Sorry, Warren Buffett, You’re Wrong

Just Look at History Were you forwarded this email? [Sign-up to The Daily Reckoning here.]( [Unsubscribe]( [Daily Reckoning] Sorry, Warren Buffett, You’re Wrong - Martians just don’t understand gold… - If you think paper money is bad, what about digital money?… - Then Jeffrey Tucker shows you why a purely digital dollar would create a dystopian nightmare for citizens… Recommended Link [Claim this $512 Credit By Thursday]( [Read more here...]( Just want to make sure you saw this: [We want to add a credit of $512 to your account for this offer.]( And I wanted to make sure you took advantage of it. If you already claimed this credit, then please ignore this message. But if you haven’t… Then please act fast. We are giving you the chance to claim a $512 credit by this Thursday. [Learn How To Claim This Credit]( Annapolis, Maryland June 28, 2022 [Brian Maher]Dear Reader, A resident of Mars would marvel that earthlings dig gold from the ground — Warren Buffett once razzed — merely to rebury it in vaults. That is, the business is idiotic. It is pointless. And it is wasteful. Yet the Martian — and the Nebraskan — jump over a fundamental fact of human nature: Men act with purpose. They do not squander their time or resources on idiotic, pointless and juiceless pursuits… unless perhaps they belong to committees for good government, school boards or organizations for world peace. Why would men expend vast resources to haul up gold… and lower themselves into dangerous mines to seize it… for nothing at all? Why then do men toil extravagantly to wrest gold metal from the stingy earth? Perhaps men continue digging up gold because thousands of years of history demonstrate that gold is worth digging up. Gold has proven superior money, the money of monies. Gold is imperfect money, it is true — but less perfect than its alternatives? If you will forgive the expression, gold is very likely the gold standard of money. Money must be rare. Rocks cannot be money — for example. The rocks within the combined skulls of United States congressmen alone would exceed all monetary limits, both theoretical and practical. Nor can sand or dirt be money, and for the identical reason. They are found in superabundance. Yet there must be enough money to “go around.” Gold is rare — but not impossibly rare. There is enough to go around and to meet the needs of commerce. Gold is also durable. Gold mined millennia ago enjoys existence to this day. And unlike gems or diamonds, gold is divisible. It can be fashioned into bars or coins as needed. Meantime, money must be a store of value. And gold maintains its value across centuries, across ages. Explains author Edward Griffin in The Creature From Jekyll Island: At the Savoy Hotel in London, one gold sovereign will still buy dinner for three, exactly as it did in 1913. And in ancient Rome, the cost of a finely made toga, belt and pair of sandals was one ounce of gold. That is almost exactly the same cost today, 2,000 years later, for a hand-crafted suit, belt and a pair of dress shoes at Barneys in New York. There are no central banks or other human institutions which could even come close to providing that kind of price stability. Hence gold meets money’s strict criteria. As we have argued before, we are for gold because gold is sound money. Sound money is honest money. And we believe anything honest in this fallen and wicked world is worth a defense. So little honesty remains. What then of paper money? Say what you will of paper money. We have said plenty and it is all uncharitable. But in one sense paper money is redeemable. It is tangible. It goes in your hand, in your wallet, in your mattress, in the pocket of a corrupt politician. Paper money is also anonymous. Where it has been is a mystery, what it has purchased is a mystery. And once out of your hands, it leaves no trace of you. Nor can paper money be erased at the stroke of a key. None of these happy virtues applies to digital money… Digital money has no tangible existence whatsoever. It can disappear at a keystroke. The bank can freeze you out of it. And every transaction you undertake enters the record. Government goons can therefore maintain a very tight and exhaustive dossier on your doings. What is more, digital money removes all natural checks on money creation. Even paper money files a claim on Earth’s resources — it is constituted of cotton and linen. Digital money, meantime, lacks all tangibility. It is wispier than fog and conjured into existence as if by the magician’s wand. The identical magician’s wand can dispatch it to the nothingness whence it came. If paper money invites rascality and abuse then… what about digital money? Below, Jeffrey Tucker shows you why the Federal Reserve’s development of a purely digital dollar would facilitate “infinite opportunities for controlling the population” and create a “dystopian” future. Read on… Regards, [Brian Maher] Brian Maher Managing Editor, The Daily Reckoning Editor’s note: Jim Rickards has closely followed the development of digital currencies, which would allow the government to track every transaction you make. And Jim says that Joe Biden’s [Executive Order 14067]( could pave the way for a social credit system just like China’s. In China, if you step out of line or say the wrong thing on social media… You get labeled as “untrustworthy.” They can then take away your ability to travel, restrict your internet access and deny your family the best schools or jobs. All of this is going on right now. And thanks to Biden’s new order, Jim warns we could soon see [America become a total surveillance state like China.]