Treat Symptoms or Causes?

Miles Franklin sponsored this article by Gary Christenson. The opinions are his.

You have a headache. Treat with Advil. Well… maybe. The headache is the symptom. The cause might be tight neck muscles, brain tumor or something else. Advil relieves pain and diminishes inflammation, but it won’t fix a brain tumor and will do little to loosen neck muscles. Advil might address symptoms but not treat the cause of the headache.

Different causes require different treatments. Treating symptoms can create secondary problems, side-effects and unintended consequences. This is true in both medicine and economics.

Consumer price inflation is a symptom. A gallon of gasoline cost $0.30 fifty years ago and $3.00 today and may cost $30.00 – $100.00 in fifty years. The cause is devalued dollars, which buy much less than they did one, three, five and ten decades ago, not greedy oil companies. Candy bars, beer, cigarettes, bread, potatoes, Wall Street bonuses, political payoffs and medical expenses also cost more in devalued dollars.

To fight banker cartel created consumer price inflation the U.S. can appeal to people with simple-minded slogans such as the “Whip Inflation Now” campaign from 1974. (Totally ineffective…)

Or the U.S. can (someday) address the real causes – fractional reserve banking, government deficit spending, and central bank manipulation of the currency supply. M2, a measure of currency supply, has increased more rapidly than economic growth for decades. Consumer price inflation resulted. Read Silver-Depressing and Exciting.

CAUSE:  The banking cartel and politicians created too many devalued dollars.

RESULT: Higher prices! Ongoing since 1913 with no end in sight!

PROBLEM:  Bankers increase revenue and profits with fractional reserve banking. The excess profits also purchase politicians who increase their power and influence, garner votes and spend the taxes they collected plus extra borrowed dollars. Corporations boost profits, stock prices rise and “happy days are here again.” This “gravy train” is running on borrowed money and borrowed time, but few want a return to honest money instead of fiat dollars created and controlled by the banking cartel.

PROBLEM:  Money supply and debt increase exponentially, doubling about every ten years. Official national debt doubles every eight to nine years. Debt (Total Debt Securities per the St. Louis Fed.) in the U.S. is $45 trillion in 2018. If it doubles in ten years, as usual, the economy will absorb another $45 trillion by 2028. Where will it go and how much will that $45 trillion increase prices?

• The military-industrial-security complex will swear they need upgraded weapons.

• Big Pharma will shout about more drug research and larger profits.

• Under-funded pension plans will beg for bailouts.

• Government will expand.

• Socialists will demand free tuition, free health care, student loan forgiveness, Universal Basic Income, more disability benefits, minimum wage increases and more.

CAUSE:  Too much “funny money” is created by the banking cartel and governmental fiscal irresponsibility.

SYMPTOMS:  Much higher prices are coming and the stagflationary 1970s will repeat. Expect market crashes, corrections and social unrest. Excess debt and “out-of-control” spending distorts the economy.

PROBLEM:  No politician wants to address the causes. Politicians will blame others for the symptoms. Expect crashes, dollars devalued further, and higher consumer prices.

PROBLEM:  The next decade will be difficult for those not included in the political and financial elite.

SOLUTIONS: Pay down debt, recycle dollars from over-valued stock markets into silver and gold, and protect your assets and savings.

QUESTIONS:

When do Amazon stock prices resemble the second section of the NASDAQ graph, or will Amazon stock rise forever?

Is the S&P 500 Index overvalued compared to sales? From the Leuthold Group.

Are stock markets overvalued compared to gold? Yes! Gold prices are too low compared to the DOW.

CAUSE:  Stock markets rise because bankers feed an excess of “funny money” into those markets.

SYMPTOMS:  Bubbles and crashes. Examine the NASDAQ 100 Index from year 2000 above.

PROBLEM:  Bubbles always crash but often take longer and move higher than anyone thinks possible.

PROBLEM:  Are you prepared for a stock market crash that may occur soon or perhaps as late as next year?

PROBLEM:  Do you own enough silver and gold that you sleep well at night? Consider the policies of the Federal Reserve, congress, “out-of-control” spending, pension underfunding, trade wars, currency wars and shooting wars in our contentious political climate.

CONCLUSIONS:

Politicians spend

Bankers will lend

Debt doubles in size

Silver and gold rise.

Miles Franklin will convert “funny money” dollars rescued from over-valued stock markets and convert them into real money—silver and gold.

It made little sense to buy silver or gold in 1980 or 2011. It was wise to buy silver and gold in 2001 and 2018. Early is better than late or never.

Gary Christenson