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Only 99, 68, 48, 30, 25...about 14 Remain!
Special Daily Reckoning Holiday Gift Set: One Ounce of Gold, Ten Ounces of Silver
As a special thanks for being a long-suffering Dear Reader, the DR team wants to give you a special Holiday Gift set.
It contains an ounce of 99.99% pure gold and ten ounces of pure silver.
There are only about 14 left, so go here to see what the catch is as soon as you can... Nothing Short of Picturesque Revisiting La Estancia de Cafayate
Back in Buenos Aires, Argentina...Joel Bowman
Driving through the northern reaches of Argentina’s Salta province, it’s easy to forget the world around you is crumbling. Maybe that’s a good thing.
Europe’s ongoing, unraveling debt crisis seems vaguely but comfortably distant. The imminent collapse of the western-style welfare/warfare states drifts away in the cool afternoon breeze. Anxious preoccupations with credit default swap spreads and nepotistic technocrat appointments fall by the mental wayside. Dire situations elsewhere, while no less helpless, appear far less important. Even, in a strange way, irrelevant.
The sky is blue, the road is long and all that matters is the steady, forward movement of the vehicle.
About this time last week, your editor found himself on the winding stretch of road that links Salta City with the small town of Cafayate, roughly three hours to the south. After passing through a handful of pueblitos, where we stop for gas and coffee, the road opens up to reveal a grand vista — mountains to the left and right cradle a lush valley and the late afternoon sun casts a breathtaking color pallet over the jagged horizon.
Before long, we enter a deep ravine, carved out over millions of years by the relentless forces of nature. Rich, iron red earth cuts away at the edge of the road. Plants cling to the cliffs, their roots burrowing into cracks along the dry and dusty face. A few clouds form overhead.
We pass La Garganta del Diablo, Tres Cruces and El Sapo, a huge rock in the shape of — if you really use your imagination — a giant toad.
The last hour of the drive seems to go by in a minute. Before we can even recall what CDS stands for, we are in Cafayate.
Expansive vineyards surround the sleepy little town of 12,000 or so souls. Mostly they produce torrontés here, a peachy white varietal for which the region is lately gaining international recognition. The low-humidity, mild weather and high altitude of the Calchaquíes Valleys make for excellent growing conditions. There’ll be plenty of red on offer too, no doubt.
But we’re not (only) here for rock toads and torrontés tastings. We’ve come, once again, to see La Estancia de Cafayate, a project our friend Doug Casey has been working on for the past few years. We were last here back in March, for the Fall Harvest celebration. This time ’round, it’s the Escape to Cafayate conference. A gathering of Agora Financial Reserve members have already made the trip, as have a group of Casey Research faithfuls and a handful of Dollar Vigilante fans. An interesting bunch, to be sure.
The first night’s activity, dinner at the El Rancho Restaurant, just off the town’s charming main plaza, goes over a treat. We mingle with attendees outside in the warm evening air before heading inside to feast on fresh-baked empanadas and slow-cooked meet off the parilla. And yes, there’s plenty of wine.
As you can probably tell, this is not some stuffy retreat for slick suited policy wonks, those self-congratulatory, backslapping handshake fêtes one expects to find at G-20 meetings in Brussels and schmancy Fed Head summits in Jackson Hole. Attendees at the Cafayate conference are widely traveled and well read on a broad range of topics. The dinner conversation drifts from music to markets, classical literature to the cutting edge technology, health and wellbeing to humorous holiday misadventures. These are the kind of people who listen...instead of waiting for their turn to lecture, who are interesting and interested...and who, as Samuel Langhorne Clemens — aka Mark Twain — used to say, “never let schooling interfere with education.”
They are independent thinkers, in other words. And, as it turns out, they form an invaluable pillar of the Estancia de Cafayate community. Many have already bought lots on the property. Some have started building. Others are already finished, their “Doug’s Gulch” residences standing against the picturesque backdrop of the surrounding mountains.
As the event rolled on over the next few days — the wine tastings, property tours, asado lunches, golf scrambles and the like — we get to know a few of the attendees quite well. The common thread is one of freedom — both an appreciation for it and the everlasting quest to secure it.
These people are acutely aware of the state of global affairs. That’s why they are here, in remote Cafayate...and not in New York or London or any of the other political hotbeds likely to be front and center should the unfolding crisis take a sharp, violent turn for the worse. They are building their own resilient community, far from the crumbling walls of the Old and Failing Experiment.
On the last day of the conference, your editor delivered a presentation to the group. Part I of a lightly edited version of that presentation serves as today’s essay, below. Please enjoy... Can Ronald Reagan Save You from Obama?
