In today’s Money Morning…a new era of uncertainty…a horrifying invasion of personal privacy…one conclusion with two different solutions…and more…
Today I have very simple message for you.
All I want you to do is read Bill Bonner’s latest book. Which you can learn all about, and find, right here.
I myself have just spent the last few days going through Bill’s book. An interesting read from a man who has built a career out of what I like to call ‘peak contrarianism’.
If you’re familiar with Bill’s works, I’m sure you’ll know what I mean by that.
But if you’ve never heard of Bill Bonner, well, let me offer up a very brief rundown for you.
See, I and the rest of the Money Morning team owe a lot to Bill Bonner. He is responsible for building a global e-letter empire that we are proud to be a part of. Not that I’d wager Bill sees it as an empire.
He’s always struck me as someone that is far more interested in being a man of the land than some media mogul. That’s why, despite having publications all around the world, none of them are ever the same.
Each has its own people, its own ideas to contend with, and its own opinions. Which is why, even if I — as an editor — disagreed with one of Bill’s points, I’d have no qualms stating that fact.
The only consistent theme is our financial and investing focus through a contrarian lens.
A new era of uncertainty
Now, as a defiant contrarian, Bill obviously takes issue with a lot of what is going on in the financial world at the moment.
Most of which he squarely blames on the Fed. Calling out their incessant printing of cash and convoluted modern monetary policies. Topics that I myself have covered in recent months.
After all, you don’t need to be a contrarian to see that what central banks are doing is insane.
A conclusion that is just as true of the RBA as it is of the Fed.
However, the far more interesting idea from Bill’s latest book is one of permanence. In particular, the concept of a permanent bull market, as well as a permanent emergency. Two very distinct scenarios that we’ve seen come into full effect over the past 18 months.
All of which Bill believes is setting us up for an event he has simply labelled as ‘The Big Loss’. Something that I’m sure you can guess from the name alone doesn’t bode well for investors…
But perhaps more insidious than this market distortion is the policy reactions we’re seeing from governments: using a crisis like this pandemic to justify and enact disturbing new restrictions on personal freedoms.
For example, most Australians probably didn’t hear about the recent ‘hacking bill’ that was passed by our politicians. A new amendment that will give the AFP and ACIC the power to access and tamper with your electronic devices, as well as social media accounts, if you’re suspected of criminal activity.
A horrifying invasion of personal privacy justified under the guise of collective safety.
Just another loss of freedom to add to the growing list of impingements by the day…
How to Capitalise on the Potential Commodity Boom in 2021. Learn More.
One conclusion with two different solutions
Getting back to the topic at hand — this idea of permanence and the ‘big loss’ — Bill clearly has a far more negative outlook than I do.
I’m not going to spoil all his conclusions, because you should read it for yourself. I’ll just say that his focus is largely about preserving wealth. In contrast, I still firmly believe there are incredible long-term opportunities to generate wealth.
This is just one of the areas where our opinions differ. After all, like I mentioned earlier, our aim isn’t to become an echo chamber. Money Morning is all about sharing contrarian opinions that may benefit you as an investor. Even if that means having a contrarian opinion amongst our fellow editors or colleagues.
Cryptocurrencies, for example, are a very polarising topic. Not just in terms of the general public, but also directly within our own company!
Our very own Editorial Director Greg Canavan was for the longest time a crypto sceptic.
Unable to see the potential, or value, of these new decentralised digital currencies. And while he still has concerns and questions for some aspects of the crypto community, he has come around to the idea.
When it comes to Bill, though, without putting words in his mouth, I doubt he’ll ever truly embrace something like bitcoin. It just isn’t something that gels with his view of markets and where they are headed.
And who knows, maybe he’s right.
Maybe crypto won’t be the future of money that so many think it could become.
I can tell you right now, though, that the decentralised values behind most crypto projects are exactly what we need. Because while the execution may not have convinced people like Bill yet, the principles certainly provide an antidote to the issues that Bill is talking about in his book.
That’s precisely why I urge you to read it.
Because whether you agree with Bill’s proposed advice or not, you can still get something out of reading it. It may help you decipher where and what markets may go and do in the coming months or years.
So again, please check out Bill’s book.
I guarantee that at the very least it’ll provide some perspective on the crazy times we’re in, even if Bill doesn’t talk about all the disruptive opportunities that they are creating.
Regards,
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Ryan Clarkson-Ledward,
Editor, Money Morning
PS: Ryan is also the Editor of Australian Small-Cap Investigator, a stock tipping newsletter that hunts down promising small-cap stocks. For information on how to subscribe and see what Ryan’s telling subscribers right now, click here.
