Thursday, 25 May 2023 — South Melbourne

By Brian Chu Editor, The Daily Reckoning Australia

[9 min read]

Dear Reader,

Are you feeling fatigued over all the different narratives of the world facing an extinction-level event?

Let me warn you that it’s entering turbo mode.

Years ago, there was a wild claim about some Planet X that was approaching Earth and could wreak havoc on our planet.

And earlier this month, US Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, warned us about ‘X Date’ — the day the US Government hits its debt limit and can’t pay off its loans. This could lead to a market implosion, should Congress fail to raise the debt ceiling (based on her perfect prognosis of course!).

Now we’ve got news from the World Health Organisation (WHO) about Disease X, whose chief Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus claims is deadlier than the Wuhan virus.

Interestingly, this purported ‘Disease X’ is a term assigned in 2018 to a shortlist of diseases that could cause a severe global epidemic. So, they don’t know what it is, but it could be deadly when it hits.

Check it out here.

At the rates we’re going, get ready for the arrival of X-men from outer space!

Just what on earth is happening?

Five years ago, those who believed that the sky was falling, the markets would crash, and mankind was facing an existential crisis were ridiculed as ‘doomers’ and relegated to the fringe of society.

I’m confident that many today would give anything to turn back the clock to 2018. The problems that we faced back then seem more manageable than those looming over us. And the world resembled something more inhabitable than now!

Back then, the world was chugging along. There were many problems plaguing the world — armed conflicts between and within nations, social problems including corruption, wealth inequality, crime, food shortages, and rising costs of living stood in the way of prosperity and development.

You may still remember that the biggest news stories back then were the investigations over President Trump’s campaign colluding with Russia to steal the 2016 election.

Much of those events pale in significance to the existential threats to mankind since 2020.

Clearly the dynamics of the global order — geopolitically, economically, socially, and ideologically — have since turned upside down. Furthermore, those entrusted to address these — governments, international organisations, corporations, academic think tanks, and non-profit groups — aren’t trying to solve problems.

Instead, you might even say they’ve thrown fuel to the fire.

Think about how many Western governments are pushing hard to increase the cost of living through laws restricting fossil fuels and putting farmers out of business to meet climate targets. Farmer protests are now spreading around the world (think the EU, Canada and South Asia) as they realise the dreadful prospect of losing their livelihood over fertiliser bans and potential land seizures.

Not to mention the gauntlet of company executives at Anheuser-Busch, Disney and Nike and many others that are torpedoing their market value with ill-thought-out, haphazard attempts at supporting transgenderism and other radical political messages. These companies have invariably faced massive backlash, causing a sharp drop in sales revenue and profits.

There’s a level of absurdity so profound that many are feeling their heads spin.

It seems these companies are not factoring in the possibility of the public negatively responding to such campaigns before committing to them. They assume such appeals to morality and radical activism are the best for profits. And stupidly, there is no contingency plan for when this is not the case.

Elite capture — the source of corruption

Those who follow Jim Rickards’ work would be familiar with the phrase ‘elite capture’. It’s a military strategy practised for many centuries. It involves capturing your opponent’s leading figures and then using them to destroy themselves.

But how do you achieve this? What can you do to make someone do your bidding by sabotaging their own?

The key is to exploit the weakness of the intended target by using economic and psychological lures, collect the evidence and then use that to blackmail and manipulate the target.

This week, we’ve seen a high-profile example courtesy of Bill Gates.

The Wall Street Journal released a bombshell article revealing that convicted paedophile and hedge fund manager, Jeffrey Epstein, knew that Russian bridge player, Mila Antonova, had an affair with Bill Gates many years ago. Antonova was sponsored by Epstein, and therefore, he could exploit this affair to pressure Gates to donate to his business venture. Epstein also hired several bankers to tailor a market pitch to persuade Gates to support this. 

Why is this important?

This is a smoking gun to show you the playbook of how to turn the world upside down if you’ve got enough cash and connections.

You’ve seen in the last few years how much of what the mainstream media has reported turned out to be misleading and deceptive.

And we’ve seen that there’re many people involved in this deception — heads of state, government officials, experts, celebrities, etc. These are people whom many hold in high esteem because they project competence either by way of qualifications and/or influence.

You think they’d know better than to jump headfirst into supporting various narratives and viewpoints without a full understanding, but they have.