( A social credit system will be introduced to keep us all “in line.” If you’ve noticed how politicized the Department of Justice has become in recent years, and how eager it is to label dissenters “domestic terrorists,” you shouldn’t be surprised. [>>Click here for a disturbing glimpse of a potentially dark future.]( Recommended Link [Biden to Replace US Dollar?]( [Read more here...]( Thanks to President Biden’s Executive Order 14067, a former advisor to the CIA and Pentagon predicts the 3rd Great Dollar Quake has begun. The first was Roosevelt confiscating private gold in 1934. The second was Nixon abandoning the gold standard in 1971. Now, Biden’s plan could pave the way for “retiring” the US dollar. Your dollars could soon be confiscated – or made worthless. Save your investment and retirement accounts. [Click Here To Learn How]( The Daily Reckoning Presents: “Just imagine if the central government held in its possession a lifetime ledger of all your spending habits, every cent you moved from here to there, every contact with any person or merchant”… ****************************** The Great Threat of Central Bank Digital Currencies By Jeffrey Tucker [Jeffrey Tucker]I’m old enough to remember when central bankers were attacking Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as unworkable, ridiculous and scammy. That was about 10 years before nearly every central bank in the world grew so angry at their functionality and use that they decided to create their own. Government hates competition. The goal is not only to recreate their own version of crypto but also to make the case that the approved version should get special treatment and the speakeasy monetary environment of the crypto sector should be put out of existence. Will it work? Maybe not but they are certainly trying. It will be a few years yet before they start releasing prototypes and then pressuring banks to adopt them for transfer payments. As to whether consumers will finally adopt them, that’s another matter. Success is by no means guaranteed. It could be as big a flop as the public email services that the post office tried to push in the early 1990s. That turned out to be an enormous flop. The problem: We already have real cryptos that work. The Fed is also tweaking its existing ACH system of account transfers so that it will likely work much better in the coming year. It’s not at all clear what the value added will be for consumers of a central bank digital currency that stands on its own. Another factor: The new currency will clearly not stand on its own. Its value will not be market tested. What it will do is similar to what stablecoins do now. They will create a token that is backed (at least in principle) by dollars and run on a private network that requires some form of Federal Reserve intermediation. Such a system has nothing to do with Bitcoin, except in the most superficial mechanical sense. What then is the point of all these efforts? First, they want to crush the competition. The regulations on crypto exchanges are scheduled to intensify with a particular focus on getting under control the stablecoin operations that have been such an enormous success in the remittance market. The Fed believes that it should be in charge and the Treasury Department along with it. Second, they love the prospect of surveillance that blockchain technology offers. Blockchain is really nothing but a very fancy ledger that vastly improves on an old-fashioned database. What lands in the blockchain stays there forever, and holds out the hope of an infinite possibility of tracking and tracing all transactions. This is a dream for central bankers and governments. Just imagine if the central government held in its possession a lifetime ledger of all your spending habits, every cent you moved from here to there, every contact with any person or merchant. That would open up infinite opportunities for controlling the population. Yes, it sounds dystopian. That’s because it is. This raises the prospect of a China-style social credit system. Hang out with the wrong people, trade with the wrong merchants or post something on social media that our master doesn’t like and you could find your accounts locked. This is not crazy. It happened in Canada with the truckers’ protest. We KNOW for certain that this is a goal. A central bank's digital currency would assist in making this nightmare a reality. Recommended Link [Strange 2021 Prophecy Rapidly Coming True]( [Read more here...]( America’s #1 Futurist George Gilder is telling American’s to “brace yourself” for the coming $16.8 trillion revolution. This same revolution could redefine millions of jobs and radically transform the way just about every major corporation does business. It could even change the way you get paid, save and invest for retirement. And, says George, it could make you exceedingly rich... [Click Here To See Why]( Third, the Federal Reserve believes that with a digital currency in widespread circulation, they will be able to achieve something that the current monetary system cannot achieve: the final control of money velocity. Some quick explanations here. The price level is ultimately determined by the formula MV=PQ. That’s another way of saying that the money multiplied by the rate at which it changes hands is equal to the price level multiplied by national productivity. It’s a mathematical truism that is rarely precisely correct in practice because of so many mitigating factors and lags but it remains true in a modular sense. The one portion of that equation that the Fed cannot control is the V. It cannot determine the rate at which money changes hands. It cannot cause the public not to stuff money in mattresses. It cannot force the public to spend. For