Last Updated: Mar 25th, 2013 - 16:46:15 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 23 September 2011 Thought for the Day The world is certainly an exciting place. The Greeks are bust and will leave the EU unless the Germans, who seem to be the only EU inhabitants who work hard and save their pennies, spend countless more Euros bailing them out. Angela Merkel seems to be going with the flow of the would be world controllers and is voting for more austerity for the Greeks and more handouts from her workers. Enter the Pirate Party. A bunch of young people are revolting. It isn't just happening in the Middle East. The young Germans are well educated and knowledgeable, thanks to the internet, and they don't want their access to the information revolution restricted by old bureaucrats. Read about it in the next article. And, yes, we do have a New Zealand Pirate Party! There has been a lot of bad mouthing of gold by the established press and TV but the relentless printing of paper money is demonstrating the obvious. Gold has had its price suppressed since Central Banking took hold of our societies and people were misled about its true worth. I discuss this a bit lower down and indicate how much money we have lost by investing our Cullen Super Fund into the stock, bond and money markets instead of storing our wealth in gold. The calculations are rough approximations and I leave it to the people who have the details of our investment to do a more accurate assessment. The current world crises can only be understood and explained if we understand Austrian Economics as explained so clearly by Ludwig von Mises in his book "Human Action". I try and do an easy read and more modern look at economics on our web-site under the title, "REAL Economics". http://www.economicgrowth.org.nz/artman/publish/real-economics.shtml Once the penny drops the world will never look the same. But at least you will understand how it works! This will help you increase your wealth as the rest of the world loses theirs. So think about your vote this year. Can you find a politician to vote for who understands how to create wealth? There are not very many. There would be more if we asked them the question, "How would you help me and my fellow citizens create wealth?" Sep 23, 2011, 10:30 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 23 September 2011 Pirate Party Snatches Seats in Berlin State Election Just as the bureaucrats in Europe strike up a bold pose in the face of their paper money disaster a new threat to their supremacy rises in the north. The kids want freedom. Can you imagine the Pirate Party winning political seats in New Zealand. It has just happened in Germany. The Greeny religion with its crazy idea of imposing a carbon tax on the world to help pay for a world government which will control the climate is passe! Socialist do-gooderism is out. The new in is "FREEDOM". The young people are no longer willing to accept their allotted place in life. The socialist parties all thought that the young people would flock to their cause when they gave them the power of the vote, but no. The new generation have figured it out. They want freedom - especially over information on the net and they know how to get it. Have a look at this article and then have a look at "Pirate Party" on Google. [ Visit Website ] Sep 23, 2011, 10:11 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 23 September 2011 ACT 's 20 Point Plan From the 2008 Election Once again it is time to see how ACT's plan for these last three years has panned out. Obviously ACT's ability to influence National was watered down with the signing of a pact between National and the Maori Party, but still we look for progress and sometimes find it. Down at Point Seven - Education ACT are proposing more freedom of choice for parents and think it is a good idea for parents to be able to choose the school that best suits their kids. This is a voucher system as used in a number of countries including Sweden which is regarded as very government controlled and socialistic. So the idea is not radical and has been tried and is running successfully elsewhere - but not here. It is not that we need high powered tertiary institutions to improve our wealth. Far from it. What we need is a good education so that our "long tail" can read write and do arithmetic and properly understand the world they live in. Time for progress on this front! Point Eight - Healthcare I have been saying for many years now that we would be better off if doctors were able to respond directly to the needs of their patients then being directed in their jobs by a huge and unresponsive health bureaucracy. We have more than enough money in the current health budget to give everyone in New Zealand private health insurance AND run accident and emergency departments and cancer wards and all the bits of a modern health system. If everyone paid the first 10% that would stop the infinite queue forming and make each of us think a bit more about our real needs and not just our wishes and wants. In Wellington we have a wonderful new building but our specialist teams are still losing hard to replace specialist staff because of the management environment. No progress here. Point Nine - Accident Compensation There has been a huge change in this front aimed at containing costs, and our government has succeeded in this regard. However sometimes the service can be very unsatisfactory. Like my friend who fell and injured his shoulder so badly that his arm was rendered useless. The surgeon said he could repair it but ACC would not pay out because they said (without examination) that his shoulder had suffered age deterioration (he was 55) and they would not pay out. "OK", says my friend, "I will use my private insurance". His insurer however said that they could not do it as it came under the jurisdiction of ACC." This left my friend with a stuffed arm with his tendons shrinking by the day and no relief in sight - despite paying both ACC and the insurer lots of money over the years for just this problem. Catch 22! The surgeon broke the loop by doing the operation for nothing and then suing the ACC for the money. So we are making slow and awkward progress towards sensible efficiency. We could go broke well before we are anywhere near operating at the capacity we can afford. Cash money is going to get hard to find in the future - but then again we may have a final splurge into hyper-inflation before then which should help us pay off any debts we currently have. [ Visit Website ] Sep 22, 2011, 19:00 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 23 September 2011 Advisers Emphasize Calm as Global Depression Gathers "Most Western financial advisers doubtless missed much of the run-up