Gary’s Note:
Byron King warns there will effectively be a new constitution based on
regulating what you plug into your sockets. Enjoy. And send your comments to
gary@whiskeyandgunpowder.com.
|
Gold and the Cap-and-Trade Revolution |
By Byron King
May 28, 2009
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Last week, I
spent a full day in a seminar on climate change. It was a totally sober and
professional seminar, sponsored by a group that specializes in continuing
legal education for attorneys. I heard talks by a variety of lawyers,
academics and regulators, mostly about how “the train has left the station”
on climate change and carbon regulation. And wow…has that train ever steamed
out. But did you ever hear the conductor call, “All Aboard?”
This is a
critical matter and here’s the takeaway point: We’re about to see an
UTTER TRANSFORMATION of the U.S. economy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Special~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All
Those People Laughed at You When You Bought Gold...
Wouldn’t you
love to throw it back in their face?
Drive past
their house in your Lamborghini on the way to your private jet? So you can
fly to your private island?
Now’s your chance.
One simple move that can turn
$10,000 into $1,509,000.
But I warn
you... Only one in 100 people can probably handle this.
Are you one
of them?
Only you can decide...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Your life
will be regulated — directly and surely indirectly — by the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), mostly through its powers under the Clean Air Act (CAA).
And the parts of your life not regulated by EPA will fall under the
jurisdiction of your friendly state or provincial environmental authorities.
Many of the policy details will be rounded out via litigation in state and
federal courts, mostly initiated by the likes of the Sierra Club and other
environmental organizations.
You should
expect to see STRICT controls on carbon emissions, via taxes, regulation and
outright bans on many energy-using systems. And since 40% of North America’s
electricity comes from burning coal, you can plan on having less electric
power and on paying much higher electric rates. The utility companies will
just pay the fees and costs for cap and trade and pass the bill on to you in
your monthly statement, for example.
But it goes
beyond just the utility companies writing checks to the government. We’re
talking about BIG money, from every nook and cranny of the economy. One
panelist compared the amount of money in play with cap and trade to
completely rewriting the U.S. tax code. “Just tear up the tax code. Abolish
it. Pulverize it so it goes away completely,” he said. “Now, rewrite it to
raise even MORE money than before, and do it by taxing energy usage.”
United States of
Clean Air Act?
So the CAA —
which came about in the early 1970s as a way of fighting smog — is now
morphing into the new constitution for the U.S. Really, I’m not
exaggerating. I know some of you think I overstate my points every now and
then. But I’M NOT KIDDING!
We’re seeing
a new “American Revolution.” Except the key players are not exactly Ben
Franklin and George Washington and James Madison. In the name of fighting
climate change, there is a new class of bureaucrats, regulators and judges
who will control your life down to what time you plug in your coffeepot. And
with “smart metering,” they’ll know if you leave your water heater on for
too long. (“Well,” is the reply, “just get a solar heater for your roof.”)
One
university professor who spoke at the seminar said that if the U.S. adopts a
per capita approach to sustainable worldwide energy usage — a serious
proposal that’s in front of several powerful international bodies — we’ll
have to reduce carbon-based energy demand in the U.S. by 97%. Basically, if
that happens, the environmental true believers will take the U.S. back to an
energy state that existed in the 1850s. No typo. The 1850s.
Heck, the
energy future of the U.S. might make the scenes in James Kunstler’s 2008
book
World Made By Hand look like a day at the beach.
So you can
see why I’m saying you should accumulate gold and silver. And while you’re
at it, own those geothermal power producers. They’ll be the gold mines of
the future.
The “Axis of
Overspending,” Inflation and the Rush to Precious Metals
Why am I
banging the drum so hard for precious metals? Well, you must know the drill
by now. Government spending is out of control. We have a big-spending
Congress in Washington that can’t say no to anything (except the token
defense cut, or taking away school vouchers from inner-city kids in the
District of Columbia). It’s been going on for way too many years, under both
previous and current party management.
Everybody
who’s anybody in this country, it seems, gets a permanent, pet government
program, if not a large bailout. (Huh? You didn’t get your program or
bailout?) How long can it last? I think we’re about to find out.
As Bernie
Madoff might say, “Bailout, schmailout.” Still, the axis of overspending
leads to inflation. It’s the 1970s redux. And inflation will soon
rear its head and roar so loud that even the wizards of Washington will have
to admit the obvious.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Washington Is
Awakening! But Clueless!
Actually, our
betters in Washington are waking up to the issue of inflation and the
decline of the dollar. Just yesterday, I received an inquiry asking if I
want to appear on a nationally syndicated show that originates from
Washington, D.C. (well, Alexandria, Va., to be exact). The audience is
Washington people — you know the type — and their intellectual and spiritual
kin in “blue spots” across the country.
Here’s the
exact inquiry:
“We’re doing a
story on hoarding behavior and I am looking for people who have taken some
(or all) of their savings out of traditional investments and are now storing
money as cash or in the form of physical gold or some other precious metal
in a safe or secret place. I am having trouble finding anyone like this. Do
any of you know of someone who fits this description, who might be willing
to talk to me about it? I am looking for someone in Boston; Washington,
D.C.; New York; or maybe Chicago. If anyone has any leads, please let me
know!”
Oh, man!
That’s rich! Verbatim! Honest to God, I have not edited this inquiry by EVEN
ONE WORD! These people are clueless!
The producer
wants to interview gold bugs for the show. In an anthropological fashion
that would do Margaret Mead proud, the subject of the story is “hoarding
behavior.” But the poor producer says, “I am having trouble finding anyone
like this.”
(Like looking
for a registered Republican at the Harvard Faculty Club?) And how about that
request to find somebody in Boston, Washington, New York or Chicago? If
you’re from, say, the silver mining town of Wallace, Idaho, you need not
apply.
