Searching for home

[Bill Bonner’s Diary]( Searching for Home By Bill Bonner Monday, August 9, 2021 This ole house once knew his children This ole house once knew his wife This ole house was home and comfort As they fought the storms of life This old house once rang with laughter This old house heard many shouts Now he trembles in the darkness When the lightnin’ walks about Ain’t a-gonna need this house no longer Ain’t a-gonna need this house no more Ain’t got time to fix the shingles Ain’t got time to fix the floor Ain’t got time to oil the hinges Nor to mend the windowpane Ain’t a-gonna need this house no longer He’s a-gettin’ ready to meet the saints This ole house is a-gettin’ shaky This ole house is a-gettin’ old This ole house lets in the rain This ole house lets in the cold On his knees I’m gettin’ chilly But he feels no fear nor pain ‘Cause he see an angel peekin’ Through a broken windowpane – This Ole House by Stuart Hamblen [Bill Bonner] POITOU, FRANCE – “Our family lived here for more than 200 years,” the young woman explained. She was a great-niece of the woman from whom we bought the place. Attractive, polite… blond and slight, she just walked in through the front gate and introduced herself. “I never lived here, but my father and grandfather talk about it all the time. It was their home.” We gave her a little tour yesterday. Recommended Link [Citi: “100% probability of loss”]( [image]( The warning bells are ringing everywhere… “100% probability of loss,” warns Citigroup… A “very, very dangerous,” market, says Bridgewater. “Batsh*t crazy,” says billionaire Paul Tudor Jones. And Michael J. Burry, the famous “big short” investor warns the “mother of all crashes” is “coming our way.” So, what should you do? Rather than sell all your stocks, [this fascinating interview]( exposes a splintering in the market that could see some stocks explode higher… while others fall to the ground. To watch this free interview (and discover the most toxic tech stocks)… [Click here]( -- Downsizing Word comes this morning that Elon Musk, sometimes the world’s richest man, sold his many lavish mansions and now lives in a tiny, $50,000, pre-fab house. Mr. Musk is, of course, a phenomenon. Founder of several billion-dollar companies (the best known, Tesla)… married three times (twice to the same woman)… already father to five boys from his first marriage and now having children with his current partner… he is probably not a good illustration of anything. That is, he is sui generis – like a man with three buttocks – an example of only one thing: himself. Last year, Musk vowed to “sell almost all physical possessions.” We spent last week exploring the trend. [Transitory](. Transactional. The [“subscription” economy](. In the future, says the World Economic Forum, “we will own nothing… and we will be happy.” Today, we neither propose nor anticipate a countertrend. Instead, we write in elegiac mode, not about what lies ahead, but about what is being [left behind]( Beating Heart This weekend, we tidied up our workshop after years of neglect. A man’s workshop, like a woman’s diary, is where he has most control over his thoughts. In his atelier, if nowhere else, he is boss. He can hammer, screw, bend, cut… all the things he might like to do elsewhere, but civilization and good sense hold him back. His workshop, too, is where he keeps his whatchamacallits and thingamajigs… ready to plug the leaks, charge the batteries, and restore order to the cabinet doors. It is his command center… the beating heart of the home. It is where he can think most clearly. And more importantly, he doesn’t have to. [image]Bill’s workshop at his house in France A workshop implies not just a house, but a home. It is not just something you live in, but something you take care of… something you share your life with. A house may be transitory, but a home is permanent. Finding a Home Our house here in France was a wreck when we found it in 1994. It had little functioning heating, plumbing, or electricity when we moved in. But it had a workshop. And we were young and full of energy. We spent the next 18 years fixing up the house. We left our home in Maryland to explore the world. We wanted to know how others lived. We wanted to see things… do business… learn languages and foreign customs… go places. As soon as we were able, we went… and this was one of the first places we went to. It was here that we raised our children. Even when we were living and working in Paris and London, we still came here for weekends and holidays… This was home. [Featured: New Investment “Craze” Hits All 50 States]( Memories of Home And what a joy it was. The long, summer evenings on the porch… swimming in the pond… campfires… hikes… horseback