Is someone pulling their strings?

At this stage, I can assure you that Bill Gates isn’t the only ‘target’ that fell for this nefarious plan. There’ll be more exposure to come.

Finding safety as the system decays

Just as corporations that infuriate their customer base and the general public are now haemorrhaging value, a corrupt system that’s being exposed will crumble as people abandon it.

There may still be a lot of cash flowing in this system to give the illusion that it’s running strong. After all, haven’t the doomers run out of breath saying it’s all over?

Let me put it this way.

If you don’t know how crooked the system is and you continue to play the game, the fault is on those running the system.

If you know the system’s crooked and you take no precautions, then the blame falls on you.

You don’t need to take everything out of the markets and head for the hills.

But have you got a backup plan and some wealth out of the system?

Central banks know that this system is past its use-by date and have been buying gold at record levels since last year. And I believe they’re not about to stop as inflation isn’t slowing down.

Gold may’ve made new records recently, but I believe that there’s a lot more room to run. Check out the long-term history of the price of gold after adjusting for the value of the US dollar by way of the US Dollar Index [DXY]:

It’s clear that gold is on an upwards trajectory, reflecting how the decay of the system is gaining speed.

If you want to find out how to move some of your wealth into safety with gold and gold related investments, check out The Australian Gold Report.

And take that ‘X’ out of ‘existential threat’ while you’re at it!

God bless,

Brian Chu,
Editor, The Daily Reckoning Australia

By Bill Bonner Editor, The Daily Reckoning Australia

Dear Reader,

The subject is AI. But the discussion takes place against a backdrop of a financial crisis. Or, at least a faux financial crisis — the debt ceiling.

You probably know more about artificial intelligence than we do. But since it is supposed to change life on planet earth — for the better — we thought we should get acquainted with it. We don’t want to be surprised by a sudden increase in our well-being. It might be unsettling.

Here is the executive summary:

If you are counting on AI to make you rich…or save the US from decline…you will probably be disappointed. Buying into the speculative frenzy surrounding AI is likely to be costly. Don’t buy NVIDIA. Sell it.

Chicken Little’s prognostication

Returning to the financial crisis, illustrating the ‘faux’ part is The Economist: 

‘The nightmare scenario.

‘What happens if America defaults on its debt?

‘An unimaginable eventuality becomes all too imaginable.

‘The Council of Economic Advisers, an agency in the White House, estimates that in the first few months of a breach, the stock market would fall by 45%. Moody’s reckons it would fall by about 20%, and that unemployment would shoot up by five percentage points, which would mean somewhere in the region of 8 million Americans losing their jobs. The government, constrained by the debt ceiling, would be unable to respond to the downturn with fiscal stimulus, making for a deeper recession.’

‘All too imaginable!’ Oh my. The sky is really falling this time. 

It doesn’t take artificial intelligence to see that the debt ceiling crisis is a fraud. The government has plenty of money to pay for essential services — and to service the interest on its debt. As Janet Yellen explained on TV on Sunday, it can ‘prioritise’ its debts, paying those that are essential…and letting the others slide. No need for a ‘government shutdown’…no need for a ‘default.’ The ‘crisis’ is a swindle. Nothing more.

From former budget director (under Reagan), David Stockman, we get the figures. Every month the Feds receive about US$450 billion in tax receipts. The net interest payments on the debt are just over US$60 billion per month. Social Security is US$128 billion. That leaves US$262 billion available for whatever foolish thing the Feds want to spend it on. In fact, it leaves plenty to run the entire government in the style to which it became accustomed in 2019, which was no mean and lean year.  

The debt ceiling fight is pure politics. The Democrats don’t want to make the hard choices that real budgets require. And the Republicans want to show that the Democrats are spendthrifts. Neither party really wants an actual limit on spending.

AI says…

But all the jabbering by the toady press suggests that terrible things will happen if the Feds can’t get their act together and increase the national debt. This is where just a little intelligence — artificial or otherwise — might come in handy. We know of no business, family or government that ever got out of a debt trap by continuing to borrow money. Instead, the extra debt causes awful things to happen; it doesn’t prevent them.

Ultimately, all we have is time and resources. And ultimately, all the money spent by the Feds must come from us. Allowing the Treasury to borrow more — with no national emergency — is just a way for them to get more of your money without raising taxes.  