Here was my
reply: “People who’ve taken their savings out to buy gold and store it or
hide it probably don't want to brag about it on NPR.”
“Houston, We
Have a Problem”
Remember that
line from the movie Apollo 13? “Houston, we have a problem.”
Wow. Do we
have a problem in this country, or WHAT? It’s WORSE than Apollo 13.
We should be so lucky as to be in a small capsule in the cold of space
heading away from Earth toward the moon with almost no oxygen or electrical
power. Instead, we’re watching the national currency declining and dying
right before our eyes. And the opinion makers of the nation don’t know
anybody who owns gold. Amazing!
Meanwhile, Over
in Dubai…
Well, the
producer could always go find somebody in Dubai. Because from that distant
desert kingdom comes word that the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) has
finished building a state-of-the-art precious metals vault, with world-class
tracking and security systems. Think Fort Knox, but in the desert and
without the trees and pretty landscaping we see in the hills of Kentucky.
You want
“hoarding behavior”? The new vault will become the home for the
exchange-traded fund (ETF) of Dubai Gold Securities. Also, “It’s a natural
home for the central banks in the region to store their gold in Dubai,
rather than in London, where they have typically held their gold,” said a
Dubai-based gold dealer INTL Commodities DMCC’s CEO Jeffrey Rhodes. Yep.
“Natural home.” (Margaret Mead, call your office!)
A DMCC
official stated that the new vault will be used to store precious metals
associated with precious metal-based ETFs that are on the drawing boards and
scheduled for launch later in 2009. This can only add to worldwide demand
for gold and silver, especially from the traditionally gold-friendly Middle
East.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here’s the
Bottom Line…
OK, so here’s
the bottom line. When the American people realize that the dollar is in for
another round of inflation, they’re going to look for a way out. When people
envision the future decline in their purchasing power, we’ll see a rush for
the monetary exits. It’ll be the “Gold Panic” of 2009, or 2010 or 2011…
Whichever year gets the naming rights.
When the
reality sinks in, people will flock in droves to physical precious metals
(yeah, try to get some!), as well as mining shares. I’m old enough to
remember the last time it happened, in the 1970s and early 1980s. And I’ve
studied enough history to know it won’t be pretty.
So beat the
gold rush! Hoard now!
Until we meet
again,
Byron King
P.S.:
Hoarding gold and silver is a good place to start to ensure you keep body
and soul together as this depression deepens. Owning your own gold mine,
however, would be better. You’d be almost painfully rich in a time when most
others were in economic freefall. If you don’t mind being one of the
miserable rich, then you can
read more here.
You heard the man. Get with the hoarding.
You can start here with the folks at American Precious Metals Exchange.
They’ve helped me hoard many times in the past.
You can also
hear a lot more from Byron…live and in the flesh! That is if you plan to be
in Vancouver with us to help celebrate “Ten Years of Reckoning.”
That’s right; it’s the tenth anniversary of Agora Financial’s flagship
newsletter The Daily Reckoning.
We know this
is the DR’s special time…but we still plan to make the Whiskey Bar
panel the highlight of the Symposium.
Give us a hand; sign up here.
Behold! A
note of support:
Hello Gary,
Just a quick
note to support a response by a shooter who referenced Robert B. Cialdini’s
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion and then tied it to
[James Howard Kunstler's] latest post by saying "The crucial part for
purposes of [Mr. Kunstler’s] theme of ‘peasants with pitchforks’ is
contained in the section on scarcity. Just to sum up, he documents that
newly experienced scarcity has a more profound effect on those who suffer it
than those who have always known it...makes sense."
Not only does
the statement make sense, it is an absolute fact. How profound the effect of
newly experienced scarcity is depends on the particular individual, and
those who have always known scarcity for an extended period simply handle it
better. In case you're wondering how I know this, consider the following:
I am a
freelancer and, as a result, there have been numerous periods when I have
functioned as the classic starving artist. As a result I have experienced
scarcity and hard times, but learned to handle it. On the other hand,
someone I know has never had hard times... he actually said that he doesn't
know what it's like to be poor. Until now. He's gone from having
everything under control to working for minimum wage at a part time job,
utilities disconnected and being on the verge of losing his house. And it's
a small house.
How is he
handling this dramatic change in fortune? Not well at all. He sits in his
truck feeling sorry for himself, blames others for his problems and when
someone does help him with a little money, he wraps himself around them,
cries on their shoulder with huge racking sobs while saying that he just
doesn't know what to do. Those of us who have had scarcity and hard times
seem to take it in stride while trying to figure out something they can do
to change things. Or at least find a way to handle the mess.
Assuming those
of us in the Doom and Gloom Society are right — and given the current
economic and political environment, it's hard to see it any other way — my
acquaintance is gonna have a whole lot of company. Soon.
Wow, someone
in total agreement. That felt weird. I will treasure this experience.
It’s also
nice to know that I’m not the only poor hwoon dahn who has been
reduced to racking sobs by the violent dislocations of the nascent
depression. At least I ended up being your Whiskey Bar manager; penury is a
small price to pay for the honor.
I’ve nothing
more to add today…except this: we’re holding another webinar next week. At
Agora Financial we like to be good and early with predicting disasters born
of government folly. Next Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. we’ll be talking about the
bubble in Treasuries…and how to make 71% in three weeks when this
new bubble goes the way bubbles go…
At least
we’ll be telling those of you who
sign in here. It’s free. Just make sure to sign up and
be listening next Wednesday, June 3 at 3:00 p.m. EST. Hope to see you there.
Regards,
Gary Gibson
Managing Editor,
Whiskey & Gunpowder