I might be mistaken, but in my memory Mike was speaking about 100 swiss franc’s. Which were still backed by gold. Now I’m gonna have to go back, and listen again.
timing is around 55:55. yes, he mentioned swiss franks, but then somehow mixed it with 100 USD … maybe I got something wrong, so have a look and share your opinion. Anyway, that was in 1997, we are now in completely different situation … once I read that during Weimar republic (around 1927, Germany) you could buy whole business street (!) for a 1 ounce gold coin. But that information I was not able to verify anywhere neither … that’s why Mike Maloney’s info took my attention and for me it seems to be another unverifiable info …
I have a question: isn't walking out your door so much more alive because you know why and the how's things were done and it just makes you more aware and at peace.I agree! In fact, I wonder if it would be fun to have a forum on the ups and downs of building your own home (if there isn't one already). I'll check, and if I can't find one, I'll start it. Come on over! And anyone else with stories or questions or whatever!
I heard Mike say it were Swiss francs to a total amount equivalent to 100 $ US…
I am having a hard time finding much info. It’s a pain on my cell phone also. Mike mentioned his assistants father had invested swiss rancs. No mention of year. In 1949 $1=4.375 francs.
Any way, found a paper by Zdravco Balyozov, titled The Bulgarian Finacial Crisis. If I’m reading the chart right in June of 1997 the exchange rate for $1 was 1718.7 Lev?
Better move on to something else, my wife just asked what I was doing. When I told here I was researching exchange rates from Bulgaria in 1997, I received a very strange look. 
https://thesaker.is/why-havent-we-called-it-qe-5-yet-and-why-we-must-call-it-qe-2-1-instead/
...It’s not that history repeats itself perfectly and that we can assume that we can exactly overlay the financial history from 2008-19 to the upcoming era of 2020-31. No, it’s that we should realise that – whatever the exact future historical timeline – the neoliberal system can afford no other path: shutting off the spigot (ending “no strings attached” QE and raising interest rates back up to the 20% of 1980, or just a more typical 3-5%) would cause massive bankruptcies in high finance, and they are the vanguard party in the West’s bankocracy. Unlike the USSR, there is no chance the elite of the US vanguard party is going to wilfully implode themselves. They are radicals who believe There Is No Altnernative (to Western capitalism-imperialism). That’s why, just like QE 1.1, QE 2.1 is being used domestically to protect the imperial centre during the outbreak of crisis. Some is even finally being downloaned to non-banks and non-corporate entities, and to subsidise wages in some Western countries, but only a very inadequate portion – it is, like in 2008, being primarily used to “socialise the losses” of the 1%. The new, recent, easily-graspable history of QE is that it has altered the flow of capital everywhere. While developing countries are hurt the most, corona is going to ram home to the Western domestic audience just how unpatriotic and immoral Western capitalism-imperialism really is. How many rounds will of QE 2.0 will it take for Westerners to realise that?
" In all thy getting, get wisdom." Proverbs 4:7
My formula for peace of mind:
Make health your top priority (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual.)
Just say, “No.”
Be frugal, live simply.
Pay your debts.
Always be a beginner; never stop learning.
https://ktla.com/news/nationworld/4-million-stimulus-payments-to-be-sent-through-debit-cards-treasury-department-says/
Getting everyone’s finances (including the “unbanked”) digitally linked into the banks/non-banks to make transfers in/out easier. While serving the immediate purpose of efficiently distributing stimulus payments to individuals, it may also pave the way for UBI, bank bail-ins, and negative interest rates theft/fees. I’m sure that whatever non-financial processing mediator (e.g., Netspend) will make a hefty profit skimming off of any transactions, which may not be apparent to the recipients of the stimulus but for which we all will pay for. Many strings are attached to these stimulus payments with the 1% and corporations benefiting the most while the majority will receive relative crumbs or nothing at all.
...it may also pave the way for UBI, bank bail-ins, and negative interest rates theft/fees.This is why I have recently begun using my Bitcoin (BTC) account as my non-current expense savings account: keep any extra cash out of the bank. (If you do that put it on a private "wallet," like Exodus (exodus.io), rather than use the wallet provided online by an exchange service, e.g. Coinbase.com). Plus, on balance (even with the day-to-day volatility of BTC), you can make a real increase (i.e., "interest") on those holdings, unlike what you get from bank interest rates (which may go negative before long). A step further: IMO, anyone who gets stimulus money could use whatever they don't need for current expenses to buy BTC. It is an asymmetric hedge to the upside. The loss is limited to what you put in; the upside is currently limitless. So, if you use stimulus money anything you lose was not yours anyhow so no harm done, but anything you gain is yours to keep. It's a way to play the poor man's version of the 1%er's "socialize loss, privatize gain" without putting one's own capital on the line.
Looks like I’m probably leaving Chicago and moving the family to Columbus, OH. Any PP folks in the area that can share some advice please shoot me a message!
Thanks,
Planfor,
Just wondering how you “invest” in oil. Options futures market? Certainly you don’t take delivery, right? Not an easy play from what I gather. Honestly interested in your strategy.
I’m glad to see so many comments and watchers. Last time I felt I was the only one watching/commenting! Comments on WTF Take 2:
- Taggart did a better job moderating than last time, which I thought impossible. This presentation is so smooth I thought I was drinking century old wine. Color me transfixed.
- Grant, as usual, gets it. It’s a timing game. Game: Focus on wealth-producers - profitable business or $ generating RE. Also, I love his final comment: nobody knows anything, so stay nimble!
- I’m surprised none of the panelists called BS on the whole Corona virus caper. This is a big investing deal, IMO, because even though the CV craze caused the first wave of raw communism in this country (totalitarianism/lockdown+ wealth redistribution/stimulus) CV fears are quickly being shown to be way overblown (just some more elderly/obese dying). I’m surprised nobody mentioned the possibility of a crack-up boom once the real economy comes back on line after the hype-fear disapates and our tyrants have lost their credibility on CV fear-mongering. This could be wild!
