reveals one technology set to radically change our nation. Already, 400,000+ viewers have checked it out. WARNING: This video may make you furious. [Watch His Urgent Video Now]( -- Great Escape Our house is on the Los Perros side of the beach. It was the first house built on the entire beach… Set on a little promontory hard up against a large hill, with a plunging cliff down to the ocean, it marks the northern end of the beach. With few exceptions, the other houses are built right at the waters’ edge, bungalows and condos… lined up along the shore, awaiting a tsunami. [image]Playa Los Perros There were few people on the beach this weekend. We passed a cheerful, middle-aged couple, who said hello. Other than that, there was a young man with earphones. He goes up and down the beach every day, as we do. We greet him routinely and continue on our way at about the same pace, so we tend to encounter him at almost exactly the same spot every day. We came here – as we go everywhere – partly on business, but expecting to have a good time. We have been coming here now for a quarter of a century. We had a hand in starting the resort here – Rancho Santana – as a great escape for readers of our magazine, International Living. But projects like these take on a life of their own. They go in unexpected directions, like a runaway horse… often tossing off their riders along the way. Business here has had its ups and downs. Now, the “down” is dangerously low, caused by the coronavirus, the U.S. government’s attitude towards travelers to Nicaragua, and the airlines’ reluctance to bring you here. So what happens to a tourist resort when the tourists no longer come? We thought we should find out. [Featured: Firm That Predicted 9/11 Issues Urgent Warning: Move Your Money Now]( Not Alone In preview, it’s not so bad. Walking along the beach is always a pleasure. Except at high tide, the sand is flat and packed tight, with a thin layer of water left by the retreating surf. It looks as though we are walking on a sheet of glass. But it gives way softly to each step. When we first arrived 25 years ago, this beach was in the same state that the first Spanish explorers – working their way up from the port at “Darién” in Panama – would have found it. Breathtakingly beautiful. Like Eve in the Garden of Eden, there were no houses, wires, tourists, towers, roads, condos – nor any of the garments of modern leisure or civilization. We had the beach to ourselves… It was as if we owned it… as if we had discovered it… as if our bark had washed up on the sand, leaving us stranded in paradise. But we weren’t entirely alone. On a small rise near where our house was built, there was a caretaker. He lived in a wooden shack, with dogs and pigs wandering around the yard, and a blue hammock stretched out on the porch. From there, the bare-chested man could keep his eye on the whole beach without bestirring himself from his hammock. This man, short and brown, had no money. He owned no stocks and had no 401(k) retirement nest egg. But he needed none. He lived on the “fruits of the earth,” as André Gide put it – fish… turtle eggs… papaya… plantains… lobsters. He could go fishing. He could go for a walk on the beach. He could fall for a local girl and start a family. Or he could lie in his hammock and contemplate the wonders of nature, of which he was one. His job was to chase squatters off the property, should any appear. And as none did, his work schedule was extremely relaxed, like a Zoom worker whose electricity has gone off in a storm. 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After our one-hour walk at sunrise, we settle down to read and write, taking time out for meetings, vaguely trying to figure out our next move on our property down here. What should we do? Are we boldly raising up… or gracefully slipping down? Which way is the tide running? Today, the caretaker’s shack is gone. It has recently been replaced by a millionaire’s mansion. [image]Mansion on the beach Surf Fishing About halfway down the beach on our early-morning promenade, we came upon a group of fishermen. They stood still, not even noticing the gringo walking by. They were staring up and down the coast. They were watching the birds… specifically, the pelicans. They don’t compete with them; they use them as scouts. The pelicans rest on the surface of the tide, bobbing up and down with the waves. Then, alone or in groups, they take to the wing. Typically, they fly low… skimming right above the crest of a breaking wave, where the uprush of air gives them a lift. They are looking for fish. When they find the school, they flap their wings, rising in altitude to 25 to 50 feet above the surface. Then, circling, hovering for a minute… they suddenly dive bomb into the water. A second later, they come up like a cork and swallow their prize. [Featured: The #1 Tech Stock of 2021]( The fishermen are not interested in the small fry. They want the fish that feed on the small fry. At least, that is our hypothesis… They watch to see where the pelicans are diving. Then, they look for the schools of larger fish that also pursue the pelican’s prey. While we were walking along, the fishermen – who previously looked as though they were frozen – all of a sudden thawed and started running, led by a young man with a beard. They dashed by us and continued about a hundred yards up the beach. There, wasting no time, they jumped into the water up to their waists, swirling their baited hooks above their heads like a gaucho swinging a lasso. They launched their hooks as far as they could… and