I know it’s hard out there in the markets. Obama and Bernanke have made a mess of the economy, crushing jobs and retirements from coast to coast.
But did you know about this maverick law that Ronald Reagan signed on October 22, 1986? It could be the VERY THING that prevents your retirement from taking any more hits from Obama Team.
Watch the urgent presentation on the power of the “10-86” law right now.The Daily Reckoning Presents Freedom: The New and Future Experiment
By Joel Bowman Before I get started... Anybody here know what glossophobia means? The word derives from the Greek glossa, meaning tongue, and phobos, meaning fear or dread. Glossophobia, also known as speech anxiety, is a fear of public speaking.
And I suffer from it terribly.
Glossophobia aside, I’m going to press on today anyway because what I want to talk to you about is very important. Maybe more so now than ever.
The title of my speech is “Freedom: The New and Future Experiment.”
This topic is particularly timely right now because, as you well know, a revolution of sorts is today under way in a place that used to be comfortable calling itself, proudly and with a straight face, “The Land of the Free, Home of the Brave.” Try asking any thinking individual who happened to be born within the United States borders today to claim that title without arousing a disquieting feeling of tragic irony. You might hear the words, but you’ll notice they are delivered with an empty conviction, with some embarrassment, a shame, almost, for remembering what was lost.
But before addressing the New and Future Experiment, let’s take a look at the Old and Moribund Experiment: Statism.
From the Pharaohs through to warlords, kings and queens, generalissimos, barbarians, emperors, chairmen, führers, shoguns, sheiks, tsars, presidents, prime ministers and the rest of the dirty rotten scoundrels, nobody could say we humans didn’t give “The State” a fair go.
Statism exists in many forms. All, I will argue, are inherently evil. All end in eventual and painful demise.
Why do I say that all forms of Statism are evil? Surely there is an argument for some kind of “minarchist” arrangement of governmental oversight, the Praetorian guard, the night watchman, some kind of political structure to protect us against the aggressions of our neighbors who are always and forever waiting at our front gates, ever at the ready for the law to change or turn its back so they can come and pilfer our grains, raid our gold stockpiles and defile our daughters?
It is sometimes said that religion makes men do noble things. And that’s true. But religion also makes men do heinous, hellish things. Why else would anybody strap a bomb to themselves and run into a kindergarten, for example, if they didn’t think God was on their side?
I’m reminded here of that great skit from Scottish comedian, Billy Connelly.
“I want to go to one of these suicide bomber schools,” he says. “You can just imagine the instructor.
“Alright lads... I’m only going to show you this once...”
Statism is the new religion.
Men used to march off to war for “God, King and Country.” Now he marches off to war to “spread democracy” — the credo of the new religion.
How many people, we wonder, would feel compelled to battle on foreign lands, the whereabouts of which were heretofore unknown to them, to slay “the enemy,” to lay waste to husbands, fathers and brothers they have never before met, to Napalm fields, Agent Orange crops, to litter terrain afar with landmines, if they didn’t believe the patriotic claptrap with which their State ceaselessly indoctrinates them?
No. Statism, in any form, is wicked because it attacks us at our most basic human level. It undermines our dignity. It presupposes that we are incapable of caring for each other and ourselves without its continued and ever increasing invigilation. It tells us that we are not born free individuals, but servants of the State.
In this way, the State is not the preserver and protector of freedom, but anathema to it.
But perhaps most cruelly, most insidiously, the State tells us that we need it more than it needs us. Untrue. It is important here to remember that the State is nothing more than a collection of men and women who initiate force against everybody else, the very same citizens they purport to serve, to represent...and who (are forced to) pay their salaries.
I’m reminded of Doug Casey’s observation that during the Viet Nam War, peace protestors used to carry placards reading, “What if there was a war and nobody showed up?” to which Doug adds, “What if they levied a tax and nobody paid?”
Here we can see immediately that, contrary to what they would have us believe, it is the State that depends on our complicit support to exist at all, not the reverse. It is a form of mass, political Stockholm Syndrome, where the captors gradually come to accept the commands of their master as a demented kind of benevolence, eventually even feeling compassion for and allegiance to him.
That, in a nutshell, is the definition of patriotism: allegiance to one’s own gatekeeper, affection for one’s oppressor.
There are, of course, those who argue that without the State, we would be without the means to build and maintain roads and other critical infrastructure — that we would be without hospitals and schools, without the “safety net” the State is forever crowing about having provided for us.
But to hold this point, one must first admit that there exists, within society, the resources, the productive capacity to build and provide these goods and services in the first place. Those arguing for State intervention are merely saying that the State is the preferred method for delivery, for redistributing a wealth of resources that already exists, through its superior mode of governance.