rides, with the clip-clop of eager hooves on the cobblestones… …the brisk mornings and quickening pace of autumn, as the All Saints vacation approached… the plane trees and chestnuts, their leaves turning golden and drifting to the ground… … a roaring fire in the dining room at Christmas time… …green, wet spring times that seemed to last forever… …one child always armed with wooden guns and swords… another who went to sleep each night studying his book of dogs… …a daughter who awaited her moment of fame on the big screen… another who needed to be rescued from bad friends… …a son who quickly grew taller than his father… another who wanted to leave us for boarding school… …an aunt who lost her bearings… a mother who was always there and always helpful… …the old walls remember them all. A home remembers. A house forgets. Solidity and Timelessness What especially drew us to the house and the area was the appearance of solidity and timelessness. Washington’s sprawling wealth and power were smothering the old Tidewater by the Chesapeake. Practically every month, a new house went up – much like the one before it – and a new family moved in, with no attachments to the area, save a good-paying job in the Capitol. In coming to France and putting down roots, it felt less like we were leaving our home, and more that our home had left us. Here, we were rediscovering it. Recommended Link [MISSING: Bill Bonner’s LAST and Most Important Book]( [image]( 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… [Click here]( -- Moving On But we couldn’t stay. There was more to discover. More places to go. More things to do. The children left France for college in America. We had to move, too… but we didn’t entirely move on. We left France, but kept the house. One son, who now lives in Paris, comes down periodically to check on things. But mostly, the house sits and waits. Doors locked. Shutters closed. Furniture covered with sheets to keep the cobwebs off. Like a faithful hound at the gate, it watches the road… looking for our return. [Featured: (Bizarro World) Facebook set to launch new cryptocurrency?]( Home Again And then, when we finally get here, it welcomes us with shutters and windows thrown open and a warm gush of summer air… In a matter of minutes, the old house comes back to life… It is home again. And then, we go to work… just as we did more than a quarter of a century ago. For now, after so many years, it is time to repaint the woodwork… repair the cracks… oil the hinges… and fix the roof. An ancient relative of ours used to refer to the homeplace as “the family stronghold.” There was a time when houses were fortified against marauders and brigands. Later, the family stronghold became where you started out… and where you retreated to when you were down on your luck or needed a rest. Out in the country, big houses became centers of industry, where teams of people – men, women, and children – worked together to bring in the crops. Friends of ours in Ireland live in the oldest continually inhabited house on the island. Surrounded by thick, stone walls, it was built for safety. Now, it presides over a large farm… and is used as a venue for music festivals. Recommended Link [Holy Cow, Only $19!]( [ad_img]( “Hi, my name is Jeff Clark. For the past 36 years, I’ve helped people from all walks of life make money in the markets. Retired stockbrokers… presidents of companies… people with almost no financial experience… and everything in between. But I haven’t done it the usual way… My method is different. It’s unlike anything you’ve probably ever seen before. [We’re unveiling it right now for just $19.]( That’s the lowest price my publisher has EVER offered for a trading research service… And it won’t be available for long. [Watch a ‘10-second live demo’ of this method]( to see how it works." [Watch Now!]( -- Changing Times Times change. Stone walls don’t offer the protection they once did. And farm life no longer requires so many people. Today, young people leave… and the old farmers spend the days alone in their air-conditioned cabs. The old houses need upkeep. And not everyone enjoys scraping paint on his holidays. The next generations make their lives in distant cities. Instead of coming back to the homeplace for vacations, they go skiing. There are old homes in America, too. A family friend had a certificate on his wall. It congratulated him for keeping the Maryland farm in the same family since the time of the Revolution. Our friend had lived all over the world; he was an army lawyer, who played a key role in the Nuremberg trials. But when he retired, he came home to run the family farm. He died a few years later. By then, his five daughters had departed for