THE DOLLAR VIGILANTE BLOG

I received a lot of feedback about my interesting day in the land of the free yesterday.  Most were to tell me of similar horror stories they had witnessed.  But, some people suggested I must be exaggerating – or even made up the story completely.

To that, I offer some photo evidence.

Reminder: For those in Phoenix I am speaking at the Phoenix Investment Conference being held at the Renaissance Hotel in Glendale on Friday at 3:30pm and again at 5:30pm on Saturday.

The fun started in Mexico City.  I had taken a short flight from Acapulco to Mexico City and as usual, getting through the Acapulco airport was a breeze.  Literally, it took 30 seconds to get from the check in counter, through security and to the gate.  Ah, the land of the free, I thought.

The raising of the debt limit in the United State is causing a bit of a stir these days as all the politicos rally around and jockey for media sound bytes and photo opps.

If only there were only more men like this in the US Government then perhaps there would be hope:

You could not have written a better script for gold.  It is almost as if the US Government and the Federal Reserve are trying to destroy the dollar and demolish the country – and taking most of the western world with it.

At the beginning of this gold bull market, in 2000, no one had ever heard of Barack Obama or Ben Bernanke.  But, 11 years later, and an outright socialist profligate spender is President of the US and a College professor who believes in crackpot Keynesian theories about how money printing can save economies is the Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Yet, it is now 11 years into the most consistent bull market on earth, and hardly anyone owns gold.

Who wouldn’t want to be in Cairo tonight?  What an admirable display we have witnessed in the last few days in Egypt.  Millions of people, without using force or violence, overthrew their dictator and for at least one night, the people of Egypt are free!

One reporter on Al Jazeera, asked one of the rally leaders today, “when will you form a new government?”

His response was, “Not tonight!  Tonight we celebrate!”

And good for them!  But, why doesn’t anyone ask, “If everything is fine tonight, and there isn’t murder and overwhelming crime in the street with no government tonight, why not just leave it this way?”

Most people won’t believe this but I actually hold back a lot in my day-to-day writings here at TDV.  Many won’t believe this because what I say, on a daily basis, is already too incendiary… too controversial and definitely outside of mainstream thought as taught to us by our government indoctrination camps (schools) and the mainstream media which is one in the same with the government in most “advanced” nations.

You may have noticed that we don't often comment on the "news of the day".  Why?  Because, really, for the most part, 99.9% of things that are in the news doesn't matter too much… and you can get lost in the noise.

99% of all "news" doesn't matter?  Prove it!

The following is an excerpt from the February Edition of The Dollar Vigilante

Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke and other government officials always talk about the importance of “confidence” to the economy.  But that is because they are confidence men (aka. conmen) playing a confidence game (congame).

That’s the question I find myself asking more and more these days.  Nearly every single thing the US Government does is the exact opposite of what they should do IF they had the best interests of the American people in mind.

Capitalism.  The only ‘system’ that has ever worked as far as freedom and prosperity are concerned.  All the other options including fascism, socialism, communism and the like usually end up in famines, millions of deaths and massive oppression.

Yet, no matter how much proof there is that capitalism works and the others don’t, there is a never-ending, ceaseless drive to get rid of capitalism.

The latest came from Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General.  “UN Sec Gen Calls for ‘Revolution’: World Economic System Is ‘Global Suicide Pact’“.

The following is an excerpt from the February Edition of The Dollar Vigilante

It has been a most interesting month of January.  A likely presage to an interesting year to come.

In these pages we have spoken often about what will be the first real domino to fall in causing a chain reaction ending up in massive global political and financial change.  Often we follow our predictions with a statement something along the lines of, “but, in actuality, the defining primary event will likely come from somewhere that no one expects”.

I think it’s safe to say that no one expected TEOTMSAWKI (The End Of The Monetary System As We Know It) would begin in Tunisia!

I get 100% of my news from the internet and of the news I get on the internet, I’d guesstimate that 90% of it comes from non-mass media sources.  I only pay attention to the likes of Katie Couric or Brian Williams as I walk past a TV in an American airport.  And even then, the propaganda and spin they dispense leaves me feeling nauseous and disoriented even after just a few minutes of exposure.

However, when it comes to news from the Middle East and/or international news I have found that two particular networks are very good.  Al Jazeera and Russia Today.

Both Ed Bugos and I are hard at work finishing up the final copy and research for the February issue of The Dollar Vigilante but I came across this video and thought it was well done and ties in to some of the things we cover in this month’s issue.

And so, here is a sneak preview of tomorrow’s TDV February issue (Subscribe now to get access to the full 25+ page document) followed by an excellent video that shows the root cause behind most of the problems in the world today.

I’ve been in a great mood and humming The Beatles, Revolution, all day today.  People have noticed and asked, “Why so happy?”

“The youth of the Arab world are finally waking up and fighting back against their oppressive systems!” I responded.  Probably not the response they were expecting.

Hello,

I am writing to you from northern Canada.  Ed Bugos and I spent the entire weekend up to and including Tuesday at the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference.  Aside from speaking (the speech was videotaped by the conference and we are hoping to offer the speech and the presentation slides online soon) and participating on a panel with David Coffin, Jay Taylor and Lawrence Roulston our days were jammed morning to night having face to face meetings with some of the 400+ public mining companies in town for the event.

I came across a quote recently which I loved the moment I heard it:

“Just look at us. Everything is backwards; everything is upside down. Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroy information and religions destroy spirituality.” — Michael Ellner

Add to that list, “Bankers destroy money.”

Central bankers, that is.

Chinese President, Hu Jintao, the man in charge of nearly $1 trillion of US certificates of confiscation (Treasury Bonds) went to Washington D.C. to visit the man in charge of massive amounts of debt.

Taiwan’s NMA.TV, which produces animated news, probably had the most accurate account of the tone of the meeting.

Donald Trump chimed in with some comments on this meeting which can best be described as completely out to lunch:

Today we have a guest contributor, Robert Blumen.  Robert is a subscriber to The Dollar Vigilante and is a software developer in San Francisco who writes for the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Lew Rockwell.com, and other financial and economics web sites.

Last week we responded to a Globe & Mail article in two separate blog pieces, titled “The Worst Argument Against Gold We’ve Ever Heard” Part I & II.

Hey, we didn’t want you to think that we just sit around here muttering about how the government destroys everything and how much of the western financial system is in the midst of collapse.  We can and do think about other things.

Today’s announcement that Steve Jobs is taking a leave of absence resonated with me personally for many reasons and I think it is worth pointing out recounting a bit of his story in order to make a few points about leadership and the tech sector.

We’ve spent most of the week picking on Canadians so I thought we’d let them off the hook today and talk briefly about debt – although if you want to see me pick on Canadians personally, in public, you won’t want to miss my speech on Monday, January 24th at 3:30pm at the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference.

But, it’s Friday, and so let’s keep this easy and light.

I was thinking about debt today.  It seems to me that a lot of people don’t really seem to understand the difference between “good debt” and “bad debt”.

I’ve only been in debt two times in my life.

If you ever want to elicit a large response there is one sure-fire way to do it: Criticize Canadians.  If you haven’t had much contact with Canadians lately, take it from me, a Canadian, that as nice as they seem, underneath the facade of nice-ness has been a growing pride and patriotism, best described as a smugness and they will be helpless to hold their tongues when the greatness of Canada is questioned.

When I grew up in Canada in the 70s and 80s I actually liked the Canadian style.  Growing up near our more boisterous and chest-thumping neighbors to the South I always quite liked that we were, for the most part, nice and humble people.