Stuck in No-man's Land

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The Daily Reckoning | Saturday, October 29, 2011 ------------------------------------------------------- Bill Bonner’s forgotten reckoning...recovered from no-man’s land, Did you catch Part II of Eric’s Farewell Euro Tour? Plus, Project Xers weigh in with their hopes and fears for the future of America... ------------------------------------------------------- A Chairman of a tiny oil exploration company just pumped $1.3 million of his own money into his company’s stock. Why? He believes that his company, priced under 85 cents per share, could be way UNDERVALUED...given the company’s MAMMOTH $50 billion Turkish oil discovery... This huge oil find could be a tremendous opportunity for early-in wealth-builders... who could potentially become their own self-made millionaires with just a small starting stake in this explosive penny stock. Click here to get all the details on this oil-tycoon Chairman and his booming company in Chris Mayer’s newest report. Uncovering a “Lost” Reckoning Joel Bowman From Buenos Aires, Argentina... “Where on earth is Bill Bonner?” we wondered in Tuesday’s issue of your Daily Reckoning. Our Reckoner-in-Chief had gone MIA, last seen somewhere in Cyprus, where he had gone to root around the final resting place of Solon. “Whether or not the great Greek lawgiver died in Cyprus or not is a matter of some dispute,” Bill had written in the previous day’s issue. “But Herodotus says his body was ‘consumed in Cyprian fire.’ So this is the place he must have gone back to ash.” So...where was Bill? And why had we not heard from our relentlessly punctual lead columnist? Well, it turns out he had some difficulty posting the day’s issue to us... Why? All is revealed in the column below, which we have since recovered. Please enjoy... The Daily Reckoning Presents Stuck in No-man’s Land Bill Bonner The first thing to surprise the visitor to Cyprus is that it takes a long time to get there. Living in Europe we get used to the idea that everything is close at hand. From Paris, we can be in Madrid, Frankfurt, Edinburgh, Salzburg, Heidelburg or any one of dozens of other burgs in only a couple hours. But if you want to go to Cyprus it will take you 4 hours on a direct flight. Because, and this is the second thing that surprises the visitor, Cyprus is further to the east than you think. It is south of Turkey...and due south of the Ukraine...and only an earthquake or two from the coast of the Levant. Later, as you drive around, you notice that the people and their buildings have an orientalist look about them. The churches, the people, and the culture derive more from Constantinople than from Rome. The third surprise is that the country is not the quaint, forgotten, sun-bleached pearl you thought it would be. True, the sun has taken the color out of it. The hills are white. Dry. Benuded. But you see them as you are driving down a modern, 4-lane highway at 80mph. Then, you arrive in cities with holiday flats overlooking the sea...large yachts in the harbor...and enough Russian, English and Austrian tourists to fill the waterfront drinking spots. There is a lot of money in Cyprus. It is a tax haven, used extensively by the Russians. But the tourist industry seems to have drifted down market. Especially that part of it that speaks English. Both the English and the Russians are loud. But at least the Russians are fully clothed, or not interested in antiquity. In the Temple of Aphrodite, near the spot where the goddess is said to have risen from the sea, a fat Englishman went around naked above his swimming trunks. Not that we care how people dress; we were offended on Aphrodite’s behalf. Wherever you look in Cyprus, you are looking at something old...or something new, built on top of something old. We visited a spot where archeologists have unearthed, and recreated, a settlement 10,000 years old. People lived in round houses, then, with flat roofs, clustered on the side of a steep hill, surrounded by a wall. “Why did they live in such an awkward place,” we asked the custodian. “It’s a good defensive position.” This seemed like the sort of answer you give when you have no clue. As a defensive position, the village looked weak and vulnerable to us. It may have been hard to get to it from below...but coming down from higher up the hill looked like a cinch. “Defense against whom?” So far, there are no other ruins dating from this period. As near as can be determined, these people lived in a kind of splendid isolation, cut off from the rest of humanity by the Mediterranean. Very few people lived on the island. Only about 300 in this settlement... And there are no signs of any violence. No charred remains...no skulls bashed in... People seemed to have died of natural causes, at an average age of about 35. But if pre-history was calm and quiet, history roared. The island is a gem of the Eastern Mediteranean. Every empire wanted it...and every one took it. The Egyptians...Phoenicians...Peoples of the Sea (believed to be Philistine)...Persians...Assyrians...Greeks...Romans...Arabs...Turks... English. The island still has a large English military base, a vestige of British Empire, slowly decaying in the warm sun. We assume it is merely a question of time before the Americans invade. We came to Cyprus, because we are aficionados of imperial calamities. Cyprus has played a role in dozens of them. The most recent invasion happened in 1974, when the Turks took advantage of a coup d’etat in Greece to make