One More Surprise for 2020: 'Free Tibet'
An unexpected winner of the latest COVID-19 relief bill... One more surprise for 2020 – 'Free Tibet'... A shot across the bow at China... Paying for freedom of speech... The coldest of Cold War 2.0 moves... Our final Alliance 'Town Hall' of the year...
A surprise winner in the COVID-19 relief bill? The Dalai Lama...
It's official... Congress has approved another round of COVID-19 relief.
That means more direct payments to Americans, more unemployment benefits, and more loans for small businesses... this time, to the tune of $900 billion.
Throughout the year in the Digest, we've outlined plenty of times before what this kind of fiscal stimulus means for the markets... And we'll soon see more "dollars from nowhere" floating around the economy.
We never suspected this, though... In the thousands of pages that made up the final bill passed on Monday, 20 pages were dedicated to the United States' foreign policy stance on Tibet... including support for the idea of the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, the Buddhist spiritual leader.
It might seem out of nowhere – or at least, out of place in the Digest as part of a fiscal stimulus and spending bill...
But if you get past the surprise, this is clearly a timely and public shot across the bow at China... the latest in a series of conflicts between the two sides. And it's happening amid a pandemic that a lot of folks are largely blaming on the country that took over neighboring Tibet by force in 1951.
Call it one more surprise for 2020... the "Free Tibet" part of a COVID-19 stimulus bill.
Here is the proof...
It starts on page 2,623 of the same legislation that clears the U.S. Treasury Department to drop millions of $600 checks in the mail starting next week...
From there, it goes on for 20 pages – including Section 342, which outlines a "statement of policy regarding the succession or reincarnation of the Dalai Lama"...
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, currently lives in exile in India. He escaped from Tibet as a 23-year-old in 1959 amid a revolt against the Chinese government. A few years before that, when he was a teenager, Chinese soldiers arrived and annexed the relatively tiny nation as a not-so-autonomous and still-disputed part of China.
China now essentially indicates that it wants the lineage of freely selected Dalai Lama's to stop after the current 85-year-old living Buddha passes away – or is "rebirthed"...
For instance, the legislation outlines how, back in 1995, China reportedly "arbitrarily" jailed a 6-year-old boy who was identified by some as the reincarnated Dalai Lama. And instead, China sought to install its own candidate.
Frankly, we're not here to debate the particulars about the next Dalai Lama.
Though, as an aside, I (Corey McLaughlin) personally heard a rare interview with the current Dalai Lama on ABC News anchor Dan Harris' Ten Percent Happier podcast last year... And I found His Holiness to be surprisingly entertaining and funny, and unsurprisingly enlightening.
The broader point is, the Dalai Lama is a symbol of democracy and freedom...
That's true both in East Asia and around the world.
And U.S. officials are clearly reiterating in a very public bill designed to provide pandemic relief that they believe Chinese officials are a problem...
The bill suggests that the U.S. open a consulate in Tibet. That's undoubtedly a move directly intended to get under the skin of Chinese officials. The bill also details...
It is the sense of Congress that Tibetan exile communities around the world should be commended for the adoption of a system of self-governance with democratic institutions to choose their leaders; the Dalai Lama should be commended for his decision to devolve political authority to elected leaders in accordance with democratic principles.
And...
Interference by the Government of the People's Republic of China or any other government in the process of recognizing a successor or reincarnation of the 14th Dalai Lama and any future Dalai Lamas would represent a clear abuse of the right to religious freedom of Tibetan Buddhists and the Tibetan people.
And...
It is the policy of the United States to take all appropriate measures to hold accountable senior officials of the Government of the People's Republic of China or the Chinese Communist Party who directly interfere with the identification and installation of the future 15th Dalai Lama of Tibetan Buddhism, successor to the 14th Dalai Lama...
Including by imposing sanctions pursuant to the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act; and prohibiting admission to the United States under section 212(a)(2)(G) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
This surprise reading material arrived to us like an early Christmas gift – and to Chinese officials like a lump of coal. A few Chinese officials have already said they're furious. If you're interested in diving deeper into the topic, you can read it all for yourself here starting on page 5,090 of this congressional PDF.
The legislation even gets into "water security" of the region since the Tibetan Plateau provides a lot of water to the area (and includes Mount Everest)... It notes that China is responsible for 20% of the world's population, but only 7% of the world's water supply.
This issue has big economic and political consequences, too...
Congress also authorized spending more than $20 million annually through 2025 on Tibetan issues, including more than $7 million annually on free radio broadcasting channels – "uncensored news and information" – in Tibet.
In other words, we're literally paying for their freedom of speech.
So while on first blush it might seem this legislation came out of nowhere, it's very deliberate...
Said another way, this might be the coldest of potential Cold War 2.0 moves, as our colleague Kim Iskyan set the stage for a week ago here in the Digest.
As Kim wrote, China provides plenty of geopolitical kindling ready for a spark with the U.S. in an "established world leader/rising power" showdown – Thucydides' Trap – which most of the time in modern history (12 out of 16 instances) has ended in war between the sides...
We're talking about massive concerns like cybersecurity, nuclear arms, control of the South China Sea, the origins of COVID-19, and the freedom of Hong Kong or Taiwan.
Now, we can officially add Tibet to the list – and maybe even put it near the top, too... It was just a little bit unexpected how it happened.
In the long run, this is more fuel for the thesis that Kim laid out in his Digest last week... about an inevitable collision course for the world's two largest economies, and what that means for massive sectors – such as technology – and the companies within them. As Kim wrote...
