The real reason the U.S. goes to war

[Bill Bonner's Diary]( The Real Reason the U.S. Goes to War By Bill Bonner, Chairman, Bonner & Partners [Bill Bonner] BARCELONA – We left off yesterday trying to connect the dots. Abandon traditional forms, rules, and customs, we noticed… and you are most likely on your way to disaster. Most “innovative” architecture, for example, is usually ugly and often dysfunctional. There are hidden lessons embedded in tradition. We don’t really know why chimney tops have corbelling… or why many languages have a subjunctive mood… or why people smile and say good morning, even to total strangers. But they do. Recommended Link [LAST CHANCE TO SIGN UP: It's TRUE! Tonight's Pot Stock Millionaire Summit is Offering the "5 for 500%" Pot Stock Guarantee]( [image]( The Pot Stock Millionaire Summit is willing to guarantee that they can give you the chance to see 500% gains from each of the 5 marijuana stocks that will be discussed during the Summit. The Summit starts at 8pm Eastern tonight. It’s FREE for you to attend. To reserve your spot to the event and get additional free training… [Click here]( -- Made to Be Broken Rules are made to be broken, of course. You could just say, “go to hell” to everyone you meet. Some people do. But they are rare… and rarely invited to weddings or dinner parties. Readers are invited to try it… and report back. We don’t know exactly why the traditional “rules” are what they are. And we don’t know the consequences of breaking them. But there is almost always a price to pay. On this day in 404 AD, by the way, the war between Athens and Sparta, known in history as the Peloponnesian War, ended. It was an on-again, off-again war… that was waged over 27 years. At low points, the Athenians wanted to stop the killing. But the Greek statesman Pericles, in the famous "funeral oration" speech recalled by Thucydides, bade them continue: So died these men as becomes Athenians. You, their survivors, must determine to have as unfaltering a resolution in the field, though you may pray that it may have a happier outcome. Bad advice. By the end of the war, almost all of Athens’ soldiers had either been killed or captured and enslaved. The Athenian city walls were torn down. And democracy, an Athenian innovation, was suspended. “It was the will of the gods,” said the ancients. Recommended Link [43 stocks go up an extraordinary 1,000% or more every year]( [image]( For the first time in this firm’s history, it’s revealing its strategy to target them for massive gains. [Click here for details]( -- Will of the Gods In these pages, we try to link the trends and policies of today with the will of the gods. The gods are jealous; they don’t like to see people contradict or ignore their “natural” laws. The “laws” of finance are pretty simple. “As you sow, so shall ye reap,” it says in the Bible (Galatians 6:7). “By the sweat of thy brow you will eat food until you return to the ground,” it adds in Genesis 3:19. You can’t fake it. You can’t pretend to sow, with fake seed or fake money. You can’t take a quick shower and pretend to be sweating. It won’t work. The gods cannot be deceived. The great classical economists realized long ago, for example, that fake seeds produce fake food… and fake money produces a fake prosperity. And a boom purchased on credit always turns into a bust of credit deflation. Why, how, and when that credit bust will come is what we look for – in our dot patterns – in this Diary. But we can’t help but notice similar patterns in other aspects of human life. One of the lessons learned over thousands of years of bitter experience was the one that Athens ignored: You shouldn’t go to war unless you have to. “He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword,” is an expression attributed to the Greek playwright, Aeschylus, or the Gospel of Matthew. Dying by the sword is not something most people would like to do. So the reasonable inference is that you should avoid picking fights. But that is a lesson that is easy to forget – especially when you get too big for your britches. Then, you can pick fights with people who pose no real threat to you. We turn to Wednesday’s New York Times for illustration: Murky war ramps up deep in Niger desert. U.S. will use drone airfield to strike at extremists in West and North Africa. What the U.S. has against African “extremists” was not clarified. Recommended Link [Why 99.9% of digital currencies are about to get banned...]( [image]( On July 21, Bitcoin and 99% of all crypto currencies could get banned. That’s the latest from Casey Research, the group that predicted Trump’s victory 16 months early. They’ve received word of a private meeting involving 20 world superpowers… What’s most shocking, however, isn’t which currencies will most likely get banned… But rather which will be allowed to survive. [You can see their findings here]( -- Marching in Step The U.S. media doesn’t seem to have read Thucydides. Otherwise, it might have mentioned that swinging the sword around in Africa is not likely to have any better results than hacking through the Middle East. But the media is marching in step with the military suppliers. FAIR, a national media watch group, reports: A survey by FAIR of the top 100 papers in the U.S. by circulation found not a single editorial board opposed to Trump’s April 13 airstrikes on Syria. Twenty supported the strikes, while six were ambiguous as to whether or not the bombing was advisable. The remaining 74 issued no opinion about Trump’s latest escalation of the Syrian war. Nor did any major media body in the U.S. even bother to investigate the alleged reason for the attack: the use of chemical weapons on civilians. Later, when it became clear that the whole story was likely fake news, the media described the bombing in Syria as “symbolic,” or a “warning” to the Assad regime. Syria may or may not have used gas in Douma, but it won’t do it again! Meanwhile, you might expect Democrats in Congress – which is supposed to be the sole custodian of the “war power” – to show a little backbone. But no. In These Times reports: Ninety-two percent of Senate Democrats and independents failed to substantively dissent against Trump’s April 13 airstrikes. Where objections are raised by Democrats and independents, they most frequently take the form of procedural and legal complaints, which fall short of making a judgement on whether the military intervention itself is good or bad. Any fool can see that these wars will be, at best, useless… at worst, disastrous. But Congress