Peddling influence

[Bill Bonner’s Diary]( Peddling Influence By Bill Bonner Friday, March 26, 2021 People are neither always good nor always bad, but always subject to influence – A Diary dictum [Bill Bonner] YOUGHAL, IRELAND – There are not many benefits to growing old. We can hardly think of any at all. You can’t play professional basketball. You won’t get the leading man role in community theatre. You have aches and pains everywhere… And you [can’t figure out how to buy bitcoin]( or why you’d want to. You “don’t get it,” say your children and grandchildren. But sometimes, not getting it pays off. Technology moves ahead. Fads and fashions, too, change… often leaving us scratching our heads. The world leaves us behind. Why would people want to sit in a restaurant with eight TV screens… and loud music blaring? And why would someone pay millions of dollars for an [NTF]( at all… let alone one of “Michael Jackson lactating” or a mini Joe Biden character, naked, relieving himself on a similarly naked Donald Trump? They ought to pay you to take that kind of thing. Recommended Link [Will These 23 Super-Stocks Be the Next Super-Shocks?]( [image]( Legendary speculator and author of the investment classic Crisis Investing says the unprecedented rise and coming crash of 23 of the world’s biggest corporations will be ‘the financial story of our time.’ That’s why he and his dynamic team of researchers have been working around the clock to get you this video presentation. It’s among the world’s 1st exposés on these 23 Super-Corporations. [Click here to be one of the first to view it.]( -- Same Old Story But while some things leave us behind forever… some things come back around. And the lessons learned 50 years ago… or 20 years ago… may have some residual value after all. No… black Bakelite rotary phones may never replace the Apple iPhone. And the rabbit-eared TV set with three channels is not likely to make a comeback. The medium evolves, moving forward like time itself. But the message circles back… and the influencers kick us in the derrière again. It’s still the same old story, in other words. A fight for love and glory. Everybody busting his hump trying to get ahead… to earn more money… to be more chic… more cool… more rich… and more powerful. [Featured: Early investors drooling over this new tech cash cow]( We’ve Seen This Show Before This lust for wealth, status, and power inevitably leads people to try to cut in line. But unlike technology or honest capitalism, where the upside is infinite and the benefits are widespread, there are really very few new ways to rob, cheat, and steal. Boondoggles? Stick-ups? Kickbacks? Payola? Bribery? Taxes? Regulations? Paper money? Inflation? Larceny? Counterfeiting? Fraud? Vote stealing? Flim-flam? Lying? What’s new? Not much. Which is why – when it comes to politics and markets – age may have at least one redeeming benefit. There’s a good chance that the old-timer has seen this show before; he knows how it ends. It was on an old, boxy TV screen that we learned – in the 1970s – that mortgage rates had hit 15%. It was on paper – in a book – that we learned how to value a stock by estimating future earnings and discounting to present value (with a healthy margin for things that might go wrong). And it was by direct experience that today’s 70-somethings learned what double-digit inflation can do. Recommended Link [Elon Musk’s Next Big Bet: S.A.V.]( [image]( He revolutionized online payment processing with PayPal…. He is revolutionizing space exploration with SpaceX and the auto industry with Tesla. And now Elon Musk is getting ready to unveil his next big project. S.A.V. will change everything…. and make a lot of people rich. [Click here to watch the demo.]( -- Forgotten Lessons But for the last 40 years – particularly the last 10 – those lessons have been démodé. Consumer price inflation has been going down, more or less, since the early 1980s. Stocks have been going up. And the old lessons were no help. And recently, they became a curse. In [La Bubble Epoch]( earnings scarcely matter. Some 40% of the stocks in the Russell 2000 Index lost money; no point in adding up zeros. And yet, these companies are often the ones that score the biggest gains. What to make of it? What to make of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrencies? What to make of Beeple? And what about MicroStrategy? The company’s revenues had been falling since 2014. Then, last year, it [bought more than a billion dollars’ worth of bitcoin]( and its share price increased 400%. What sense did that make? Did the company just become a convenient way to own bitcoin without having to remember your password? But how do investors know that MicroStrategy won’t forget? Back in the dot-com bubble, MicroStrategy’s CEO, Michael Saylor, famously proclaimed that “information wants to be free.” Then, in 2000, he paid an $8 million fine to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for overstating the company’s earnings. How do investors know he’s not lying now about bitcoin? [Featured: Gold Could Hit $3,000 on October 22, 2021?]( Youth Versus Experience But that’s the kind of question an old-timer might ask. Younger investors trust. Older ones look for verification. They’ve heard too many claims that turned out not to be true… they’ve seen too many bubbles blow up… and put their faith in too many people who turned out to be untrustworthy. Today’s callow speculators have their own ways of evaluating stocks… and their own gurus – now known as “FinTwit influencers” – to help them do it. Elon Musk, for example, was born in 1971. He was only 9 years old when the big bull market in stocks and bonds began. And he was born in South Africa. But his influence is so powerful, he only has to mention a company that sounds like another company… and both double in minutes. Chamath Palihapitiya – the so-called “SPAC King” – was born in 1976, in Sri Lanka. He didn’t begin compiling his fame and fortune until he joined Facebook in 2007. Now, he’s got both – up the kazoo… as well as 1.4 million followers on Twitter. Recommended Link [Man Who Picked Ethereum Before 5,000%+ Jump Issues New Tech Prediction]( [ad_img]( He picked Bitcoin before it exploded by more than 5,000% … He picked Ethereum before it skyrocketed more than 5,000%… And now he’s saying [this is one of the most important tech predictions of his 30-year career.]