The economic freedom that made the U.S. economy the leader of the world has given way toa rigged, controlled, and regulated economy.
Bill BonnerA man's wealth can...also be measured by what he doesn't have and doesn't want. When he wants little, he is a rich man.
Bill BonnerIf there is one thing that marks families with money in the long term it is this: delayed gratification.
Bill BonnerNo man bears more responsibility for the present worldwide financial crisis and coming depression than Alan Greenspan.
Bill BonnerThe US is headed for ruin and revolution. The revolution will almost certainly be put down, violently. But the ruin cannot be stopped.
Bill BonnerRemember, government is not an enlightened organization designed to promote public welfare. It is barbaric, uncivilized force…military and police power put to the service of the insiders who control it. Yes, there are constraints on the way the insiders use their power. There are ‘checks and balances,’ built into the constitution, for example. And there are cultural norms and traditional prohibitions. But eventually, the norms and traditions wear off, like painkillers. And then, the pain of raw government begins again.
Bill BonnerA man on his owns knows that he is best advised to leave his dumbbell neighbors alone. But let him join a political party, and he fantasizes that he has the right and the power to tell everyone on the block what to do.
Bill BonnerNorman Rockwell spent his career painting pictures that helped people understand their own feelings...pictures that enriched their own experiences and celebrated their own lives. But the art establishment branded him an 'illustrator', a sentimental one at that. Real artists, they said were doing art for art's sake, not for the sake of the bourgeois public. Real artists were putting swiggles, smears or daubs of paint on the canvas. They were doing 'innovative' and 'creative' work. If they were hideous and grotesque; we know that's what life really is!
Bill BonnerNeither limits nor adversity are what ruin men. Under pressure, they handle themselves pretty well. It’s the lack of limits they can’t handle. That’s when they run amok. So, if you really want to see what a man is made of let him think he can get away with something.
Bill BonnerPrinting up extra money - with no backing - used to be the sort of thing only counterfeiters did. Now it is done by the central bankers and Treasury Secretaries themselves. They don't apologize for it. They don't hang their heads and contemplate blowing their brains out. Instead, they're proud of it... announcing that they 'saved civilization,' or some such claptrap.
Bill BonnerPeople are upset. They know something is wrong. But they don't know what. The real explanation is too complicated. They won't sit still for it. So, they look for scapegoats - the rich...the banks...the Chinese.
Bill BonnerBoth the liberal and the conservative are in agreement: it is all very well to let the people alone, but only if they do what you want them to do.
Bill BonnerPeople do not get what they want or what they expect from the markets; they get what they deserve.
Bill BonnerOnly simple ideas can be held by large groups of people. Commonly held ideas are almost always dumbed down until they are practically lies... and often dangerous ones. Once vast numbers of people have come to believe the lie, they adjust their own behavior to bring themselves into sync with it, and thereby change the world itself. The world, then, no longer resembles the one that gave rise to the original insight. Soon, a person's situation is so at odds with the world as it really is that a crisis develops, and he or she must seek a new metaphor for explanation and guidance.
Bill BonnerYou can forget about recovery. There is no recovery - and there's not going to be any recovery. Recovery is an impossibility.
Bill BonnerNone of the problems that caused the crises in Europe and America have been resolved. They have been delayed and expanded by more debt and more money printing and will lead to more and worse crises.
Bill BonnerIf you look carefully, almost all Old Money secrets can be traced to a single source: a longer-term outlook.
Bill BonnerThe promise of American capitalism is that it makes people richer, freer and more independent. But since the introduction of Fed, the currency in which Americans keep score has so addled the figures, we scarcely know if we are winning or losing. The dollar we knew as a child - in the 1950's - is only worth a tenth as much today.
Bill Bonner