immediately began gathering them in… wrapping the line around a wooden frame. Recommended Link [Buy This Ticker Now: Projected To Jump 1,530%]( [ad_img]( With experts projecting gains as high as 1,530% by the end of this year… If you don’t buy this ticker, you’ll regret it later. Forbes has already confirmed that when all is said and done, “a new class of millionaires may emerge.” [Click here and get the ticker now… no strings attached]( Good Catch Surf fishing, at least the way these men do it, is not the patient activity of old men on Minnesota’s frozen lakes. It is hot and fast. In less than two minutes, they were hauling in their catch. These they quickly unhooked… and then raced up onto the beach and threw the fish down, just far enough from the water’s edge so the incoming water would not liberate them. The fish flopped and squirmed… and then gave up. They are good-looking fish, about a foot long and thick, perhaps a variety of Pacific bass. Having put their fish up on the shore, the fishermen dashed back into the water to repeat the exercise. But this time, their hooks came back empty. They scanned the water and judged that the school had moved south… So they ran… and again, they jumped into the waves and slung their hooks. A few more fish came in. They kept at it for a few minutes. Then, the school must have deserted them… or headed to deeper water. The fishermen came back up the beach, gathering their fish from the sand as they went along. Each man had caught two or three of them… nine or ten in all. They looked satisfied. Easy Living Coming back to our theme, we find that there are few tourists here. But there are more locals than usual. More Spanish is spoken than English. And there are more young families, coming not for a vacation, but to live. The Plague seems to be changing the world – even here. More to come… Regards, [signature] Bill --------------------------------------------------------------- Like what you’re reading? Send your thoughts to [feedback@rogueeconomics.com](mailto:feedback@rogueeconomics.com?subject=On the Beach in the Second Plague Year). --------------------------------------------------------------- FEATURED READS [The U.S. Jobs Market Will Take Years to Recover]( a post-war record high of 14.7% last year, unemployment is now down to 6.3%. But a return to the pre-pandemic labor market may take until the second half of the decade. Especially for lower-wage, older, and female workers, who are disproportionately affected by business shutdowns and changes in consumer behavior. [Energy Crisis: Millions of Americans Without Power in Big Freeze]( temperatures and record snowfalls have forced oil wells and refineries to shut temporarily. Amid blackouts affecting states from North Dakota to Oklahoma, millions of Americans are without power. President Biden has approved emergency relief for Texas, as authorities battle to avoid a total collapse of the grid. MAILBAG In today’s mailbag, a dear reader says consumer price inflation is already here, no matter what the government says… While another reflects on Thursday’s essay, “[The Future Can Wait](... Bill, inflation is already here. The general public hasn’t seen it yet, but it will. We are a small packaging company. Nothing big, but we buy various commodities to convert into packaging for manufacturers to use in delivering their products through distribution systems to end users. Corrugated, i.e. paper (think boxes), went up $50 per ton about a month ago, and it’s been announced that it is going up another $70 per ton next month. That’s an 18% to 20% increase. Polystyrene, commonly called styrofoam, is used extensively in packaging, and has gone up 15% in the last three months. It’s going up again this month. Wood has doubled, as well as steel, all used by some of our customers for bridge and roof decking, as well as general construction. Go look at the price for a common two-by-four at Lowe’s or Home Depot; it’s doubled to tripled. The average wood package for home construction is up 25% to 35%. I’m no genius, but when the box cost of your next-day delivery from Amazon goes up 20%, that increase will be reflected by an increased cost to whatever is in the box. – Jim C. Dear Bill, I enjoy your Diary and all the insights you and your colleagues share. It gives me guidance as I plan for the future. Your travelogues and stories may be as important as your investment insights and your commentary on the slips and slides of civilization. I was amused when you mentioned [Confederate statues](. We are working hard to preserve them, but with the acceleration of the attacks on our Western civilization, it is becoming more and more clear that we do not deserve the great benefits which we have inherited. We have let politicians do what they do so well – STEAL. They have destroyed our economy, our culture, and our liberty. I do prepare as best I can, but find prayer to be the most effectual means of preserving what we have left. Keep up the good work. – Brett M. And finally, one dear reader thinks it’s “game over” for the U.S… Just for the record, the Democrats didn’t defeat the Republicans, as they would all have us believe! The Chinese won, and we can kiss goodbye to the USA. By the time the uninformed masses figure it out, it will be too late. My current plan is to exit our great country, which is gone forever. – John M. In what ways have you experienced rising consumer prices? Has inflation affected your business, as it has Jim’s? Write us at feedback@rogueeconomics.com. 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