On the road... to ruin

[Bill Bonner’s Diary]( On The Road… to Ruin By Bill Bonner Thursday, April 22, 2021 [Bill Bonner] YOUGHAL, IRELAND – “There is a great deal of ruin in a nation,” said Scottish economist Adam Smith in 1777. Today, we begin a long ramble down the road to ruin to look at how much ruin there is. The trial of Derek Chauvin, a white former police officer in Minneapolis, for the murder of George Floyd, a black man, brought out hints of the ruin to come. On the Trumpified right, a man in a police uniform can do no wrong. He is the avatar of law and order… of stability… the Praetorian Guard protecting the status quo and exalting the power and glory of the people who control it. But since the Trumpistas are no longer running the show, the more immediate danger has shifted to the other side – the zealots on the Biden bandwagon. Process Before Outcome On the left, it was proclaimed high and low that Mr. Floyd died because of systemic racism. Joe Biden said he prayed for a guilty verdict. This was a remarkable admission… as if he had no faith in his government’s criminal justice process. But in a civilized society, the process is more important than the outcome. The justice system is based on the idea that you are presumed innocent until proven guilty. No one knows in advance. If they did, why bother with a trial at all? Instead, a trial – like a market or an election – is designed to discover something – the truth. Until discovered, it is unknown. Biden didn’t think he had to wait. He hadn’t attended a single day of testimony, but he was sure he knew the correct verdict. Nancy Pelosi – perhaps drawing on her early years at Notre Dame (a Catholic girls’ high school in Baltimore) – saw Floyd’s death in Biblical terms. He had “sacrificed” himself, she said, so that others might have life and have it more abundantly… Thank you, George Floyd, for sacrificing your life for justice. Huh? Was it worth dying just to convict Derek Chauvin? Why not just not die and leave Chauvin a free man? Recommended Link [Forget options: Here’s the #1 way to trade]( [image]( Forget options! Because there’s a NEW way to trade. - It can pay far more than stocks… - Trades can cost as little as 1¢… - These special trades can multiply as much as 529 times… - Warren Buffett made $12 billion with the idea behind this technique… - These trades can shoot up lightning fast – sometimes in weeks or even days… One of these odd trades even shot up 183% in one day! Our readers saw the chance at gains as high as an extraordinary 5,100% with one 19¢ trade. I repeat – this is NOT options trading. [Here’s the full scoop on this weird way to trade.]( -- Collective Responsibility The “sacrifice” idea only makes sense if the goal goes far beyond putting Chauvin behind bars. Contrary to the Christian faith, and to thousands of years of jurisprudential, moral, and philosophical enlightenment, today’s activists want to put a whole race of people – whites – on trial. They are responsible, say the prosecutors, not only for Floyd’s death, but for a long list of crimes, from slavery to Nagasaki. Communism, the Inquisition, the Crusades, Nazism, Brutalism in art and architecture, sugary cereal, plastic in the ocean – the white race is where the buck stops for them all. The typical white man is flummoxed. He doesn’t hate Black people. He didn’t kill George Floyd or throw a plastic water bottle in the Pacific. Why should he take the rap? [Featured: U.S. Govt. Has $1 Billion Bitcoin Stash?]( Individual Responsibility But collective guilt has a long and sordid history. At the time of the Great Sacrifice – the crucifixion – Pontius Pilate asked the Jews if they wanted him to release Jesus. No, they replied. They preferred to have Barabbas – a thief – spared. As for Jesus: “Crucify him. Crucify him. His blood is on us and on our children!” Jesus had made it clear – especially in his story of the “good Samaritan” – that all people would be judged by God individually. It didn’t matter that he was a Samaritan; he who had come to the aid of the man in need, while others passed him by. The law, too, has long recognized that people should be held accountable for their own crimes, not for those of others. 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]( -- Collective Guilt But civilization walks backward from time to time. Centuries after the crucifixion of Christ, pogroms against Jews were excused as “justice” for the collective guilt they bore. Taking it a step further, in Poland during World War II, the Nazis made it a collective crime to give aid or comfort to Jews. Not only would the person who committed the infraction be punished, but so would his whole family. Likewise, when a German soldier was killed by Polish partisans, a whole town might be massacred in reprisal. And now, collective guilt is back. “White privilege” is to blame for everything from higher COVID-19 death rates in Black neighborhoods to higher incomes in white ones. (Dear, long-suffering readers must be wondering what this has to do with the economy… But hold on… we’re getting there.) [Featured: What Will Happen After Millions Get Vaccinated?]