“Et in Arcadia Ego”

A Man Has Died [The Daily Reckoning] March 07, 2024 [WEBSITE]( | [UNSUBSCRIBE]( “Et in Arcadia Ego” *** BREAKING for March 7th *** From a former congressional insider (and one of Jim Rickards' most-trusted colleagues): TONIGHT, during the State of the Union address, Biden is set to say two words that could send a very specific group of stocks skyrocketing. It's all part of [a breaking story]( about how you can follow some of the biggest market moves, that congress has their hands in. What are the two words and how can you get caught up before the market closes today? [Click here for the full details](. Annapolis, Maryland [Brian Maher] BRIAN MAHER Dear Reader, “Et in Arcadia ego.” Even in Arcadia, that is, “I, Death, hold sway.” We do not inhabit Arcadia. Yet in our profane chunk of existence, we are reminded that Death rules. Last evening we were handed an obituarial notice. It was not the obituarial notice of an immediate family member. It was not even the obituarial notice of a cherished acquaintance. It was rather the obituary notice of a loose and distant acquaintance, aged 59 years. He was a classmate of our elder brother. 74 Pleasant Ridge Road, Harrison, NY, 10528 was the site of our youthful nest. There our family harbored a basemented gymnasium. Our decedent descended into it often to push iron weights around with our brother. That is our summarized memory of him. We had not exchanged one word with this fellow in 41 years. His existence had not once — to our recollection — invaded our consciousness in these intervening 41 years. Our closest transaction with him was a financial transaction. In that transaction fireworks were exchanged for money — a bushel of bottle rockets as we recall. The rockets were his and the money was ours. As a devilish youth with a quenchless lust for detonative entertainments… we were hot for them. And he serviced that lust — to our everlasting gratitude. Yet that was the maximum of our personal interaction. And now he is over the rainbow. We nonetheless envision this fellow now, 41 years distant, his face the face of a swashbuckling youth. That face is presently the face of a corpse. And 41 years later, the news of his transition into ether went home. It penetrated our skin, breached our skeletal defenses… and settled at a location behind the middle ribs. That is, in our heart. Why? After all: A fellow does not mourn the keeling of a slight acquaintance from his ancient past. We instead mourn him because… in one sense… we mourn ourself. His dying shoveled up recollections of our lost, distant and misspent youth. Misspent? It does not matter. A man cherishes his youth misspent or well spent… as he cherishes a reassuring and comforting blanket… or an aging pair of slippers. Its scents were fresher. Its sights, vivider. Its experiences, sharper. A man’s past stands in high contrast to his present. That is because his present is often a dull, dull place beside it. As observed the infinitely deceased Henry Louis Mencken: The basic fact about human existence is not that it is a tragedy, but that it is a bore. It is not so much a war as an endless standing in line. A man’s past is never a bore. He never stood endlessly in line. He instead slayed dragons, stormed castles, conquered continents and sailed the seven seas. That is, his past is always a land of rich and glorious theater. This was the Arcadia we visited yesterday. Today we resume our position in endless and boring line — one day nearer the grave. Yet we cling to a stoic and resigned serenity. Thus we are with Daily Reckoning co-founder Mr. Bill Bonner: “Amor Fati” is our motto. We accept that there are booms and busts… births and deaths… ups and downs. Were there no downs, there would be no ups. It is only the relative motion that gives it meaning; it is the looming grave that makes life above ground so jolly. There seem to be cycles for just about everything… huge old trees get worn down by age, worms, bugs, bores, drought and storms. They fall. And the new trees flourish. (In the article below, Bill Bonner reflects upon the cycles of empires, their births and deaths. We encourage you to read it.) Today we are reminded of the life cycle. We detect mortality creeping its way in our direction… like a tiptoeing cat. And in desperate moments — we have them — we have sensed the breath of angels caressing our cheek. Meantime, our gait lacks the rambunctious vigor of our youth. The leaves upon our head go gray. Our eagle vision begins to soften and the world’s sharp edges begin to blur. “Is that an eight or a zero?” we wonder, squinting against the dinner bill. Yet life proceeds… until it does not. The decedent under discussion today did not exit Earth in high and glorious heroics. He did not die a hero of war. He did not die battling fire or scotching crime. He simply died. That is — in every likelihood — precisely how you will die. It is how your editor will likely die. “Et in Arcadia ego.” Well, friends, the Grim Reaper has tapped our acquaintance upon the shoulder… the Archangel Gabriel has blown his horn… And St. Peter has had another ghostly defendant standing before him — and the imposing gates he guards. It is our sincere hope that Peter ruled this particular defendant innocent… and allowed him on through. Sleep peacefully and eternally, Billy Canavan. Read on… Regards, [Brian Maher] Brian Maher Managing Editor, The Daily Reckoning [feedback@dailyreckoning.com.](mailto:feedback@dailyreckoning.com) Editor’s note: We apologize for the short notice, as time is running short. It has to do with [Joe Biden’s State of the Union address tonight.]