Another bar of golden idiots
Apr 5, 2008
By The Mogambo Guru
My poor, spinning head was on the bar, comfortably resting in a pool
of what smelled like stale beer and something moldy, when the
bartender pokes at me and asks, "What's the matter with you?" I opened
my bloodshot eyes and squinted up at him, and knew that I could not
explain to him the significance of John Williams at ShadowStats.com
re****ting that his new calculations show that M3, the broadest measure
of the money supply, is now condemning us to an inflationary hell.
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data
But for some reason my lips were all numb and refused to work, so I
just pointed to where Mr Williams writes, "Money Supply M3 Growth
Continues Rising, Monetary Base Surges At Annualized 20% Pace", and
"On a similar basis, annual M2 growth would stand at 7.2%, up from
6.9% in February. The increasing signs of accelerating money growth
remain coincident with the Fed's increasing re-liquefaction of
illiquid assets held within the financial system."
He looks at it, then he looks at me with a bored expression on his
face, and says "Yeah? So?"
Trying to think of a nice, friendly way to explain that inflation in
consumer prices always follows inflation in the money supply, I ask,
"What is your name, sir?" and the barman replies "Frank."
So, picking my words carefully to keep with the new "friendly
conversation" theme, I politely say, "Well, then, you're an idiot,
Frank! A big, stupid moron! In fact, all you stupid people in this bar
are stupid, because you all think that you are not going to be
destroyed by the fires of an inflationary hell that is going to
consume you and everyone you love, because the Federal Reserve is
destroying the dollar right in front of your eyes by creating so
damned many of them, which they are now doing just trying to delay the
inevitable catastrophic collapse brought on by the same damned Federal
Reserve creating so damned much, so incredibly damned much, so
impossibly damned much money in the first place, creating mountains
and mountains of debt and money and over-valued assets over the last
few freaking decades, and especially since 1997! You're all morons,
and you are all freaking doomed! Doomed!"
Well, all my efforts to be nice were for naught, as usual, and they
all wanted to argue with me and call me nasty names, and someone
suggested not serving me any more alcohol and to make me leave, which
I mention just to show you the kind of morons we have hanging out in
bars these days, and how I was right when I called them "stupid".
But not one of them said, as I expected, "You're right, oh Wise And
Glorious Mogambo (WAGM)! We grovel at your feet in supplication and
beseech you to please, please, please impart wisdom to tell us how to
turn this to advantage, or at least tell us how to save our nasty
stupid butts from, as you say, doom!"
If someone had asked me, I would have told them to buy gold and
silver, and they will prosper, just like all of the other times in
history when a butthead government allowed the over-creation of money
and credit by the stupid banks, which sentenced the currency and the
economy to inflationary collapse, and gold soared as everyone turned
to gold as there was nothing else that could do the job of preserving
wealth.
And if they had shown their gratitude for such terrific advice and
said something like, "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, Mighty,
Mighty Mogambo (MMM)! Let us show our gratitude by plying you with
alcoholic beverages and tacos until, you know, you puke!", I would
have told them to especially consider buying silver, which is such a
freaking bargain that every time I look at it, I think to myself "I
can't believe silver is selling for this piddly little price! I should
buy some more silver!"
And I would, too, if I could figure out a way to get another US$20 out
of my wife's purse, as I have already used the other 20-spot here at
this stupid bar and I am far, FAR too drunk to noiselessly pull off
the heist.
And speaking of gold, Antal Fekete of the Gold Standard University
writing at GoldSeek.com reminds us that "Seventy-five years ago this
month Franklin Delano Roosevelt ... closed the US Mint to gold. Recall
that the Mint had been established by the constitution to protect the
people's right to sound money."
If you are like me, then you are not in the mood for a damned history
lesson, as the scars of high school and history class are still too,
too fresh, even after all these years.
But the result of closing the Mint, says Mr Fekete, is that we got
"the irredeemable dollar", which he considers "the real culprit" of
the mess we are in. "It has taken the chickens 75 years to come home
to roost," he writes. "Come home they will with a vengeance. The past
75 years were a period of unprecedented turbulence in the financial
markets. Yet never during those 75 years has the nation faced a graver
monetary crisis than it is facing now. The banking system of the
country threatens to seize up. The credit system is facing a violent
collapse."
And what does gold at $1,000 an ounce have to do with "violent
collapse", if anything? He gravely intones, "$1,000 gold is a
milestone - on the road to hell."
Having been married and a father for a long, long time, I know
firsthand all about hell, and it will be Very, Very Ugly (VVU) from
now on!
Richard Daughty is general partner and COO for Smith Consultant Group,
serving the financial and medical communities, and the editor of The
Mogambo Guru economic newsletter - an avocational exercise to heap
disrespect on those who desperately deserve it.
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