Bill Bonner's Diary - When your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep is your downfall. – Sid Taylor, former research director, National Taxpayers Union YOUGHAL, IRELAND – Yesterday, we began our look at the Big Bang… the end of an empire… the grand finale in a Katastrophenhausse. That’s when the you-know-what hits the fan. Trouble is, you-don’t-know-when… or exactly how. Our […]

Bill Bonner's Diary - YOUGHAL, IRELAND – Like pilgrims crossing the Atlantic, we keep our eyes on the horizon, watching for land. Consumer price inflation… it must be out there somewhere. We’ve been headed in that direction for many years. And lately, huge gusts of big spending/big printing… from Donald Trump and Joe Biden… have been driving us forward. […]

Bill Bonner's Diary - YOUGHAL, IRELAND – Yesterday, we argued that the U.S. is in decline. But if it is declining, it must be declining against something else. What? We don’t have to tell you, Dear Reader. You already know. Here’s the latest from The Wall Street Journal: China Creates its Own Digital Currency, a First for Major Economy A thousand […]

Bill Bonner's Diary - YOUGHAL, IRELAND – All we have left is mockery. But in America, circa 2021, our sarcasm is dwarfed by the absurdities of real life. Last week, we tried to mock the Biden administration’s conceits. No bridge is too far for the Biden team… even those built by God himself. Alas, our sarcasm fell short. Scarcely had […]

Bill Bonner's Diary - Stock markets hit new records on Biden spending plan Asian markets rose on Friday following a record-breaking session on Wall Street. The S&P 500 broke the 4000-point barrier for the first time, while the Nasdaq and Dow Jones also made gains. Investors were buoyed by President Joe Biden’s new $2.3tn (£1.7tn) infrastructure spending plan and […]

Bill Bonner's Diary - YOUGHAL, IRELAND – The moon is in its “Waxing Gibbous” phase… bright and bold, last night. And the lunatics are howling. At the macro level… the situation could scarcely be any zanier. The feds have spent $5 trillion, supposedly to cure an $800 billion loss in GDP caused by the COVID-19 panic and shutdowns. They […]

Bill Bonner's Diary - YOUGHAL, IRELAND – One of the beautiful features of capitalism is that no matter how much money you have… or how you got it… there are always people willing and able to relieve you of it. An undiscovered need. An unmet desire. An opportunity to make even more money! There is no limit on how […]

Bill Bonner's Diary - WEST RIVER, MARYLAND – As expected, red and blue have come together into a deep mauve of tomfoolery. Here’s TIME Magazine: Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Bernie Sanders of Vermont share very, very little of their political DNA, but they each came to the conclusion that those stimulus checks are both politically popular and financially […]

Bill Bonner's Diary - WEST RIVER, MARYLAND – This week, we’ve seen that real science… with its doubts and limitations… is easily brushed aside in favor of fake science. “The science” allows people to “know” things they can’t possibly know… or believe things that aren’t true… And – much like religion before it lost favor – it’s used by […]

Bill Bonner's Diary - WEST RIVER, MARYLAND – What have we learned this week? In his weekly update to our Bonner-Denning Letter readers, Dan Denning addresses the peculiarity of the economy. When you add them all up – regular state claims, extended benefits, pandemic emergency claims, and pandemic unemployment claims – there are still over 20 million Americans claiming some sort […]

Bill Bonner's Diary - When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything. – Belgian author Émile Cammaerts BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA – Last night, we got on a plane bound for Buenos Aires… As you know, Argentina has gone all-out in its war against the […]

Bill Bonner's Diary - Just as every cop is a criminal And all the sinners saints As heads is tails Just call me Lucifer ‘Cause I’m in need of some restraint – Sympathy for the Devil, by the Rolling Stones SAN MARTIN, ARGENTINA – As expected, Joe Biden will speed up America’s encounter with disaster. That won’t be easy. Adding […]