and the administration are in favor of them. The media is behind them. And Big Business and Wall Street make money from them. These wars are not “mistakes,” in other words. They are intentional uses of the sword – not to win wars, but to win money and power. In other words, these are not fools behind these lethal U.S. adventures. Instead, they are knaves. More to come… Regards, [signature] Bill MARKET INSIGHT: THE CASE OF THE DISAPPEARING PUBLIC COMPANY Editor’s Note: For years, Bill has warned about the unseen consequences of artificially low interest rates. Today, E.B. Tucker, one of Casey Research’s top analysts, reveals one more side effect of the Fed’s “EZ-credit policies.” By E.B. Tucker, Editor, Strategic Investor [E.B. Tucker] The U.S. stock market is worth $29 trillion dollars today. Twenty years ago, it was worth $12.9 trillion. That’s an increase of 125% in 20 years. U.S. GDP looks about the same. Twenty years ago, it was $8.9 trillion. Today, it’s $19.8 trillion. That’s a 122% increase in 20 years. That’s why we find it so alarming that there are half as many listed companies in the U.S. today compared to 20 years ago. You can see what I mean below: [Chart] The number of public companies used to grow in step with the economy. Back in 1996 there were 8,025 publicly traded companies. Today, there are around 4,333. That’s a decline of 46%. It’s very American to build a business and take it public when you need access to additional capital. That’s why I’m alarmed at the drastic reduction in public companies. The good news is that I see why it’s happening. For the last decade, the Fed made borrowing easy for people that didn’t really need the money. After all, it’s not too hard to pay interest on a 0% loan. While you and I couldn’t get those loans, the most connected borrowers could. One big beneficiary of this money experiment was the private equity industry. In turn, it played a big role in reducing the number of public investment options. Private equities would use these ultra-low interest rates to take out a loan and buy a controlling interest in a publicly traded company. After taking the company private, the private equity simply used the cash flow from the business to service the loan. Without access to ultra-cheap borrowing, the private equity industry would not have been able to buy up an unprecedented chunk of the economy. I’ve seen this firsthand. Just after college, I worked as a sales rep for a manufacturing firm. We produced mattresses in 26 factories across the U.S. The owners sold the company for $800 million to a private equity firm. Within months of it taking over, I learned that the private equity firm had taken out a massive loan against the business. Here’s what’s interesting. It didn’t use that money to invest in new factories or equipment. Instead, it paid a huge dividend, equal to almost the entire purchase price, to itself. This meant that the business merely had to generate enough income to service the massive loan. If it could do that, its private equity firm owners had a risk-free investment. Recently, the Toys “R” Us bankruptcy made headlines. [As Bill reported at the time]( private equity firms took the company off the market, loaded it with debt, paid themselves rich dividends, and left the company for dead. Toys “R” Us was a victim of this trend. It won’t be the last. – E.B. Tucker P.S. I urge you to check out my [brand-new video presentation]( on a major event happening on July 21, 2018. That’s when a secret meeting will take place that could change America forever. Leaders from the top 20 countries are meeting to discuss an important change to the money we use… - If you’ve got savings in American dollars, you could now face a new tax - If you’ve got money invested, some popular investments could now be deemed worthless. [Watch my urgent video now]( to see exactly what’s going on – and what to do with your savings. FEATURED READS [The Fed: At War With Itself]( at the Federal Reserve, the right hand doesn’t seem to know what the left hand is doing. A new policy would make it easier for financial institutions to lend money, but it comes at the worst possible time… [Today’s Most Valuable Commodity]( are in the midst of a massive commodities boom. But it’s not a boom in traditional commodities like oil, gold, or steel. It’s this. [Don’t Fall for These Crypto Scams]( you purchase a single cryptocurrency, read this. Jeff Brown, Bill’s top technology expert, shows you the red flags to watch for when trading cryptos. MAILBAG In the mailbag, one reader considers [America’s future]( I hope you are wrong about America becoming like Venezuela. However, our government must stop borrowing money and spending it like a drunken sailor. It also must stop giving free things to people who don’t want to work to earn a living. Besides that, there are no free things because the rest of us that work must pay for these “free” things. I am sick and tired of all the progressive crap that is going on. – Julius C. Meanwhile, another reader disagrees with [Bill’s taste in architecture]( I’m surprised you like the Sagrada Família! It’s one of the gaudiest, most outrageous, expensive monstrosities ever built! It’s an example of how religion can waste and pocket the money of the flock! Good thing they have modern tower cranes to maintain the mess! A good earthquake in the area would improve its looks! Europe is simply a huge, modern theme park. The Sagrada is just one of the gaudy attractions. It is part of Europe’s Disneyland! – William C. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT… We’ll be very honest… …There is risk involved… …You won’t be handed a million dollars overnight… But this is a realistic way to turn a few thousand dollars into $1 million over time. [See how here.]( [image]( [Bonner and Partners]( © Bonner & Partners 55 NE 5th Avenue, Suite 100, Delray Beach, FL 33483 [www.bonnerandpartners.com]( This e-mail was sent to {EMAIL} because you subscribed to this service. To stop receiving these emails, click [here](. Customer Service Bonner & Partners welcomes your feedback and questions. But please note: The law prohibits us from giving personalized advice. To contact us, call Toll Free: (800) 681-1765, International: (443) 353-4462, Mon-Fri: 9am-7pm or email us [here](mailto:feedback@bonnerandpartners.com). Having trouble getting your e-mails? Add us to your address book. Get Instructions [here]( © 2018 Bonner & Partners, 55 NE 5th Avenue Suite 100, Delray Beach, FL 33483, USA. 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