( Our colleague has worked deep inside the Washington swamp… And he feels it’s his duty to help you prepare for what he believes Biden will do tonight during the State of the Union address. [Click here to see the details…]( Because last night our colleague risked his career to expose this right in front of the White House. And this could send shock waves through the market and blindside a lot of everyday Americans. [Click here to get all the details because you only have a few hours to act.]( [Click here for more...]( The Daily Reckoning Presents: The sad fate of empires… ****************************** Empires of Dirt By Bill Bonner [Bill Bonner] BILL BONNER Here we offer readers a history of the rise and fall of the world’s greatest empire, as brief as the latest Italian underpants. In the 8th century B.C., Rome was nothing more than a collection of villages along the Tiber, inhabited by a collection of tribes, principally Latin, Sabine, and Etruscan. Gradually, these ‘Romans’ grew in number and power — and went to war with almost everyone. In a celebrated early incident, perhaps only legendary, they invited their neighbors, the Sabines, to a feast…and then stole their women. The Sabine men did not celebrate; instead, they took offense and nursed a grudge. But there was hardly a tribe, kingdom or empire in Europe, North Africa or the Middle East with whom the Romans did not pick a fight. After the Sabine war, there were wars against the Albii, the Etruscans, the Volcii, Carthaginians, Etruscans again, the Latin league — and this is only a partial list — the Volsquii, the Equii, the Veieii, the Gauls, Samnites, more Gauls, Epirians, Carthaginians again, and more Gauls, Macedonians, Syrians, Macedonians again, slaves in Sicily, Parthians… And even Romans in the civil wars…and we have not even arrived at Caesar’s wars against the Gauls in 58-51 B.C. Roman history has another 500 years of wars to go! The civil wars in the 1st century B.C. put an end to the Republic… then, Caesar crossed the Rubicon. It was a new era in Rome, an era of Empire. It was as if Tommy Franks decided to move his army to Washington and make a regime change of his own. Some people would object, of course…the liberal papers would howl…but most people wouldn’t care. In ancient Rome, as in modern Washington, people chose their ideas like they chose their clothes — they wanted something that not only did the job, but also something that was fashionable. And at the time, it was à la mode for emperors and individuals alike to pretend that they lived in a free republic, which honored citizens’ rights, but in practice… the government, and its leader, could do what they liked. And what they seemed to like doing was going out and making war against everyone they thought they could beat. Back then, of course, war was a paying proposition. When emperor Trajan took Ctesiphon (near modern Baghdad) he captured 100,000 people who were sold into slavery. When Augustus took Egypt, he used the Nile’s wheat harvest to feed the growing population of rabble in Rome. But while some people came out ahead, in the aggregate, wars then — as now — were negative-gain enterprises. And as the empire grew, the costs mounted, too, to the point where both became grotesque and insupportable. "Until the rule of Augustus (who was installed as the first ruler of the Roman Empire in 27 B.C.)," writes Marc Faber, "the Romans only used pure gold and silver coins. In order to finance his vast infrastructure expenditures, Augustus ordered that government-owned mines in Spain and France should be exploited 24 hours a day, a measure which increased the money supply significantly and also led to rising prices. (It is estimated that between 27 B.C. and 6 B.C., prices in Rome doubled.) In the second half of his reign (6 B.C. to 14 A.D.), Augustus reduced coinage drastically, as he recognized that the expanded money supply had led to the rise in prices." But Rome wasn’t built in a day…nor was its money destroyed overnight. In 64 A.D., in Nero’s reign, the aureus was reduced by 10% of its weight. Thereafter, whenever the Romans needed more money to finance their wars, their public improvements, their social welfare services and circuses, and their trade deficit, they reduced the metal content of the coins. By the time Odoacer deposed the last emperor in 476, the denarius contained only 0.02% silver. [James Altucher: THIS is my top AI investment pick]( I’ve been called a “genius investor” by my fans… And an “eccentric millionaire” by some others. I think it’s because I make big predictions that tend to come true. Today, I’m making my boldest prediction ever. Revealing the AI stocks I believe… Could turn as little as $10,000… Into $1 MILLION over the next few years. To show you I’m serious about helping you get in on this opportunity, I’m giving away one of my top 5 AI 2.0 stock picks – free… [See My Top 5 Picks Here Now]( Still, the impulse to build up an empire