their move. Today, the island is still divided. Which almost caused your editor a considerable inconvenience. The city of Nicosia is divided between Turks and Greek Cypriots, with a no-man’s-land in between. Wandering around the city, we found it fairly easy to wander from the Greek section into the buffer zone. There was no passport control, leaving. We got into the buffer zone...and approached the Turkish side. “No, we don’t have our passports with us,” we told the guards. “Then, you can’t cross the border.” It was then that the thought occurred to us: if the Greek Cypriots impose the same rule, how will we get back to the other side? Will we be stuck in no-man’s-land...like a man without a passport doomed to live in a refugee camp? Approaching the Greek side, we noticed the guards. They were armed and not particularly friendly looking. We needed a strategy. “Elizabeth, you flirt with them...create a diversion. Pretend to have a heart attack or something. I’ll make a run for it across the border.” “Then, what will I do?” “You’ll figure out something. But I can’t stay here. There’s no Internet. I won’t be able to write The Daily Reckoning.” “You’re right, dear. I’ll sacrifice myself so that The Daily Reckoning can live. That would be very noble.” Regards, Bill Bonner, for The Daily Reckoning Can Ronald Reagan Save You from Obama? I know it’s hard out there in the markets. Obama and Bernanke have made a mess of the economy, crushing jobs and retirements from coast to coast. But did you know about this maverick law that Ronald Reagan signed on October 22, 1986? It could be the VERY THING that prevents your retirement from taking any more hits from Obama Team. Watch the urgent presentation on the power of the “10-86” law right now. ALSO THIS WEEK in The Daily Reckoning... The Farewell Euro Tour, Part II by Eric J. Fry Zermatt, Switzerland A couple weeks back, a film crew from the Daily Reckoning flew to Europe to record a “Farewell Euro Tour.” We conducted man/woman-on-the-street interviews with ordinary Europeans to get their take on the euro crisis...and what it may portend for the future of the euro zone. We conducted the first part of the tour in Amsterdam and filed that report in the October 20, 2011 edition of the Daily Reckoning. Today, we present part II: The Farewell Euro Tour — Switzerland. We think it’s even better than our critically acclaimed Part I. Please check it out for yourself by viewing the latest installment here. Occupy Gold By Byron King Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Lately, commodities and natural resource stocks have been through a pretty rough patch. But I’d be wary of NOT being exposed to a market that’s been beaten down so hard. In other words, don’t panic out of your positions. Whatever daily disaster leads the news cycle, the fact is that people everywhere still want their world to work. People want food and clean water. People want housing, and they want the lights to come on when they flick a switch. They want gasoline for their cars (and they want cars!). Basically, people want stuff, and that requires a resource economy to deliver the energy and minerals that the world needs. Invest in it. Pea Shooters, Elephants and Government “Solutions” By Eric Fry Laguna Beach, California “Do something” is fast-becoming the recurring whine of most financial market commentary. In fact, “Do something” is fast-becoming the recurring whine of almost all socio-economic expression in the Western World. From the rioters in Greece, to the Occupiers on Wall Street, to the long-term unemployed of America’s big cities, to the underwater homeowners of America’s small towns to the heavily indebted college grads nationwide; the desperate citizens of the Western World are turning to their governments and shouting, “Do something!” An Electrifying Profit Opportunity By Patrick Cox Marco Island, Florida Biotechnology, nanotechnology and semiconductors are all areas investors watch closely for the next great new tech. However, transformational technology investment opportunities aren’t always found in what are commonly regarded as “breakthrough technology” fields. Sometimes, breakthrough technologies quietly emerge in mature, well-established industries. One particular transformational technology company, for example, can more than double the economic efficiency of electrical motors and generators. Truisms of a Financial Crisis By Bill Bonner Paris, France So much information and so many ideas come to us daily in the financial press. We’re able to fill up our trash basket in just minutes. In The Financial Times, for example, Larry Summers recently offered a solution to America’s housing debt problem. And in The Herald Tribune our favorite comedian, Thomas L. Friedman, tells us about the next Internet revolution and what a wonderful world it will create. Why the warning behind this image could... Forever change the way you think about the stock market... Open your eyes to what you can and can’t expect from the United States government... And even change the ease at which you’re able to buy and sell things... Click the image play button to first learn the warning...and some simple ways to prepare for the uncertain times ahead. The Weekly Endnote... As you’ve no doubt noticed, we’ve devoted a good amount of column inches this week to slowly unveiling Addison’s “Project X.” What it is...we can’t say just yet. BUT... Already more than 15,000 of your Fellow Reckoners have jumped aboard to take part in what Addison calls “a revolutionary new