Editor's note: In today's edition of the weekend Masters Series… we're thrilled to introduce the work of Richard Maybury, editor of the U.S. & World Early Warning Report – an investment newsletter so highly regarded, it is read by the likes of Ron Paul and officials at the Pentagon and CIA.
Longtime readers know we view Richard as one of the top free-market thinkers and historians in the world. His Uncle Eric book series should be required reading for every American… It's packed with priceless ideas about life, money, business, history, and government.
It should come as no surprise that Richard is appalled by the Federal Reserve's reckless money-printing policies. In the following essay… originally published in the April 2008 Early Warning Report… Richard decries Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's stewardship and lays out exactly how Bernanke will oversee the destruction of the U.S. dollar. Nothing has changed about the conditions Richard describes… And four years of Bernanke money printing has only made his warning more urgent…
The Bernanke Bomb
By Richard J. Maybury
Someone should put a muzzle on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, lock him in his office, and never let him out in public again.
Every time he is asked about the dollar, this inflationist makes some spineless comment such as, "We obviously watch the dollar very carefully."
Watch the dollar do what?
Watch it fall.
How can these weaseling remarks strengthen confidence in the dollar? How can they possibly build the trust of Sovereign Wealth Funds and other foreign holders of dollars so that they don't rush for the exits, triggering a global financial calamity?
When Bernanke is asked about the dollar, he should sit fully upright, stern faced, then slowly rise to his feet, point into the camera lens, pound the table, and in a low, rumbling voice say…
"The dollar is the finest currency ever in world history, and we plan to do whatever it takes to keep it that way. We will do anything. We will raise interest rates to whatever levels are necessary. There is no risk in holding dollars. I repeat, no risk. Every holder of dollars can be fully confident his greenbacks will be as valuable 30 years from now as they are today. I have all my money in dollars, and I wouldn't dream of taking the risk of switching to any other currency."
But, you might say, he'd be lying… and you'd be right. So I'll be blunt.
Bernanke is in charge of a fiat currency.
Fiat currencies are frauds.
The Federal Reserve is an inherently crooked organization, and its Chairman's primary duty is to deceive. If Bernanke wants to be a boy scout, he took the wrong job. He should either quit, or grow up and face the fact that he cannot tell the truth about the dollar without launching the worst financial catastrophe in world history.
But instead of saying he will do...
... whatever it takes to keep the dollar strong...
... Bernanke says the opposite – he will do whatever it takes to avoid deflation and recession.
In other words, he is implicitly promising to continue inflating the supply of dollars, thereby undermining the value of each individual dollar.
This man is poison. My advice is fire him now before it's too late.
Since August, federal agencies have provided nearly $1 trillion in direct and indirect support to U.S. financial institutions.
On top of that, Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz believes the cost of the war will eventually reach $3 trillion… and says this money could have been used "to put Social Security on a sound footing for the next half-century."
As I pointed out in February, retired baby boomers are likely, at some point, to find the Social Security cupboard bare. In their youths, the boomers were cannon fodder for the Vietnam War. And now they've become financial cannon fodder for this war.
And...
... the cannon is being fired by Bernanke
Some in the mainstream press have begun to sound the alarm. On March 4, the New York Times ran an article about the war, titled "The $2 Trillion Nightmare."
On March 5, the Wall Street Journal ran an article by economist Judy Shelton called "It's the Dollar, Stupid." Shelton ended the article with this warning about McCain, Obama, and the Clintons:
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It's time the candidates devote less time on the minutiae of configuring the next economic stimulus package, or renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement. They should be thinking about how they will confront the imminent global currency crisis. |
Of course, this is all old news to readers of the Early Warning Report. For more than six years, we've been earning fat profits from gold and other investments that do well during the monetary chaos that typically accompanies wars.
What is new is that the mainstream press is beginning to wake up and sound the same warnings. They are six years late, but they speak to millions, who have now begun moving into the investments we were in before 9-11. On February 29, in its lead front-page story, the Wall Street Journal quoted well-known commodity investor Jim Rogers saying, "The dollar is a terribly flawed currency and its days are numbered."
Gold Déjà Vu
History never repeats exactly… but close enough to learn valuable lessons. As Patrick Henry said, "I have but one lamp by which my feet are lighted, and that is the lamp of experience."
During the 1979-1980 global monetary crisis, millions became afraid to hold fiat paper money, and they were fleeing into gold, silver, platinum, and other commodities.
America dodged that bullet, barely. But now, history is repeating. On March 11, the Wall Street Journal ran another front-page story, titled "Weak Dollar Feels New Stress." It revealed that "central banks from China to Chile," including those of the Persian Gulf, are fed up with the dollar and looking for ways to escape from it.
Note this: Inside the U.S., the greater fear is of deflation and recession. Outside, it's fear of dollar debasement. The Fed's offices are inside the U.S. Foreigners afraid of dollar debasement are thousands of miles away, and they don't vote in U.S. elections. So most of the pressure Fed officials feel is pushing them toward more inflation.
Summarizing, since the beginning of the war, the federal government's financial behavior has been as responsible as that of a gang of drunken teenagers in a brewery with a credit card. And each time Bernanke "clarifies" his attitude toward the dollar, he throws another scare into dollar holders.
If someone doesn't muzzle Bernanke, the Federal Reserve's dollar will go down in history alongside the worthless Continental and Confederate dollars as another inflationary disaster.
Editor's note: No one has been more consistent in warning about the dangers of a currency debasement than Richard. His views and analyses are among those we respect the most.
Right now... Richard says the destruction of the dollar and war are the two trends with the greatest effect on the lives of most Americans. And these two trends are leading our country into "uncharted territory." He has compiled a series of books and reports – called his "Embarkation Package" – that he says "provide a map to follow as you travel to a place of greater understanding about economics, finance, history, and law."
To sign up for Richard’s Early Warning Report – and learn more about his "Embarkation Package" and some other special offers – click here.