( Any Means Necessary When civilization goes into reverse, the means get upstaged by the ends. People lose confidence in the integrity of the process; they want results. If what is most important to you is ending systemic racism, for example, or saving the planet… or winning a war against terrorists… or preventing a bear market on Wall Street, for that matter… you might very well conclude that any means necessary is okay. Murder? Theft? Counterfeiting? Price fixing? Redistributing income? Sure, why not? In the news yesterday was this report from Business Insider: Warren Buffett caught the attention of the World Economic Forum’s Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab, who said he’d like to “have a discussion” with the billionaire investor. Uh oh. Schwab wants to give Buffett a good “talking to.” Why? Berkshire Hathaway CEO Buffett is not on board with using shareholder money to signal management’s virtue: Last year, Buffett said companies should focus on creating shareholder value, and not invest in social causes like climate change. “This is the shareholders’ money,” he said. Schwab said the “art of good management today is to create a balance” between shareholders, and stakeholders, as in society as a whole. He said for companies not buying into the stakeholder concept, they’re going to be “on the wrong side of history. Recommended Link [Bill Bonner: Shadow-Banned?]( [image]( Have [America’s top booksellers refused to carry Bill Bonner’s final book]( You won’t find new copies of Win-Win or Lose at Barnes & Noble… and not a single copy is floating around on eBay. In fact, the only used copy we could find was going for $79 on Amazon. Which is why Bill recently authorized us to take drastic steps to put a copy in your hands essentially free – as part of this limited time offer. [To claim yours, click here.]( Why Hold Back? Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen lit up like a lighthouse. Reuters reports: U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday pledged to aggressively tackle climate change using all the tools at her disposal, warning that a failure to do so effectively and promptly could undermine economic growth. “We are committed to directing public investment to areas that can facilitate our transition to net-zero and strengthen the functioning of our financial system so that workers, investors, and businesses can seize the opportunity that tackling climate change presents,” Yellen said. When you think you know what is most important, you’re not going to let a few ancient rules stand in the way, are you? And when you think you know how to improve the world – for you have the TRUTH – why hold yourself back? Why not insist that everyone and everything get in line? More to come… on the road to ruin… Regards, [signature] Bill --------------------------------------------------------------- Like what you’re reading? Send your thoughts to [feedback@rogueeconomics.com](mailto:feedback@rogueeconomics.com?subject=On the road… to ruin). --------------------------------------------------------------- FEATURED READS [Treasury Secretary Yellen Calls for Expansive Climate Change Initiative]( Yellen spoke at the Institute of International Finance Wednesday, calling for sweeping environmental action to fight climate change. Her views dismiss conservative concern, that economic pain will follow… [On a New Global Economic Order]( Economics colleague Tom Dyson continues to share his travels and economic insights in his newsletter Postcards From the Fringe. Here, he looks at the feds’ dollar debasement and what’s coming next… MAILBAG [Inflation]( and the [feds’ economic scam]( are on dear readers’ minds today… Brilliant, Bill. I lived the inflation of the 1980’s… as I know you did. It is not funny at all. My first mortgage in Canada was at 21% on a $60k house. Took nearly all my salary at the time. Fortunately, listening to wise folks such as yourself, I no longer have any debt. However, many do not listen and think the fake party will continue forever. The tragedy of people forced out of their homes because their mortgage was renewed at 20%, and they could not afford food because their incomes did not keep pace (that was the start of food banks, by the way). Striking workers to get more money out of companies that had frittered their earnings away on stupid projects with no promise of a return… and so it goes on. The signs of early inflation are everywhere. – Malcolm R. You call it a fraud and a gamble, Bill. But it’s always been one for most people... Only the wealthy owned the casino and could mark the cards. Once labor unions lost their leverage, the average Joe lost his last vestige of real economic power. And the casino market could rip free. I agree with one thing, though: An economy based on casino thieving isn’t likely to last, as all the best old Hollywood Westerns tell us. – Richard C. What’s coming next on America’s road to ruin? Do ends justify the feds’ means? Write us at feedback@rogueeconomics.com. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT… [The 3-Stock Retirement Blueprint]( When most folks think about making money through the markets, they think “buy and hold.” They think “diversification.” And they think about investing in things like index funds. But one man has a different approach… It’s called the “3-Stock Retirement Blueprint.” It’s a way to play 3 stocks — yes, just 3 — and potentially make more money than you would by trading all the rest of them… Or by using an old-fashioned approach. Sound impossible? [Get all the details here]( — including the names and tickers of the three stocks. 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