Bill Bonner's Diary - SAN MARTIN, ARGENTINA – With only seven days to go to the presidential election, investors are getting edgy. Yesterday, the Dow sold off by as much as 900 points, before bouncing back to end the day down 650 points. What’s the trouble? Party On Hold For one thing, people look up at the sky. They […]

Bill Bonner's Diary - SAN MARTIN, ARGENTINA – Over the weekend, the World Health Organization threw a petard into the Lockdown/No Lockdown debate: WHO warns against COVID-19 lockdowns WHO envoy Dr. David Nabarro said such restrictive measures should only be treated as a last resort, the British magazine the Spectator reported in a video interview. “The only time we believe a lockdown is […]

Bill Bonner's Diary - SAN MARTIN, ARGENTINA – The New York Times says that the major hobgoblins of our time – COVID-19, global warming, racism, etc. – have been upstaged by a new concern. No kidding: Now, in a stark reminder of the tumultuous nature of the 2020 race, all of those issues […] have been eclipsed in the political dialogue […]

Bill Bonner's Diary - SAN MARTIN, ARGENTINA – We begin today with a new study by the RAND Corporation. It tallies a little more of the hidden cost of House Arrest. ABC News reports: Now, new data shows that during the COVID-19 crisis, American adults have sharply increased their consumption of alcohol, drinking on more days per month, and […]

Bill Bonner's Diary - SAN MARTIN, ARGENTINA – And so, we come to the end of another week. Let’s see if we can summarize what we learned. The Old Economy is fading away… The New Economy is a dangerous bubble… One grows cold. The other is too hot to touch. What are we to do? No Friends Economies always […]

Bill Bonner's Diary - SAN MARTIN, ARGENTINA – First, we check in on the economy… Here’s CNBC: Yelp on Wednesday released its latest Economic Impact Report, revealing business closures across the U.S. are increasing as a result of the coronavirus pandemic’s economic toll. As of Aug. 31, 163,735 businesses have indicated on Yelp that they have closed. That’s down […]

Bill Bonner's Diary - SAN MARTIN, ARGENTINA – We wrote about the Democratic National Convention on Monday. Silence… Yesterday, we wrote about the Republican confab… and sent it off at precisely 30 minutes past midday, Eastern Time. Shortly thereafter, the artillery opened up… with dear readers blasting us for criticizing Mr. Trump and his party. We’ve been taking “incoming” ever since. Tomorrow… […]

Bill Bonner's Diary - SAN MARTIN, ARGENTINA – Unbelievably, August is almost over. Summer has all but adjourned. The leaves are turning and the gavel is coming down. And what have we learned? What is the verdict? It doesn’t matter whether you lock down or not. A face mask probably doesn’t help. Americans are easily panicked. They readily tyrannize […]

Bill Bonner's Diary - There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner, as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later, as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved. – Economist Ludwig von […]

Bill Bonner's Diary - SAN MARTIN, ARGENTINA – Can you solve this philosopher’s conundrum… or answer this child’s riddle? What is something and nothing at the same time? If you’ve been paying attention this week, Dear Reader, you already know the answer: It’s the feds’ transfer payments. Trouble Aboard A “transfer” must have a “to” and a “from.” But […]

Bill Bonner's Diary - Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread. – Thomas Jefferson SAN MARTIN, ARGENTINA – Yesterday, we were looking at “transfer” payments. Today, we look closer. What exactly are we talking about? Our developing hypothesis is that the furious money-shoveling in the last quarter was not […]

Bill Bonner's Diary - Week 16 of the Quarantine Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day, minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which […]

Bill Bonner's Diary - That is no market for old men. The young with their Robinhood accounts. Money growing on trees. Those dying generations – left behind. – With apologies to poet William Butler Yeats SALTA CITY, ARGENTINA – Poor Warren Buffett. At 89 years of age, he can’t keep up. Out of sync with the markets. A relic […]