careers in New York, San Francisco, and even Moscow. None of them wanted the farm. It was a burden. They sold it… and the old farmhouse burned down in mysterious circumstances soon after. More to come… No, not all memories of home are happy ones. Regards, [signature] Bill --------------------------------------------------------------- Like what you’re reading? Send your thoughts to [feedback@rogueeconomics.com](mailto:feedback@rogueeconomics.com?subject=Searching for home). --------------------------------------------------------------- FEATURED READS [New Infrastructure Bill Will Have Minimal Short-Term Economic Boost]( latest infrastructure bill is expected to target the next five to 10 years, with the goal of making workers and firms more productive. The bill represents just $550 billion in spending, compared to the $6 trillion that Congress approved over the last year and a half. [July Marked Significant Job Growth... but Delta Variant Threatens Progress]( forecasted that 870,000 jobs were added in July, the largest job increase since August of last year. Even though unemployment gains are down from last year, they still remain higher than pre-pandemic levels... MAILBAG Dear readers revisit Bill’s essay from [Friday]( meanwhile, others are passionate about the [COVID-19 vaccine]( I have paid my mortgage off for the third time in my life. I live on 40 acres of woods in an A-frame house. Six years ago, my wife of 51 years died of ALS, after we expanded the house for her and her wheelchair. It cost us four times to expand the house as it did to build it in 1974. Without the mortgage, I now have $2,000 a month to spend on me. My daughter and her husband have $1,000 extra. But no tax credit, boo hoo! – Jan F. I enjoy your thoughts daily and the mailbox discussion about the COVID-19 and vaccinations is priceless! It does disturb me that when the news media rants and raves about the current spread of the virus among the unvaccinated, that one metric is avoided: What percentage of those “unvaccinated” people are U.S. citizens? Perhaps the number would reflect poorly on the current administration if the majority of the unvaccinated who are contracting the virus are coming from those who have recently entered the U.S. illegally! – John C. I was one of the first to get the virus, as a manager on a university campus (with a high percentage of Chinese students). When our students came back from Christmas break in 2020, all hell broke loose in a three-week span. Most of my staff was sick and half the student population was sick, with loss of taste and flu-like symptoms. It was definitely COVID-19, but no tests were available at the time to let us know. The great majority of people I know refuse to take the needle, and all the threats to lock us down, and keep us from traveling will only last as long as they continue to print money. Once the presses cool down, and every country, state, and city starts getting desperate for tourists and their dollars, the virus will suddenly disappear and all will be right with the world... – Steven L. What's the big deal? Get the vaccine just like you did when you got a tetanus shot, or the one for polio and the one for smallpox. Your freedom nor mine will diminish for being cautious and considerate of others. – Jim R. These people should have set aside money for this Reality – they knew the bubble would burst sooner or later. You talk like they’re children, these are supposed to be adults with some degree of reality and responsibility, to keep their spending in check and save for the inevitable. They’re getting kicked out because they got a free ride and still want that free ride to continue… that’s how ridiculous and stupid they are. Everyone else had to pay their bills!! The landlords are not evil. They went without getting paid for months on end, they have families to feed, too. People chose these apartments to live in, no one forced their hand to move into them!! – Virginia K. How is today’s economy different, or more challenging, for your children and grandchildren? Is the COVID-19 vaccine as safe as the tetanus shot, as Jim R. writes? Write us at [feedback@rogueeconomics.com](mailto:feedback@rogueeconomics.com?subject=Searching for home). IN CASE YOU MISSED IT… [Teeka: “Buy this Ticker NOW”]( Anyone who doesn’t buy this ticker will most likely regret it. Experts are projecting gains as high as 458% by the end of this year… Even Forbes has confirmed that when all is said and done, “a new class of millionaires may emerge.” Unfortunately, a recent study shows that only 3% of retirees have invested in this opportunity. That means a lot of people will miss out. Don’t be one of them. 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