way to view the world...and how to both create and preserve wealth in it.” After accepting Addison’s invitation to participate in “Project X,” readers were given the opportunity to voice a few of their concerns regarding the future. Specifically, they were asked: “What are your biggest concerns about America and your retirement?” Careful to protect the privacy of those who wrote in, we published a few anonymous responses during the week. Here, in the Weekend Mailbag section, we offer a few more... First up, this one from our first Project Xer... “Because America is made up of people, my largest concern is that vast amounts of people will not know how to deal with imposed frustrations of degraded lifestyles, lack of income and liquidity...all at once. This is a dynamic no one knows for sure how to factor into coming scenarios. I am concerned about events and the scale of events that can be caused by masses not having a working plan and doing the unpredictable in response to whatever crises drives them over the edge. The concern then, is that, that response by the masses upsets the plans that are in place and renders them barely do-able.” And this, echoing similar concerns...and then some... “[My] Biggest concern is that we’ve actually dumbed down America to the point we may never recover an honest way of life and along the way destroyed the value of all our years of hard work. Way too much ‘candy’ produced out there to people who have never been taught to think beyond where the next meal is coming from. The second major issue is the role we’ve taken on as protector of the universe, so to speak, without even so much as a small amount of assistance from the countries affected for our efforts. To top that all off, our State Dept. lady is running around the middle east and elsewhere telling their peoples that the “US says they have to comply with what we say.” She’s not even speaking for the UN from whom a REQUEST should come. I do not recall having nominated her for that post. She’s embarrassing, rude and completely off balance with traditional American values: letting others decide their own fates. All these th ings tend to require more borrowing which in turn decimates the US economy/dollar and puts a hole in my retirement funds. Granted part of them are from Social Security into which I paid for nearly 50 years! ’Nuff said.” And another Project Xer had this to say... “Thanks to governments and central banks taking us down the path of over spending, over regulation, crony-capitalism and social welfare systems, we are at a point where it is impossible to pay for everything committed. Nor is there any way to get back to a free market, capitalistic system without a huge implosion of the current systems, not to mention riots in the streets when the massive amounts of entitlements are defaulted on. While governments and the banks continue to kick the can down the road, investing has become a crap shoot based on the news du jour, making it impossible to have an effective long-term strategy for wealth growth, or even protection.” --- If these concerns in any way mirror your own...if you’ve mulled over these or similar issues...we encourage you to join Addison’s Project X. Clearly, you’re not alone. What’s more, we’re not only listening to your hopes and fears...but developing a unique tool you can use to address them, to meet them, head on. We’re holding invitations open until next week. After that time, the doors will close and only participants will be privy to the unveiling of Project X...and all that it contains. We hope you can join us. Get on board here. As always, we welcome your thoughts. Email them to the address below and... ..enjoy your weekend. Cheers, Joel Bowman Managing Editor The Daily Reckoning ------------------------------------------------------- Here at The Daily Reckoning, we value your questions and comments. If you would like to send us a few thoughts of your own, please address them to your managing editor at joel@dailyreckoning.com Misguided by Higher Education Markets Rally. Details to Follow... Truisms of a Financial Crisis Euro Rally Fizzles Out Will the Focus Now Shift to the US Debt Problem? Euro Continues to Be Well-Bid Ahead of Summit The Daily Reckoning: Now in its 11th year, The Daily Reckoning is the flagship e-letter of Baltimore-based financial research firm and publishing group Agora Financial, a subsidiary of Agora Inc. The Daily Reckoning provides over half a million subscribers with literary economic perspective, global market analysis, and contrarian investment ideas. Published daily in six countries and three languages, each issue delivers a feature-length article by a senior member of our team and a guest essay from one of many leading thinkers and nationally acclaimed columnists. Cast of Characters: Bill Bonner Founder Addison Wiggin Publisher Eric Fry Editorial Director Joel Bowman Managing Editor The Mogambo Guru Editor Rocky Vega Editor Additional articles and commentary from The Daily Reckoning on: Twitter Facebook DR iPhone APP To end your Daily Reckoning e-mail subscription and associated external offers sent from Daily Reckoning, cancel your free subscription. If you are you having trouble receiving your Daily Reckoning subscription, you can ensure its arrival in your mailbox by whitelisting the Daily Reckoning. © 2010-2011 Agora Financial, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Protected by copyright laws of the United States and international treaties. 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