that reason, the hopes of monetary central planning will always be thwarted. But what happens if government can issue programmable money that builds into an expiration date, like milk or mayonnaise? “Use by Dec. 15, 2022.” Or else what? Or else it is no longer valid. That would change things dramatically. Imagine if half your income were distributed in such programmable money that effectively allowed the Fed and the government to FORCE you to spend that money before the expiration date? In that case, the government would finally gain a modicum of control over money velocity and, they believe, make monetary central planning a more viable dream. How far in the distance is this? Probably pretty far. They have been talking this way for years but made very little progress. But the ambition alone is telling. The invention of Bitcoin was one of the most glorious moments of my lifetime. It held out the prospect of the privatization of currency and a citizenry finally free of the control of governments and banking establishments. The dream still lives, though it is likely decades away. But governments have a tendency to abuse and distort every invention that empowers individuals. The crossbow and later the handgun were marvelous for individual freedom. We finally had the means to protect ourselves against public and private criminals. But innovation in the private sector also kicked off an arms race. Governments wanted the best and most powerful weapons of all. With the nuclear bomb, the circle became complete: The marvelous innovations of the market were fully converted to weapons of mass destruction. This is how best to understand central bank digital currencies. Governments take a private-sector innovation that was and is marvelous and turn it toward public uses. They rob enterprise of the fruits of its creation and turn it into an instrument that could finally destroy privacy, independence and freedom itself. In some way, it is the biggest danger we face. Our best hope is that the government is thoroughly rotten at doing everything. It has a tendency to screw up everything it touches, and that is the reason it is so bad at copying private-sector innovations. We should be glad about that. Right now, this is the best hope we have. The Fed and the Treasury may never finally get their act together enough to deliver unto the ultimate monetary and financial dystopia. Regards, Jeffrey Tucker for The Daily Reckoning Ed. note: Jim Rickards has closely followed the development of digital currencies, which would allow the government to track every transaction you make. And Jim says that Joe Biden’s [Executive Order 14067]( could pave the way for a social credit system just like China’s. In China, if you step out of line or say the wrong thing on social media… You get labeled as “untrustworthy.” They can then take away your ability to travel, restrict your internet access and deny your family the best schools or jobs. All of this is going on right now. And thanks to Biden’s new order, Jim warns we could soon see [America become a total surveillance state like China.]( A social credit system will be introduced to keep us all “in line.” If you’ve noticed how politicized the Department of Justice has become in recent years, and how eager it is to label dissenters “domestic terrorists,” you shouldn’t be surprised. [>>Click here for a disturbing glimpse of a potentially dark future.<<]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you for reading The Daily Reckoning! We greatly value your questions and comments. Please send all feedback to [feedback@dailyreckoning.com.](mailto:dr@dailyreckoning.com) [Jeffrey Tucker]( is an independent editorial consultant who served as Editorial Director for the American Institute for Economic Research. He is the author of many thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press and eight books in 5 languages, most recently Liberty or Lockdown. He speaks widely on topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture. Add feedback@dailyreckoning.com to your address book: [Whitelist us]( Additional Articles & Commentary: [Daily Reckoning Website]( Join the conversation! Follow us on social media: [Facebook]( [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [RSS Feed]( [YouTube]( The Daily Reckoning is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We do not rent or share your email address. By submitting your email address, you consent to Paradigm Press delivering daily email issues and advertisements. To end your Daily Reckoning e-mail subscription and associated external offers sent from The Daily Reckoning, feel free to [unsubscribe here.]( Please read our [Privacy Statement](. For any further comments or concerns please email us at feedback@dailyreckoning.com. If you are having trouble receiving your Daily Reckoning subscription, you can ensure its arrival in your mailbox [by whitelisting The Daily Reckoning.]( [Paradigm Press]© 2022 Paradigm Press, LLC. 808 Saint Paul Street, Baltimore MD 21202. Although our employees may answer your general customer service questions, they are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular investment situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized financial advice. We expressly forbid our writers from having a financial interest in any security they personally recommend to our readers. All of our employees and agents must wait 24 hours after on-line publication or 72 hours after the mailing of a printed-only publication prior to following an initial recommendation. Any investments recommended in this letter should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company. Email Reference ID: 470DRED01[.](