of gold and silver, advising their clients to hold paper assets while precious metals valuations grew tenfold during the fiat-money collapse of the early 2000s." So says The Daily Bell. So I thought I would illustrate this for you by imagining that our investment advisers looking after the Cullen Fund (for our superannuation) understood what I have been talking about in REAL Economics and had invested in gold each year instead of the stock market. I don't know the details so I have adopted a "back of the envelop" approach: Assume that they had $2bn to invest each year from 2001 until 2006 inclusive. That is they have $12bn to invest during this period. I think they have around $18bn in the fund at the moment and some would say that's not bad going. (Assume all prices are US$). Now if they invested that $2bn each year in gold bars at the current price for that year they would have obtained approximately; 7.7moz in 2001, 6.1moz in 2002, 5.7moz in 2003, 5.0moz in 2004, 4.5moz in 2005 and 3.6moz in 2006. So for their $12 billion investment they would have obtained around 32.6 million ounces of gold. At $1800 per ounce this would now be worth $58.68 billion. Understanding REAL Economics would have been worth an extra $40 billion to New Zealanders! Not only this but at some point in the not too distant future the stock and bond markets around the world are going to sink dramatically and the price of gold will soar perhaps up to $10,000 per ounce. As J.P. Morgan famously said to Congress in 1913, "gold is money and nothing else." Morgan meant that gold was unmatched in its effectiveness as a store of value and medium of exchange. Read the article and have a look at REAL Economics: ( http://www.economicgrowth.org.nz/artman/publish/real-economics.shtml ) We haven't yet entirely missed the boat - but I expect we are about to. [ Visit Website ] Sep 22, 2011, 17:56 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 23 September 2011 Bullion Vaults Run Out of Space on Gold Rally Banks around the world are laying off staff and building new vaults for storing gold. Something must be going on! [ Visit Website ] Sep 22, 2011, 13:49 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 23 September 2011 Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry demo SixthSense Just in case you think that because the bankers and politicians have completely ruined our very nice and happy world for you let me just show you how technology is going to make your life much more fun in the future. And it will bring new jobs and opportunities for those that are ready to grasp what they see. Of course, we still have to pay for the new gizmos but they only become available when the price to build has come down to the extent that people can start buying them. Eventually they will become cheap and ubiquitous. Still it would be best if we were a wealthy country and then we wouldn't have to go overseas to take advantage. Have a look at the video - you will be amazed and might even forget about economics for a few moments. [ Visit Website ] Sep 22, 2011, 13:35 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 23 September 2011 Is the US Monetary System on the Verge of Collapse? We cannot hope to understand economics unless we understand money. [ Visit Website ] Sep 21, 2011, 18:02 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 23 September 2011 Siemens Shelters up to €6bn at ECB Trust in European banks is diminishing. Things keep getting worse. How are we protecting ourselves here in New Zealand? [ Visit Website ] Sep 21, 2011, 17:11 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 23 September 2011 Chavez Decrees Nationalization of Gold A number of countries are realising that gold is money and in fact it is the only REAL Money - apart from silver which is more useful for small transactions. It seems as if some leaders are realising that there will come a time when only gold will do. I wonder if Chavez will get his gold reserves back from US, UK et al? [ Visit Website ] Sep 21, 2011, 17:00 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 23 September 2011 In Anticipation I am not sure now whether I am supposed to be suffering from global warming or a changing climate. Here are a list of the headlines from years gone by leading up to the Greeny concern about global freezing in the 1970s. Some people are going to a lot of trouble to refute Al Gore's frightening predictions. How much has big Al made out of this promo again? [ Visit Website ] Sep 21, 2011, 11:36 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 23 September 2011 China to 'Liquidate' US Treasuries, Not Dollars The US and EU markets are in turmoil, the UK is struggling and now China wants to get out of US Treasuries and buy up REAL Assets. Assets currently belonging to Americans. Is the Chinese paper money any more reliable than the US paper money? It's hard to tell isn't it. Especially when some pundit on Bloomberg this morning opined that Chinese debt is now approaching 200% of GDP. Its a funny world where all countries print lots of paper money and then buy each others paper money as reserves! Begs the question, "What is it all worth?" Doesn't it. [ Visit Website ] Sep 21, 2011, 11:16 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 23 September 2011 Ireland's Trade Surplus Third Highest in EU at €21.3bn And now for the good news. [ Visit Website ] Sep 19, 2011, 16:19 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 23 September 2011 Gordon Brown Fears Euro Crisis Worse than Lehman as 1930s Beckon Gordon Brown, who sold off the Bank of England's gold for a bit more than $200 an ounce in 1998 and who drove the UK into its biggest bust since 1929, now proceeds to lecture the Asians on how they should work with him to create a "New World Order". It is a bit difficult imagine the Chinese following Gordon to the promised land! [ Visit Website ] Sep 19, 2011, 16:01 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 23 September 2011 Dutch Gold? The Dutch Socialist Party has asked the Secretary of the Treasury for the whereabouts of the Dutch Central Bank’s gold. More and more politicians around the world are starting to ask some hard questions about REAL Money. Hopefully this will lead us all back to a sound money system again and the conflagration of paper notes will be consigned to the dustbin of history. The English version of this story is below the story in Dutch at this website. Perhaps we should be asking where New Zealand's gold has gone. How much have we dug up in Central Otago again? [ Visit Website ] Sep 19, 2011, 11:14 Newsletters : 2011 Newsletters : 23 September 2011 Quote for the Week "There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution." Aldous Huxley Sep 16, 2011, 18:35