So, let’s go to AI. Can we count on artificial intelligence to give it to us straight…without the blithering and blabbering of the mainstream media?

‘Do we need a debt ceiling?’ we asked.

ChatGPT:

‘The question of whether the US needs a debt ceiling is a matter of ongoing debate among economists, policymakers, and experts. The debt ceiling is a statutory limit on the amount of debt that the US government can issue to finance its operations and meet its obligations.

‘Advocates of the debt ceiling argue that it serves as a crucial mechanism to promote fiscal discipline and ensure that the government does not accumulate excessive levels of debt. They believe that the debt ceiling encourages policymakers to make responsible spending decisions and helps control the growth of government borrowing.

‘On the other hand, critics of the debt ceiling contend that it is an arbitrary and unnecessary constraint that can create economic and financial instability. They argue that the debt ceiling does not prevent the government from spending money it has already committed to, and reaching the limit can lead to potential default, disrupting financial markets and undermining the country's creditworthiness.

‘In practice, the debt ceiling has been raised numerous times in the past to avoid default and allow the government to continue borrowing. The ceiling is often viewed as a political tool that can be used by lawmakers to negotiate and shape fiscal policies.

‘Ultimately, whether the US needs a debt ceiling is a complex question without a definitive answer. It involves weighing the potential benefits of fiscal discipline against the risks of economic disruption. Different policymakers and economists may have varying opinions on the matter, and the decision on whether to maintain or eliminate the debt ceiling ultimately lies with Congress and the political process.’

Not wrong. Not bad. Blah-blah. Suitable for a ninth-grade civics class. But something is missing…

Government misinformation

The internet promised to bring humanity to a new, higher level. We’d all have all the info, all the time. That was in the late ‘90s. But more information did not really make us better off. It turned out that information is only useful if it is pertinent to your situation…and connected, closely, to things you understand and can verify. Those YouTube videos that show you how to install a new bathroom sink, for example, can be extremely useful, but only if you’re replacing your bathroom sink. Otherwise, information is a distraction…and keeps you from replacing the sink.

And ‘information’ is easily distorted and contrived. Remember being told — by 51 CIA experts — that the Hunter Biden laptop brouhaha was ‘Russian misinformation?’ Completely untrue. And who can forget when Donald Trump’s band of misfits invaded the Capitol Building? For hours and hours, we saw the hapless mob milling around — with neither a plan nor a clue — and we were told they were bent on a democracy-ending coup d’état. Completely absurd. 

And remember how the COVID virus was a threat to us all? We followed ‘the science’ and locked down much of the entire US economy. If only we had had AI back then! It might have told us — it wasn’t true.

‘Information’ on the internet was remarkably promiscuous. Loose. Untethered to reality. It merely amplified and certified the kind of loose talk you might hear from barroom big mouths.

But at least it was ‘free.’ Or so we thought, until the ‘gatekeepers’ at Facebook, Google and Twitter began colluding with the Feds to shut the gates to keep out ideas and opinions the Feds didn’t like. 

More AI blah-blah

And now, we have AI. It offers to clean up the mess on the world wide web. It will sort, verify and organise the chatter you find in the press, in academia, in research reports and in other stores of knowledge. Got a question? Just ask ChatGPT, Bard or some other AI-enhanced know-it-all.

‘When will the AI investment bubble blow up?’ we wanted to know.

ChatGPT replies:

‘As an AI language model, I don't have access to real-time financial data or the ability to predict future events with certainty. The rise and fall of investment bubbles are influenced by various factors, including market conditions, investor sentiment, technological advancements, and regulatory changes. While AI has experienced significant growth and investment in recent years, it is challenging to determine precisely when or if an investment bubble will occur.

‘It's worth noting that AI continues to be an area of intense research and development, with numerous applications across industries. As with any investment, it's essential for individuals and organisations to conduct thorough research, consider the risks involved, and make informed decisions based on their specific circumstances.

‘If you have concerns or are considering investing in AI-related ventures, it's advisable to consult with financial professionals who can provide personalised advice based on your individual needs and goals.’

Well, that’s helpful! More blah-blah.

As you can see, AI is smart…it can use big words. But it is smart in the way a lot of people appear to be smart — by repeating what other people say. The artificial part is easy to see. Where’s the real intelligence?  

Stay tuned.

Good luck,

Bill Bonner,
For The Daily Reckoning Australia