Life in Post-Election America

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The Daily Reckoning | Saturday, November 10, 2012 A look back at life before the election... Readers weigh-in on debt, taxes and the lesser of two evils... Plus, all this week’s reckonings archived for your politically exhausted perusal... --------------------------------------------------------------- External Advertisement How They Made Their Money Back — 68,000 times This man was mocked and ridiculed for starting a $5 million project that was deemed “risky” and “speculative” by his competitors. Now, the company he founded is just several weeks away from flipping the switch on a project independently valued at $300 BILLION. Here’s how early investors can play the situation of unbelievable returns... Joel Bowman, checking in today from Buenos Aires... Joel Bowman Long before Tuesday’s “historic” election (aren’t they all “historic”?), in an ancient time before time itself (Monday), we published a video interview between Agora’s founder, Bill Bonner, and Capital Account’s witty anchor, Lauren Lyster. Now, we know...we know that since that historic election, everything has changed. Our lives are all different — nay, indistinguishable — from those we lived before Tuesday’s passing. The world now follows a new path around the sun, in which days are longer, gravity is lighter and debts need not ever be paid. History itself has been divided in two, between BE and AE, before and after Election. But, for ol’ time’s sake, we’re reprising Monday’s interview, in which Bill and Lauren banter about a few quaint, even silly old notions of prudence, hard work and honesty. Of course, none of that matters now, not now that Obama was elected and promptly set about delivering us from evil forever and ever amen. Still, it’s kind of fun to hear how the sages of yore though things were. Take a listen... The Daily Reckoning Presents Mounting Debt in an Unproductive Society Don’t Smoke It... Swallow it! Major athletes, doctors and scientists are swearing by its miraculous healing power... Mounting clinical evidence suggests it could help keep debilitating pain and disease away... And right now, some fearless investors are seeking their fortune in it... What is it? And how could it add 20 years to your life? Click here now to find out. ALSO THIS WEEK in The Daily Reckoning... Land of the (Less) Free By Robert Bauman James Madison of Virginia, the fourth US President, one the Founding Fathers and the leading proponent of the Bill of Rights, may have anticipated better than anyone the processes that destroy liberty when he said: I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. Full Steam Ahead By Joel Bowman Don’t look now, Fellow Reckoner. It’s the market’s turn to vote! Stocks fell this morning. Hard. Last we checked, the Dow was down by more than 300 points. Gold dipped too, shaving $20 off the previous session’s $45 per ounce gain. And energy prices were down across the board, with a barrel of oil trading just a touch above $85. Buy Trees...Sell Timber By Chris Mayer At the recent Grant’s Fall Investment Conference, I heard Bob Saul deliver a presentation on investing in US timberland. Saul is a director at the very accomplished investment firm, Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo, and is a longtime investor in timberland. He knows his way around trees as well as anyone... Down the Debt Drain By Dan Steinhart The US has too much debt. This is no longer a controversial statement. Some may believe other problems are more urgent, or that we need to grow our way out rather than slash spending. But even the most spendthrift pundits acknowledge that the debt-to-GDP ratio of the US must decrease if we are to have a stable, prosperous economy. No one thought this could ever happen in America... Argentina did it in 2008. France and Ireland did it in 2010. And Portugal did it just last year. All told, more than $88 BILLION worth of personal retirement funds were confiscated to pay off government debts. But that can’t happen in America, right? Guess what — it already has. And if Congress has its way, it could happen again... See what they’re planning in this alarming new video. The Weekly Endnote... And now, it’s over to a few readers for some flotsam and jetsam... First up, Reckoner George writes in response to a recent musing of Mr. Bonner’s... I thank you for your article, “The Downside of Debt,” and would like to add one observation to your discussion of rising prices. If I buy a house during the current real estate bust period at $100,000 and the housing market brings it back to its original sale price of $150,000 and I sell it, the government charges me capital gains tax on the price even though I have to spend the same amount to get a comparable home in a different (but equivalent) location. DR: Too-unfortunately-true! Next up, Reckoner Avril writes in response to Mr. Bauman’s “Land of the (Less) Free” article... Your statements make voting for Romney a much wiser choice of the two than Obama so why do you say they are both bad. I feel Romney would be the better of the two and you have to choose one. I believe Polls should be banned as, I believe, they are in Europe and Britain. Polls can be powerful and can sway the weaker voter to choose what CNN endorses because they are too lazy or too busy to research. DR: Two things can be bad and one worse than the other...not that we would ever encourage our Fellow Reckoners to vote in any political election. We’d like to believe they have better things to do...like voting in the marketplace, that voluntary realm where your votes (dollars) really count. Leave the poll booth politicking to the world improvers. And finally, in response to this piece, Reckoner J.J. quips... Before he became Prime Minister, Gladstone asked Michael Faraday why he should be interested in electricity. Faraday replied “One day you will tax it.” DR: That might just be crazy enough to be true. --- Got something you’d like to say? Feel free to email any thoughts you have on the matter 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 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. 2012 Agora Financial, LLC. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. 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