China and the U.S. are slipping into Cold War 2.0. And until the U.S. and China fall into Thucydides' trap, the evolving cold war will dominate technology, markets and geopolitics for years.
Moving on, we want to make sure Alliance members have seen our latest 'Town Hall'...
The final, exclusive Stansberry Alliance Town Hall event of 2020 went live last week. And like the previous versions we've discussed throughout the year, you don't want to miss it...
In this quarter's edition, our colleague Jessica Stone and Director of Research Austin Root speak with several editors who have critical insights into what's happening in the markets today.
Stansberry Alliance partners hear directly from Stansberry NewsWire editor C. Scott Garliss, Ten Stock Trader editor Greg Diamond, and Cannabis Capitalist editor Thomas Carroll during the Town Hall event. If you're an Alliance partner, you can watch it right here...
In fairness to Alliance partners, we won't share all the details here in the Digest, but here's a brief overview...
Austin started by giving his "big picture" take on the markets. He talked about the Federal Reserve's "easy money" policies, current stock valuations, and vaccines hitting the public – and more importantly, what they all mean for stocks today. From Austin...
The base case is that we continue to grind higher, but there are reasons for a pause, and reasons I think to have a little bit more dry powder and portfolio protection alongside you.
Scott also described his outlook – and why certain "work at home" plays that have done so well this year may continue to do so in 2021. As Scott said...
I don't see anybody really going back to their normal workflow before all this happened for at least six or nine more months, maybe even for another year. [One of the concerns is] people can get the inoculation, but they still might be able to spread the infection.
It's going to make people wary of going back into the workplace. It's going to make workplaces wary of bringing people back because nobody wants to have the liability issue of causing the disease to spread... let alone if somebody wound up dying.
Greg shared his one "must know" tip for anyone interested getting into technical trading... and detailed a hedge idea for concerned investors who think heightened volatility might be near (as he does).
And Thomas, with his two decades' worth of knowledge as a health care analyst, spoke with Austin about the fact that 60 Minutes just recently aired a story that Thomas has been on top of for a long time – why hospitals are a major area of costs for the health care system.
Thomas wrote about this topic back in the September 2019 issue of our flagship Stansberry's Investment Advisory. He showed that the average American family spends about 50% of its "health care dollar" on hospital care. (Subscribers can read that issue here.)
Thomas told Austin in our latest Alliance Town Hall event that this point is now becoming clearer to those in Washington who could reform our health care system. From Thomas...
That's the place we're really going to have to start if this country wants to take a hard look at reducing its health care spending. That has presented not necessarily a new risk for the hospital stocks but a continued risk, because health care and hospitals have always been a big driver, it just hasn't been a focal point.
The roundtable discussion is well worth the watch. If you're an Alliance partner, be sure to take it in if you get some time over the next few days... or if you want to sneak away from the family over the holidays.
And if you're not an Alliance member, here's one more thing...
Videos like the one we just described are exclusive content designed to be an added benefit for our Alliance partners. This is our highest level of membership, and it gives you access to everything that Stansberry Research publishes... for life.
If you've been considering this membership over the years... or even if you just heard of the offer for the first time and want to learn more about what I'm talking about... be sure to click here for a limited-time chance to become an Alliance partner.
While we just closed our 2020 "Open House" event last week, you can still hear from our publisher Brett Aitken, who once made the decision – as a subscriber just like yourself – to join the Alliance... He eventually started working at Stansberry Research as an analyst... And now, he oversees our day-to-day operations.
Of course, we know not everyone will end up in a role like Brett's... But his story should give you a good idea about the kind of value you can get by becoming an Alliance partner.
So be sure to check out our end-of-year Alliance broadcast before it goes offline soon.
Ron Paul: They Want to Lock Us Up and Kill the Dollar
In Part 2 of his exclusive interview with our colleague Daniela Cambone (watch Part 1 here, if you missed it here yesterday), former U.S. Congressman Ron Paul addresses the economic toll the pandemic has taken on the economy – and how it will ultimately kill the U.S. dollar, which will likely be overtaken by China's yuan.
He also talks about the current frothiness in U.S. equities and why the Federal Reserve-fueled party won't last forever, leading to a massive correction...
Click here to watch this video right now. For more free video content, subscribe to our Stansberry Research YouTube channel... and don't forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
New 52-week highs (as of 12/21/20): Altius Minerals (ALS.TO), Asana (ASAN), ProShares Ultra Nasdaq Biotechnology Fund (BIB), BlackLine (BL), Cognex (CGNX), Crispr Therapeutics (CRSP), Commvault (CVLT), Editas Medicine (EDIT), Fortescue Metals (FMG.AX), Gravity (GRVY), GrowGeneration (GRWG), Innovative Industrial Properties (IIPR), Renaissance IPO Fund (IPO), Ingersoll Rand (IR), Jushi (JUSHF), KraneShares MSCI All China Health Care Index Fund (KURE), MongoDB (MDB), Cloudflare (NET), Intellia Therapeutics (NTLA), Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Southern Copper (SCCO), Sabina Gold & Silver (SGSVF), Silvergate Capital (SI), First Trust Cloud Computing Fund (SKYY), Vestas Wind Systems (VWDRY), and Zendesk (ZEN).
A quiet mailbag today as we inch closer to a long holiday weekend. Do you have any comments or questions? Send them to us at feedback@stansberryresearch.com.
All the best,
Corey McLaughlin
Naples, Florida
December 22, 2020