Addison Wiggin, as part of an advertisement for the new Richebacher Letter,
reminded us that "Last holiday season was the slowest in four decades", which
is bad news, of course, but it does explain how come I got so few Christmas
presents 40 years ago, a time from which I am still carrying a grudge against
Santa Claus for the flashy Harley chopper I never got, even though I asked for
one every freaking year.
And it is Absolutely Devastating News (ADN) if the term "slowest" means "least
money spent" and the term "four decades" means 40 years measured in, I assume,
nominal dollars, which would probably put real, inflation-adjusted spending
during the last holiday season down to "the slowest since Ebenezer Scrooge
heroically stood up against the tyranny of the whining, lazy poor, most of whom
are that way because of the stupidity of their actions and choices."
Then, I gotta admit, I was surprised to learn that Addison Wiggin, of Agora
Financial, has a "Popular and Newly Updated Book", titled The Demise of the
Dollar: and Why It's Great For Your Investments, of which I have a copy
of the old, not-updated book.
I think he actually just threw it in there to taunt me, as in, "How's your
stupid book coming along, Mogambo?"
I have to admit that it is coming along very slowly since I cannot think of a
way to write a book without doing any of the actual work of writing a book,
unless it is just another collection of wildly pornographic pictures from my
personal collection, like the first economics book I wrote, where, for example,
girls named Suzette posed provocatively while moaning and saying things like,
"My name is Demand, and my hot lust for you is increasing, producing an
upward-sloping demand curve, but, because of your limited-though-lusty Supply
of Hot Mogambo Love (HML), only drives up the price I must pay! I want you,
Mogambo, no matter what it costs!" and, "Give me all of your Hot Mogambo Love
(HML)!"
But my lazy worthlessness or penchant for depravity is not, for a pleasant
change, the point under discussion, but rather about how so little money is
being spent that Mr Wiggin again grabs my attention, saying, "Total US retail
sales have rolled back to levels we haven't seen since 2005," which is made
more comprehensible if you "Imagine if every single retail shop opened in the
last three years shut down overnight."
The fact that a local barbeque place opened and closed in the last three years
brought this tragically home to me, but it's going to get worse as he notes
that "it was the first wave of defaults in 'subprime' mortgages that sparked
today's economic meltdown", which was bad enough, but not as bad as the news
that a "second wave" of "toxic property loans, however - a flood what you call
'option ARM' or 'Alt-A' loans - won't hit peak resets until 2011."
And when they reset, the owners will find to their shock and dismay that these
loan contracts "also carry a 'reset' risk in the fine print," alerting the
mortgagee that "already high monthly mortgage payments could as much as double
- right at the height of the second biggest market meltdown since the Great
Depression."
He figures that "Millions more consumers will freeze up as their finances go
over the cliff ... more bank losses will drag down even more so-called 'blue
chip' retirement portfolios ... and the impact of the consumer bust will get
'multiplied' yet again. Millions more Americans could lose everything."
I assume that those millions of Americans who "lose everything" will not be
anybody that has a lot of gold, because if there is one Gigantic Freaking
Lesson (GFL) from the last 4,500 years of governments spending themselves into
bankruptcy that has pounded, pounded, pounded itself into my Tiny Pea-Brained
Head (TPBH) ever since the day I landed on this ridiculous planet, it is that
gold is the place to be, right about here, in the Monetary And Fiscal Stupidity
Cycle (MAFSC), which makes me giggle with girlish glee, "Whee! This investing
stuff is easy!"
Richard Daughty is general partner and COO for Smith Consultant Group,
serving the financial and medical communities, and the editor of The Mogambo
Guru economic newsletter - an avocational exercise to heap disrespect on those
who desperately deserve it.
(Republished with permission from
The Daily Reckoning. Copyright 2009, The Daily Reckoning.)
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