Great job, again!
I have a step son, mid 30s in Columbus. He is not a PPer, but would be happy to make introductions if it would help you get acquainted to the city.
Hey Sparky, thanks for posting Chris’ new vid. They are hard to find. While I was watching yesterday’s daily briefing, I had to stop and write one of my nasty letters to the Fed, and here it is:
"Hello and Good Morning, I just thought I would provide some anecdotal information from Main Street. First, as millions of Americans lose their jobs, as 10’s of 1000’s of Americans lose their lives, as supply chains are disrupted, and Americans line up at free food distribution centers, the stock market is careening higher and higher.
I have to tell you, with the stock market going up and up against the headwinds of such catastrophic economic news, to us Main Streeters, it feels like a cold, hard, wet slap in the face. It feels like the stock market is cheerleading and rising on every piece of bad news for Main Street. Like the Fed and company (all those who profit from Fed intervention) are just having the time of their lives enjoying the morass of human suffering.
And please explain how is it possible Jeff Bezos made $24 billion dollars just recently? How is that possible? How is that good for anyone, including Jeff Bezos?
The central banks have got quite the gig: a license to counterfeit money out of thin air, then the authority to sell it to the public you’re serving, which means there will always be more debt than money. Interesting.
Even more interesting, is that a bunch of un-elected intellectuals can set/target the amount of inflation deployed against the public. Inflation: a stealth tax on the public. This same bunch of Ivory Tower Land Dwellers, then decides what the price of their counterfeited product is! Well I’m here to tell ya, from where I’m sitting your product ain’t worth shit at .00000001% interest rate for Main Street.
BTW, the inflation rate is eating Main Street alive. I was a single mom in the 80’s. I remember the price of all things needed to live. I remember my wages back then. Compare life then to now, and you got adult children still living at home.
Many people are learning that only @ 20% or less of the population owns 85% of the stock market. 40% of that 85% is owned by the top 1%. So, tell me again how all of the Feds/Central banks’ Herculean efforts have helped Main Street with this soaring stock market? Correct me if I’m wrong, by helping the top 10% - magnificently BTW, see Bezos’ recent portfolio - the bottom 90% owe all this money back?
Just to be clear, I am not in favor of fiat currency. I believe fiat currency is the root of all evil. It’s a simple concept: Crooked currency, crooked polices. Honest money, honest policies.
As more and more of Main Street wakes up to the massive fraud of unlimited printed currency, the Fed and other printing crazed central banks will be recognized as a veritable enemy of the people. Not only will we be taxed to pay the principle, we’ll be taxed to pay the interest. When debt is catapulting into the Trillions of Trillions Galaxy, while Main Street implodes and loses all it’s shitty jobs… well let’s just say you got yourself a bad combination.
A favorite line from a favorite movie comes to mind (with a small edit): “The Fed’s Dead, baby, the Fed’s Dead.””
I know it’s not for everyone, but anyone who has the inclination should start complaining, regularly.
Chris, Adam, Mike, Charles, and Grant:
Awesome dialogue and exchange of ideas, thank you so much for sharing your honest thoughts on what I believe will very quickly become the challenge of a lifetime for so many of us.
One point of suggestion for your next videoconference, though (hoping and assuming you have one): I don’t know what application you were using to connect to each other and record the video, but if it’s possible, you might want to try prioritizing the audio signal over the video in the future. Although it’s certainly important and helpful to see everyone’s facial expressions and gestures as they speak, the audio dialogue is most important in terms of communicating ideas, and if the local ISP serving any of you becomes bandwidth-limited for any reason during your videoconference, it’s the video that consumes most of that bandwidth. If the application can be configured to prioritize audio whenever the available bandwidth drops, the dialogue can continue, even though the video might be temporarily frozen.
During this webinar, I was literally hanging on every word, and I found myself shouting at my TV whenever the audio dialogue would fail, but leave the video functional. 
Anyway, exceptional stuff on a very complex and important subject that the vast majority of people are yet unaware of, and it’s such a breath of fresh air to hear the meeting of the minds on subjects like this. Thank you again!
Chris, Adam, Mike, Charles, Grant,
Thanks to all of you for an exceptional meeting of the minds on this important stuff. I know the subject is extremely esoteric for the average person - but absolutely essential, and I’m really thankful that people like yourselves take the time to share your obvious knowledge on the subject. Personally speaking, I’m deeply fascinated (although extremely concerned, of course) to be watching what I believe will be regarded as one of history’s most important events, on a par with the World Wars, or Nero fiddling while Rome burned, unfolding before my very eyes.
I’m writing to make a suggestion that, if possible, the network traffic for the audio portion of any future such conference be prioritized above that for the video portion. Of course, I don’t know what application(s) you guys used for the purpose of the meeting, but if an application can be configured for this purpose, anytime the local ISP serving any of you happens to fall short of available bandwidth, the video will temporarily stutter or freeze for that person, while the audio will continue. Although it’s certainly important to see everyone’s facial expressions and gestures while they’re speaking, it’s most important to be able to continue hearing what’s being said. From a technical standpoint, audio requires much less bandwidth than does video, so it’s more likely that each of your ISP’s would be able to sustain the continuing audio (at a minimum), in order to allow the meeting of the minds to continue uninterrupted.
During your conference, because I was literally hanging on every word, I found myself shouting at my TV during those few occasions when the audio would disappear, but the video was apparently still functioning. This is how much I want to hear what you guys have to say.
Anyway, just a suggestion, I hope it proves to be helpful. All the best!
- Satoshi