Welcome back. It’s Spring Break, so this week I want to take a step back from the markets and talk about YOU.
I want you to see the bigger picture, question everything you’ve been told and develop a coherent philosophy.
Why?
Because these are the ingredients to becoming wealthy, powerful and free.
A few quotes to start off:
Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chairman, November 21, 2002:
“Like gold, U.S. dollars have value only to the extent that they are strictly limited in supply. But the U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost.”
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel: “You never want a serious crisis go to waste. This crisis [the economic turndown] provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before.”
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: “never waste a good crisis”
Bill Jenkins, market commentator: “We are not the noble people we once were. Much of our citizenry is infected with indolence. Multitudes look to the State as the supplier of everything from soup to nuts, cradle to grave, and womb to tomb. You can see it in the faces of ordinary Joes when they light up at getting their “tax refund.” Forgetting the tremendous sum of money the state has already taken, they are just glad to “get something back. We have become a nation of slaves. Bound to the idea that the government will provide”
Mencken, great investor: “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety).”
Right now, there’s a big sideshow going on: bankers are being hauled over the flames and used as a scapegoat when it was government laziness and ignorance that let the children in the sandbox do what they want.
Governments can’t let the population get too rowdy. Torches and pitchforks on Capitol Hill alarms governments and they have to throw them a carcus, you see.
So the politicians vilify the rich hand in hand with the media.
But let’s get real for a second. The rich and powerful control the world. They always have and they always will.
The rich and powerful OWN the media and wish to make a profit from doing so. FEAR SELLS so the media peddle fear. By tuning into fear mongering news channels and newspapers you are making the rich and powerful richer.
The rich and powerful are buddies with the politicians. They put them in power through contributions. They know that if a government strangles them too much they will take their business elsewhere.
Why am I telling you these sad facts?
Because I don’t want you to waste your life away trying to change this. The world is just the way it is and that’s that. True, if enough people marched through the streets and demanded a specific change and stood by their conviction, things would change. Alas, that won’t happen. All that will happen is what is happening now: a bunch of political rhetoric to calm down the angry mob until they forget about it and move on.
I’m sure that you, like so many right now, would like to lynch the boss of AIG and torture him to death. Let’s say that you COULD do that right now. Will your situation have changed?
No.
The government, corporations and the media are mere reflections of the masses. Each of these 3 entities gives the people what they want. The products they want, the hopes and dreams they want, the right they think they have to a job and free handouts, the fears they have.
The whole thing works nicely as long as everyone shuts up, pays their taxes and lives a docile and compliant existence. People meet at Starbucks and bitch about stuff, get it out of their system and go back to their jobs on Monday.
By meeting you here, I know you’re at least starting to question this whole game and wondering if you should play anymore. Of course, you should always pay your taxes, but there is a path to a more fulfilled life where you are free of what is in effect slavery to corporations, media and government. Indeed, as an investor, corporations and governments can become slaves to you as they compete to borrow your money through the issuance of bonds (IOUs) and pay you handsome interest.
When you derive your income this way, that’s when you’ve turned the tables on the whole system. You’ve got off the merry-go-round. You’ve decided NOT TO PARTICIPATE in the whole nonsense.
This is the world of the sophisticated individual; the life of a League of Power member. Members don’t delude themselves about the reality of the world, they simply slip between the cracks and prosper legally. Freedom comes when you break the chains you’ve attached from yourself to media, government and corporations.
Remember: government and country are 2 different things! You can love your country but dislike your government. That is how this country was founded.
Once you dump the media, you stop being frightened. The media now work for you- the fear and chaos that they cause makes anomalies appear in markets that you can take advantage of.
Once you dump corporations- as in stop working for them and succumbing to their lame marketing campaigns to buy stuff you don’t need- you become free. Income? Start your OWN corporation. Sell stuff back to these corporations. Make them pay you interest on bonds.
Once you dump the politicians… well, I don’t know what you had to gain hanging around with those people anyway! Instead of bitching about them devaluing the currency or whatever, a League of Power member makes money from the fact! A League of Power member is neither a Republican or a Democrat; they know it’s all a big dog and pony show and that in reality, both parties will reflect the mob at any given moment. And when you think about it, how many people are Republican or Democrat because their father and their father before them was one? Does anyone question anything anymore?
Have a great Spring Break. Take some time out to reflect and regroup. Life doesn’t have to appear as the nightmare that the media and the politicians want you to see it as. Remember, it’s all part of the big game- a game you don’t have to play.
Best regards,
Kevin Raymond