( If he’s right, investors should fasten their seat belts IMMEDIATELY. [Get the full story here]( Influencer Nonpareil Cathie Wood, [who we wrote about yesterday]( meanwhile, is not so young. And not so foreign. But she must be the Henry Blodget of the 21st century tech bubble. Don’t remember him? Do you think “influencing” was invented yesterday? No, Dear Reader, influencing is one of those things that comes back around… one of those things that age might recognize better than youth. Blodget was a young financial analyst in the 1990s. In 1998, he said Amazon, then priced at $240 a share, would soon rise to $400. It did. Thereafter, Blodget became an influencer nonpareil, appearing on TV shows and in newsclips, talking up his book of dot-com stocks. But the dot-com bubble burst in 2000 and former New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer (who would later be disgraced himself) went after Blodget for securities fraud. Blodget paid $4 million, as a result, and was banned from the securities industry for life. Now, it’s Elon, Cathie, and Chamath who do the influencing. And the old-timers know what to expect… Regards, [signature] Bill --------------------------------------------------------------- Like what you’re reading? Send your thoughts to [feedback@rogueeconomics.com](mailto:feedback@rogueeconomics.com?subject=Peddling Influence). --------------------------------------------------------------- FEATURED READS [India Could Outpace China as World’s Fastest-Growing Economy]( this year, economists predicted China would be the world’s fastest-growing economy in 2021, coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, it looks like India may take that spot as it’s no longer in recession... [If You’re Looking to Buy Gold, Here’s a Good Place to Start]( way Bill and his Bonner-Denning Letter colleague Dan Denning suggest protecting your portfolio is to buy hard assets, like physical gold. If you’re on the market for the yellow metal, Rogue Economics colleague Tom Dyson shares his top three dealer recommendations here. MAILBAG One dear reader shares his thoughts on the state of America, while another says the country’s politicians act out of “good intentions”... Conservative, freedom-loving, hard-working Americans (“the silent majority”) need to take an active role in educating our youth. While hard at work over the past 30 years, we have turned our kids over to a regime that is playing “long ball” here by indoctrinating our kids that big government/socialism is good, and private enterprise/capitalism is bad. Since the “public education” system is largely paid by government, teachers and their unions largely support this mindset and teach and promote these theories to our kids. Look at how the teacher’s unions have hijacked the COVID-19 crisis to feather their own nests. There is a bigger global movement embedded in this effort to weaken our country and make us more vulnerable to our enemies. While we have been hard at work paying everyone’s bills, the “silent” majority is losing control of our country. Its future hangs in the balance. It is time for the majority to take a very active role in protecting our freedom, promoting common-sense agendas, and supporting non-career politicians who have character, integrity, and will defend America and our core values. – Blake R. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. The politicians need to be in charge to exercise control, like when we all are children, our parents are in total control. Now, our parents have become our elected representatives. Once in office, they tell us how and what to do. Like it or not, you can, at 18, leave home. But we cannot live here in America, or in any country, with our government becoming the new parents. No longer can we just go to the frontier. Moral of the 21st century. We better pay way more attention to these elections, be community engaged, and all become politically motivated. No longer is it permissible to just hope they will do the right thing. What we are now experiencing in 2021 is an example of stupid direction coming from fear and not knowledge. COVID-19 was not the Black Plague of Middle Ages of Europe, but a disease attacking those who were, without continuing major advanced medical assistance, going to die soon anyway. To shut down all economic activity and destroy small businesses worldwide was an exercise, where truly well-meaning folks, being totally stupid, ruled supreme. Now is the time to acknowledge it so we will not repeat it again. – Daniel M. Have Americans acted out of blind faith that their elected officials would do the right thing, as Daniel believes? Are you going to take a more active role in the political process, as both dear readers suggest? Write us at [feedback@rogueeconomics.com](mailto:feedback@rogueeconomics.com?subject=Peddling Influence). IN CASE YOU MISSED IT… [NEW Gold Interview — Not Available on CNN, Fox, or MSNBC]( Legendary investor, Doug Casey, just made a MASSIVE gold prediction… It’s so outrageous, we nearly refused to publish it. But then Doug agreed to fly 5,700 miles – from his ranch in Argentina to Aspen, Colorado – to explain everything in this exclusive interview. And what he told us left us all shocked… Our entire office is still talking about it. Doug calls it the ‘most bullish sign he’s seen in 45 years’… And shares his #1 Gold Secret – LIVE on Camera. If you’ve been waiting to profit from this massive gold boom… Now is your chance. [Watch the Interview Now (Doug’s #1 Gold Secret Revealed).]( [image]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Get Instant Access Click to read these free reports and automatically sign up for daily research. 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