A dear friend of mine shared with me recently a fantastic quote that addresses just this point. It comes from Allen Thornton’s excellent essay, Laws of the Jungle...
“What do you think ‘govern’ means?” asks Thornton. “It doesn’t mean ‘suggest’ or ‘implore.’ It doesn’t mean two people sitting down, talking it over, and compromising. ‘Govern’ means ‘force’ and ‘force’ means ‘violence.’ When you advocate any government action, you must first believe that violence is the best answer to the question at hand.”
This is the Old Experiment.
Empires...their monies...their militaries and their promises. All these things eventually, invariably, die. You might even say it’s what they were born to do. Their death, in other words, is inevitable. Only the number of innocent individuals they take with them varies.
At this, we should not be surprised. But we should be prepared.
Ever since statists first cobbled together a collective of ruling people, the “rest” have been living under one form of tyranny or another. From tribal leadership structures to local council hierarchies, from Plato’s philosopher class to medieval monarchies through to the various “isms” of our modern times, there has existed one class of rulers — sometimes called guardians, other times tyrants — who have seen fit to exert their ways and rules on all others, usually, ultimately, on pain of death.
In the end, individual freedoms are surrendered to the precise degree that the State is permitted to exist at all.
Most people accept the State’s intrusions on their freedoms as minor grievances. They shrug and mutter something about the “best of a bad bunch” or the “lesser of two evils.” Nevertheless, for the vast majority of people, surrendering a little liberty (or a lot!) for a little safety or convenience is a pretty good deal. That, despite Benjamin Franklin’s famous call to caution that...
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
To be continued...
Regards,
Joel Bowman,
for The Daily Reckoning
Ed. Note: If you’re not already an Agora Financial Reserve Member, you can join today AND secure one of a handful of remaining 100% American 24-Karat Gold Buffalo Coins. We started this deal last week with 99 of them in hand. As of this morning, we were down to 14.
If you want one, let us know here...before they’re all gone. The Mother of All Financial Bubbles is Just Now Starting to Pop...
The wild ups and downs in stocks and gold aren’t due to any single factor.
Everything’s shooting up and falling down because we’re witnessing a bubble start to pop that’s been expanding for decades. It’s time you learned the truth about what’s happening. Click here. Bill Bonner $15 Trillion and Counting...
Reckoning from Paris, France...Bill Bonner
We’re headed back to the US today. No time to write. But here’s the latest...
The Dow down 190. Oil over $100.
And the US hits another milestone on the road to Hell. This, from Stephen Dinan at The Washington Times:The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the federal debt has climbed to a record $15 trillion — a staggering figure that caps a precipitous decade-long rise.
What? Wasn’t George W. Bush supposed to be a ‘fiscal conservative?’
The exact total stood at $15,033,607,255,920.32 as of the end of business Tuesday, marking a jump of $56 billion over Monday’s tally. All told, federal debt has risen $4.407 trillion since President Obama took office. It stood at $5.7 trillion in 2001, when George W. Bush moved into the White House.
“Today marks an infamous day in American history,” said House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican.
The announcement was made a day before Congress was poised to pass a bill that would continue the high rate of spending into 2012, and as a special committee continued to talk about ways to slow the steep rise in deficits projected for the foreseeable future.
None of those efforts would cut the debt, but would slow the rate of growth.
Republicans say that underscores the need for immediate spending cuts to get a handle on the budget.
They said Congress will have that chance this week when the House votes on a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution.
Democrats were silent on the $15 trillion debt milepost, though on the broader issue of deficits they say the economy is so weak that it needs more spending in the short term.
In the longer term, they argue, government cannot be cut down to the size it was for most of the post-World War II era, and instead must raise taxes to pay for all of its promises such as Social Security and Medicare while funding defense, education, food stamps and other basic domestic needs.
Mr. Obama has proposed several debt-reduction plans this year, but Republicans have rejected each of them for not tackling the long- term growth of entitlement programs and instead relying too heavily on taxes. In contrast, House Republicans’ budget this year focused on entitlements and didn’t increase any taxes. Senate Democrats haven’t brought a budget to their chamber floor in more than two years.
That leaves the two parties deadlocked, as borrowing continues apace.
Mr. Obama is averaging a debt increase of more than $1.5 trillion a year during his term in office, compared with an average of $612.4 billion for Mr. Bush and $192.5 billion a year under President Clinton.
By late Wednesday, the House and Senate Republican campaign committees began to use the debt figure in attacks on Democrats seeking election next year.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, said the new figure underscores the need for a fiscal conservative to bring “responsibility back to our nation’s capital.”
Regards,
Bill Bonner,
for The Daily Reckoning
Thursday, 17 November 2011
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