seems to be as strong as the impulse to tear one down. To the question, when does a country aim for empire, comes the answer: whenever it can. Every country in Europe has at one time or another reached for the imperial purple. Portugal and Spain discovered and conquered vast jungles, swamps and pampas…and built empires of them. For Spain, the conquests were extremely profitable — after they found huge quantities of gold and silver. But nothing ruins a nation faster than easy money. The money supply grew larger with every ship’s return from the New World. People felt rich, but prices soon soared. Worse, the easy money from the new territories undermined honest industry. In the bubble economy of the early 16th century, Spain developed a trade deficit similar to that of the U.S. today. People took their money and bought goods from abroad. By the time the New World mines petered out, the Spanish were bankrupt. The Spanish government defaulted on its loans in 1557, 1575, 1607, 1627, and 1647. The damage was not only severe, it was long lasting. The Iberian Peninsula became the ‘sick man of Europe’ and remained on bed-rest until the 1980s. France and England built their own empires in the 18th and 19th centuries. Napoleon’s conquests took less than a dozen years to complete… but the empire collapsed even faster. By the end of the 19th century, all that was left of the French empire were a few islands no one could find on a map and some godforsaken colonies in Africa that the French would soon regret ever having laid eyes upon. Almost all were lost, forgotten or surrendered by the 1960s — with nothing much to show for them except what you find in the Louvre… and a population of African immigrants who now weigh heavily on France’s social welfare budget. England’s empire was much grander, stretched further, and left more debris when it collapsed. But the end result was about the same: the pound had been degraded and the British were nearly bankrupt, while the crime rate in central London rose to surpass that in New York… thanks largely to immigration from the former colonies. Germany lost its overseas colonies after WWI. It then created another empire — by conquest — in the late ’30s and early ’40s. The enterprise ran into Russia’s empire in the East — resulting in history’s largest and bloodiest land battles. In the end, thanks partly to American intervention on the side of the Russians, the German empire was destroyed. The Russians’ empire collapsed under its own weight 44 years later. Empires, like bubble markets, end up where they began. Rome began as a town on the Tiber, with sheep grazing on the hills. A bull market in Roman property lasted about 1000 years — from 700 B.C. to about 300 A.D., when temples, monuments and villas crowded the Palatine. Then, a bear market began…which also lasted at least 1000 years. As late as the 18th century, Rome was once again a city on the Tiber…with sheep grazing on the hillsides, amid broken marble columns and immense brick walls. They had been built for a reason… but no one could recall why. Regards, Bill Bonner for The Daily Reckoning [feedback@dailyreckoning.com.](mailto:feedback@dailyreckoning.com) Editor’s note: We apologize for the short notice, as time is running short. It has to do with [Joe Biden’s State of the Union address tonight.]( Our colleague has worked deep inside the Washington swamp… And he feels it’s his duty to help you prepare for what he believes Biden will do tonight during the State of the Union address. [Click here to see the details…]( Because last night our colleague risked his career to expose this right in front of the White House. And this could send shock waves through the market and blindside a lot of everyday Americans. [Click here to get all the details because you only have a few hours to act.]( Thank you for reading The Daily Reckoning! We greatly value your questions and comments. Please send all feedback to [feedback@dailyreckoning.com.](mailto:feedback@dailyreckoning.com) [Brian Maher] [Brian Maher]( is the Daily Reckoning's Managing Editor. Before signing on to Agora Financial, he was an independent researcher and writer who covered economics, politics and international affairs. His work has appeared in the Asia Times and other news outlets around the world. He holds a Master's degree in Defense & Strategic Studies. --------------------------------------------------------------- [Bill Bonner] [Bill Bonner]( is the founder of Agora Inc. and cofounder of The Daily Reckoning. He is also a three-time New York Times best selling author. His most recent project is his investment newsletter, The Bill Bonner Letter. [Paradigm]( ☰ ⊗ [ARCHIVE]( [ABOUT]( [Contact Us]( © 2024 Paradigm Press, LLC. 1001 Cathedral Street, Baltimore, MD 21201. By submitting your email address, you consent to Paradigm Press, LLC. delivering daily email issues and advertisements. To end your The Daily Reckoning e-mail subscription and associated external offers sent from The Daily Reckoning, feel free to [click here.]( Please note: the mailbox associated with this email address is not monitored, so do not reply to this message. We welcome comments or suggestions at feedback@dailyreckoning.com. This address is for feedback only. 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