Lebanon citizens: money ain't for nothin'

Americans are often arrogant in our ignorance of the rest of the world.  Few Americans have traveled internationally much on a percentage basis.  All they/we have ever known is America and The American Way.  And the American way has been pretty good to the people even if the people don't realize it.  Other countries, which we refer to as shitholes, have massive overt criminal gang presence, starvation, lack of sanitary facilities and sketchy utility service.  The roads are bad or nonexistent.  The main reason for this is that they have accepted fake money as if it were real.  And then the fake money goes bad taking all their stored wealth down the tubes.

And then they reset the currency and then restart the Ponzi only to have the same thing happen over and over and over again. It's like a scene from Bill Murray's Groundhog Day movie.  Why nobody ever gets wise I will never understand. Why locals don't simply begin creating their own metals backed currencies is beyond me.  I know it stems from economic ignorance and misplaced trust in their asshole leaders but it's more than that somehow.  For example, I could not take 50 of them, sit them down and explain why there is zero difference between fake monopoly board game money and unbacked fiat currency.  They are exactly the same. The only difference is the temporary illusion that because it comes from government it somehow has intrinsic value.

Well, Lebanon is re-re-re-re-learning the hard way as they realize yet again that "money is worth nothing now".  You can read the article as well as I can but the bottom line is that their fake paper money is losing its value in trade and that as a result they have resorted to growing their own food.  That's what you have to do when your food prices skyrocket 367% in a single year.

We are talking about smart, well educated people here, not sandal wearing camel tending nomads living in tents and eating locusts.  If they were living in the US and speaking English you would think they are just another American.  But despite all of that, they say our money is worth nothing "now" when the truth is, they never had money at all, and the colored paper currency that passes for money NEVER had any intrinsic value except in the minds of gullible suckers.  The smart, insightful, aware, not gullible few that have always known this did not store their wealth in fake paper but rather in gold and silver.  As the Lebanese Pound tanked, gold and silver priced in that fake currency skyrocketed. 

Do you really think it will be different here in the US?  The are a few lessons that people should learn here:

• Know where your food will be coming from.  I've stated long ago that people will move out of cities and into the suburbs and countryside in the new conservative wave, part of which includes a new self reliance. Not necessarily because we want to but simply because relying on others to deliver a low cost existence to you stops working.
• Downtown apartments have no growing space for food.
• You work at a job so you can eat.   But working a garden feeds you as well.  So we will see women working at home, raising and schooling the kids and tending the garden while men continue to work with others (AKA trade labor) so that they can pay taxes and other things which are denominated in currency of the realm.
• Where is government in helping the people of Lebanon?  Oh, that's right, government has NO MONEY.  Any currency they spread around was taken from someone else and sooner or later those with any wealth just leave.  There is always some place on Earth for the rich to run to.  Chasing the wealth away is stupid.
• The root cause of ALL OF THIS SHIT is exactly what I said it was a decade or more ago: fake paper currency is not money and we all got conned into accepting the fake paper as if it were real.  MANY people right now look at their account statements and say "I don't have to worry, I am well off".  Trust me when I tell you, this will end badly for them.  They cannot see it because they read headlines and they think that gives them understanding.  Also, things have worked in their favor for a long time and so they think that is the way it is supposed to be.  They fail to see that the status quo is being propped up by the assumption of national debt and, as I have always said, it is an exponential function.  At some point they will not be able to get away with it anymore and all these fake paper assets will go into absolute free fall with no bid.  I mean, like the elevator has a trap door.

The fact that I have been so right about so many things doesn't seem to matter to people.  That's because they still have the liberal mindset, and that mindset values "optics" above track record.  But as things change back toward conservatism, that will change.  People won't care if you are in beggar's clothing if you put up a track record of speaking truth.  Unfortunately, most will figure that out too late.

Folks, the best models show that we only have 1-3 years left in this debt driven prosperity cycle and then the DJIA will go down 80-90%.  Dr. Charles Nenner, a long time market timing specialist has indicated that it will end badly with his target for DJIA = 5000 within 2 years.  The best Elliott wave models have similar outcomes.  It's what you have to expect when a Ponzi scheme finally blows up.  Now is the time to prepare for this.  Later will simply be too late.