On Politics
Incrementum Advisory Board Meeting of 31 July 2019
At the end of July the Advisory Board of the Incrementum Fund held its quarterly meeting (a full transcript is available for download at the end of this post). The board was joined by special guest Simon Mikhailovich, a financial market veteran who inter alia co-founded the Toqueville Bullion Reserve. The title of the transcript and this post was inspired by his remarks.
Special guest Simon Mikhailovich
Not Adding Up
One of the more disagreeable discrepancies of American life in the 21st century is the world according to Washington’s economic bureaus and the world as it actually is. In short, things don’t add up. What’s more, the propaganda is so far off the mark, it is downright insulting.
Coming down from the mountain with the latest data tablet… [PT]
Suspicious Phrases
There are certain phrases – like “trust me” or “I got this” – that should immediately provoke one’s suspicion. When your slippery contractor tells you, “trust me, your kitchen renovation will be done before Christmas,” you should be wary. There is no way it will be done before late spring.
USD-CNH (offshore yuan) exchange rate – the support/resistance level at 7 finally breaks amid escalating trade war rhetoric. [PT]
Do You Hear a Bell Ringing?
The sun shines brightest across the North American continent as we enter summer’s dog days. Cold sweet lemonade is the refreshment of choice at ballparks and swimming holes alike. Many people drink it after cutting the grass, or whenever else a respite from the heat and some thirst quenching satisfaction is needed.
Regardless of whether companies were able to “beat estimates” (which as often happens, were revised lower just before the reporting season started), their actual Q2 results didn’t look very encouraging so far. The manufacturing sector in particular looks a bit frayed around the edges as the saying goes. [PT]
Realizing the Full Implications of the Forthcoming Catastrophe
“Facilis descensus Averno.” – Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro)
Delivering Tomorrow’s Curses
Roman poet Virgil penned these words in his epic, The Aeneid, roughly a generation before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. They can be loosely translated to, “the descent to hell is easy.” Those who’ve traversed this passage can attest to the veracity of this axiom.
Virgil reading the Aeneid to Augustus, Octavia and Livia. Contrary to what one might think at first blush, Octavia didn’t fall asleep because she was bored by it – rather, when Virgil recited Book Six, she fainted (the veracity of this account is not undisputed, but it’s a good story anyway). A little side note: Virgil caught a fever while returning from to Rome from Greece and died in Brundisium in 19 BC. It was Virgil’s wish that the poem be burned, but Augustus ordered his literary executors to preserve it and publish it with as few editorial changes as possible. Thus Augustus rescued the Aeneid for posterity. [PT]
Demonocracy: The Great Human Scourge!
Review: Christophe Buffin de Chosal, The End of Democracy, Translated by Ryan P. Plummer. Printed in the U.S.A.: Tumblar House, 2017.
Christophe Buffin de Chosal: The End of Democracy. Needless to say, Buffin de Chosal is quite a controversial political philosopher. While this is not the first book trying to demystify modern-day democracy, such critical assessments are rare. One of the best-known efforts is Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s Democracy, the God that Failed, which considers democracy and other political dispensations primarily from the perspective of the time preferences of the ruling classes. [PT]
Tending Towards Maximum Perversity
According to Finagle’s corollary to Murphy’s law, “Anything that can go wrong, will — at the worst possible moment.” Taken a degree further, per O’Toole’s corollary of Finagle’s law, and the second law of thermodynamics, “The perversity of the Universe tends towards a maximum.”
Murphy’s law in action… not even Murphy himself was safe from it. [PT]
A Good Story with Minor Imperfections
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there,” is a quote that’s oft misattributed to Lewis Carrol. The fact that there is ambiguity about who is behind this quote on ambiguity seems fitting. For our purposes today, the spirit of the quote is what we are after. We think it may help elucidate the strange and confusing world of fake money in which we all travel.
Consumer price index, y/y rate of change – the Fed is not satisfied with the speed at which monetary debasement raises everybody’s cost of living lately. And no, they don’t think said speed should be lowered. [PT]
Freedom and Apple Pie
The days are long and hot in the Northern Hemisphere when real American patriots raise the stars and stripes. Today the free and brave, with duty and self-sacrifice, begrudgingly accept federal holiday pay to stand tall upon their own two feet. Rugged individualism and uncompromising independence are essential to their character.
Independence day festivities…
A Distorted Landscape
One of the more remarkable achievements of fake money creation is that it distorts and disfigures the world in odd and uncanny ways. Dow (not quite) 27,000. Million dollar shacks. Over $13 trillion in subzero-yielding debt. You name it. Any and every disfiguration is possible with enough fake money.
The global stock of outstanding government bonds with negative yields-to-maturity reaches a new record high of more than $13 trillion – this is insanity writ large. [PT]
An Epic Folly for the Ages
Today we begin with a list. A partial list. And in no particular order…
Angela Merkel. Donald Tusk. Mario Draghi. Donald Trump. Jerome Powell. Shinzo Abe. Haruhiko Kuroda. Theresa May. Boris Johnson. Mark Carney. Xi Jinping. Emmanuel Macron. Vladimir Putin. Justin Trudeau. Juan Trump. And many, many more…
Politicians and bureaucrats of the modern age of statism and central planning… fighting a rearguard action doomed to fail. [PT]
An Ominous Sign of Things to Come
Despite being probably robbed of the Democratic Party’s nomination by the Clinton political machine, the success of the Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign with his advocacy of “democratic socialism” was an ominous sign of things to come and, in some sense, more telling of the political climate than Donald Trump’s improbable victory in November, 2016.
Bernie Sanders, yet another professional finger-wagger (he is actually famous for his constant finger-wagging by now). Never trust a politician who keeps wagging his finger in admonishment – he or she is almost certainly a wanna-be authoritarian. [PT]
Photo by Win McNamee / Getty Images
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Austrian Theory and Investment
Realtime Charts
Gold in USD:
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/gold/t24_au_en_usoz_2.gif)
Gold in EUR:
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/gold/t24_au_en_euoz_2.gif)
Silver in USD:
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/silver/t24_ag_en_usoz_2.gif)
Platinum in USD:
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/platinum/t24_pt_en_usoz_2.gif)
USD - Index:
![[Most Recent USD from www.kitco.com]](http://www.weblinks247.com/indexes/idx24_usd_en_2.gif)
