I had hoped there would be discussion of the whether a cash account is significantly safer than a margin account. I don’t recall from the book whether cash accounts were even mentioned. Is that what he means when he references “segregated” accounts (which it seems are no safer at all)?
Really looking forward to the June Webinar, which I truly hope will have actionable ideas for us individual investors.
It is easy for Webb to say “all you have to do is strike out those exceptions”, when of course neither you nor I have any power to do that. What I want is a list of specific actions I can take to safeguard, to the extent possible, what little wealth I have been able to accumulate and on which I will depend for the rest of my life. And if a cash account or an IRA account offers no safety, I want to know that as well.
As one considering bitcoin as part of a portfolio, based on this latest piece by @cmartenson and David Webb, with respect to bitcoin, I see the outcomes potentially looking thus (not financial advice):
System continues status quo ad infinitum (for non-latin-speakers: shit remains unchanged forever) yet slight tweaks as usual allow for this (so long as revolutions don’t occur); or
System breaks and bulk liquidation of financial “assets” occurs rapidly (“you’ll own nothing…”) and only those royals shalt collect on their debts (assets of others) then, and not law nor man may act with sufficient haste to change that “rightful” (certainly not righteous!) outcome. In this scenario, bitcoin’s value (utility, I suppose) to its holders, will rise or fall to an extreme in alignment with the fortitude, wisdom, actions and determinations of folk so brazen and steadfast to ensure its system may survive (electricity, property rights, etc.) and thrive (protections of property rights, allowance of inter-value-exchange, etc.).
Hence, I opine (and I hold sweet F.A. of it) that some small percentage of bitcoin holdings may serve one well in certain potential outcomes.
There can be little doubt that the spectacular increase in government expenditure over the last 30 years, with governments in some Western countries claiming up to half or more of the national income for collective purposes, was made possible by government control of the issue of money.
…
There can be little doubt also that the ability of central governments to resort to this kind of finance is one of the contributory causes of the advance in the most undesirable centralisation of government. Nothing can be more welcome than depriving government of its power over money and so stopping the apparently irresistible trend towards an accelerating increase of the share of the national income it is able to claim. If allowed to continue, this trend would in a few years bring us to a state in which governments would claim 100 per cent (in Sweden and Britain it already exceeds 60 per cent) of all resources—and would in consequence become literally ‘totalitarian’.
From Denationalisation of Money: The Argument Refined, 1990, Hayek
I see it as a form of hubris: they are blind to potential negative consequences of their actions on themselves.
I see it as a form of psychopathy. Ted Bundy had a fine legal mind: he knew he’d be caught eventually. It just didn’t matter compared to the immediate gratification he got from torturing and killing women.
It is hard for normal people to unravel the workings of a psychopath’s mind (and thank God for that.) Suffice to say that they have different operating systems from normal people. The pain they cause is the payoff, the power is the payoff…even though they know that they are unleashing the chaos that will spin out of control, as it almost always eventually does, and ultimately destroy themselves.
It is a brutal truth, but necessary to understand what we are up against…
I think that @cmartenson did an amazing job on this. Thank you Chris.
For all the Canadians, does anyone know of someone coming up with protective measures for the Canadian crowd? I think every jurisdiction will be different and i think this needs to have a worldwide action group.
The webinar will cover all of this in detail, and with the appropriate level of legal interpretation and expertise that will enable everyone to draw their own conclusions about where they want to draw their lines.
My interpretation, FWIW, is that a cash account offers a LOT more safety than a margin account. But is it enough? That’s where the line-drawing comes in.
One more question: If the financial system blows up and the Great Taking occurs, would your best guess be that there would be a series of failures/bankruptcies leading up to it, giving some warning, or that it all happens over a weekend with no prior indication that anything was out of the ordinary?
You have done a tonne of work and I appreciate that. Every country will be different. And even within a country (for example Quebec will be diff from Canada). I’m just trying to see if anyone is looking.
Thanks for this, Chris. While I think I grasp most of the basic concepts of TGT, I have a feeling I’m not alone in wanting to learn still more. This is in my eyes, the second most important thing you teach here other than the PP concept itself. And it’s complicated.
I know you may be royally tired of doing so, but I hope you’ll still continue to cover this.
I would like to start researching this for myself (in Canada), but I don’t even know the correct questions to ask to find the correct rabbit hole to go down. Perhaps you could suggest some starter questions?
I know you’re probably royally sick of poring through convoluted legalese by now. However, I sincerely hope you continue to give this coverage. I think it’s the most important thing you’ve covered other than the PP concepts at the very core of your teachings.
While I think I grasp most of the basic principles of TGT, I would like to be able to research it in my own country (Canada), but wouldn’t even know which questions to ask to find the right rabbit hole to go down.
Would you be able to suggest some starter questions, which might apply in any country?
I feel certain that the laws concocted in Canada have similar intents. Like Klaus said - that they have infiltrated all major governments with the YGL agents to enact their bidding.
It seems to me that a minimum first step is to convert margin investment accounts to regular cash accounts, start divesting to obtain un-mortgaged real assets, PM’s et al. Probably wise to have real assets in other jurisdictions/countries.
