| By Bill Bonner The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. – Baltimore’s own, H.L. Mencken SAN MARTIN, ARGENTINA – Google “Coronavirus is a wake-up call…” and you get more than 200 million suggestions. It’s a wake-up call for climate change. It’s a wake-up call for global governance. A wake-up call for virologists. A wake-up call for the Post Office… Most of the writers are waking up to the need for more government. The logic is simple enough. Government is meant to protect us, they claim. Then, the extrapolation… more government = more protection. “Good government is the difference between living and dying,” says a Bloomberg “wake-up” piece. People are afraid. They see devils hiding behind every dumpster… bogeymen threaten them over breakfast. Of course, they want someone to protect them. Naturally, they turn to the people with guns. The gist of the following 500 words is this: They should go back to sleep. First, a quick look at the markets. Pistols and Ropes Yesterday, the stock market fell. By the close of the day, the Dow was down more than 300 points. What will happen tomorrow? We don’t know. Last week, analysts concluded that the “bear market was over.” According to some, stocks were “back in bull territory.” But real bear markets do not end with investors looking for opportunities to buy in. The bottom doesn’t come when people are waiting for it. It comes when investors are looking for loaded pistols and ropes. Why a series of small stocks could soar 10x or more during this next phase. Our guess is that the first slash of this bear market happened so fast, investors have not had time to feel the pain. They are still in bubble mode; they still think that the feds won’t let them down… especially not now, since they have just woken up. Reuters: A steep economic downturn and massive coronavirus rescue spending will nearly quadruple the fiscal 2020 U.S. budget deficit to a record $3.8 trillion, a staggering 18.7% of U.S. economic output, a Washington-based watchdog group said on Monday. Releasing new budget estimates based on spending mandated by law, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) also projected that the fiscal 2021 deficit would reach $2.1 trillion in 2021, and average $1.3 trillion through 2025 as the economy recovers from damage caused by coronavirus-related shutdowns. And here’s the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget itself: We project debt held by the public will exceed the size of the economy by the end of Fiscal Year 2020 and eclipse the prior record set after World War II by 2023. | Recommended Link | The War Against Capitalism Why are Treasury bonds suddenly going down… when they should be going up? Why is cash suddenly becoming so scarce... when the Fed is supplying hundreds of billions of dollars every week? Stocks are down 30%. Is it the bottom… or is there more damage to come? Our team of experts has been ready for this downturn for decades, and Bill Bonner is answering these questions in his urgent briefing that you can read right here. There may even be a potential to profit, if you're prepared… Don't wait, as this story is unfolding right before our eyes. | | | - | Rendezvous With Destiny The government is providing more fake money “stimulus” than ever before. It’s bailing out hedge funds and mom-and-pop groceries. Billions for big business. Beaucoup for little businesses, too. All this moolah must go somewhere. But not necessarily where… and how… investors expect. Now that the focus of stimulus has moved to the fiscal channel (federal deficits rather than just lower interest rates) consumer prices are likely to increase, too. 5G's Secret Engine Revealed in 2020. So nominal stock price increases could be another trap… disguising a real fall-off in value. That is what happened in the 1970s. We could soon reach Dow 50,000, in other words. But we could soon reach a $25 cup of coffee, too. That’s why we keep an eye on the Dow-to-Gold ratio. It shows us how much the Dow is worth as priced in real money – gold. The ratio hit a peak over 40 in 1999. Since then, it has come down. It’s now at 14. But it still has a long way to go before it reaches its historic “rendezvous with destiny” below 5. That’s where the real bottom will come. Meanwhile… Fatal Flaw When we left you yesterday, the protagonist – the U.S. government – had just begun to reveal its fatal flaw. “Hamartia” is what the Greeks called it. It’s what turns a hero’s good intentions into tragic results. You’ll recall that the American Empire – indeed, the whole world – has been struck by plague. The feds stepped up to the challenge. But their instincts are always corrupted by self-interest… and self-delusion. They think they know more than they really do. And they can’t help themselves; they want to boss and bully… and increase their own power. So they weren’t going to let a perfectly good crisis go to waste. Instead of facing up to COVID-19 with grace and courage, burying the dead, and embracing the living… …instead of backing off and letting normal civilized society return to its work… …the feds made it worse in two ways… | Recommended Link | | A Sneak Peek Inside Apple’s 5G iPhone? 5G will really kick off on September 22. That’s when Apple is expected to release their first 5G iPhone. Details are scarce. But this video gives you a sneak peek at what’s inside. And there’s one piece that’s critical to these phones. Silicon Valley’s top angel investor, Jeff Brown, thinks one company behind this piece could be… | | | -- | War Path First, they may have made the plague worse by going to “war” with it. A better idea might have been to urge people over 60 – and others who might plausibly die from it – to lay low, while letting the rest of the population go on with their lives. “Flattening the curve” may help the health authorities cope… but it slows the rate at which the herd acquires immunity. Not to mention flattening the livelihoods of millions of people. Without immunity (enough people who don’t pass along the disease) the virus remains a threat to old people. A visit from a grandchild could be fatal. In short, over the long run, the virus may kill more people, not fewer, thanks to the government’s lockdown efforts. But we put that forward only as a hypothesis… We don’t claim to know for sure. As to the second way in which the feds made the situation worse, we are absolutely sure. They preyed upon the public’s fears… …took control of the economy and put it on a war footing… …suspended the normal give-and-take of a civilized society – wherein people have to earn money, not just get it from the feds… …and they’re paying for it all with printing-press money. There is no way this is going to end well. About which… more to come… Regards, Bill P.S. The next few years should be a rollicking, frolicking, helluva time for investors. Very few people have any idea of what is going on. And fewer still share our own view. We wrote a letter and put together a series of reports to help you through this crisis. We hope we’re wrong. But we fear we’re not. You should decide for yourself. Like what you’re reading? Send your thoughts to feedback@rogueeconomics.com. 
| Note From the Publisher You’ll notice a kind of “cosmetic” change in your Diary subscription. Don’t worry. You’ll still get absolutely everything you get right now. But going forward, Bonner & Partners will be called “Rogue Economics.” Longtime readers will recognize the idea of rogue economics… Bill launched the Diary of a Rogue Economist in 2013, to just a few thousand subscribers, when he formed his own boutique publishing business. Over the last seven years, his daily diaries (which became Bill Bonner’s Diary in 2015) have reached millions of readers. And his small, niche business has grown into one of the largest and most successful publishers in the industry. As part of that growth, we’ve introduced new voices… Diary readers regularly hear from tech expert Jeff Brown, world-traveler Tom Dyson, famed speculator and “anarcho-capitalist” Doug Casey, crypto guru Teeka Tiwari, longtime trader Jeff Clark, commodity analyst Dave Forest, and many others… In other words, we’ve been sharing more than just Bill’s ideas. And it’s time for our name to reflect that. Otherwise, nothing will change. You’ll still find Bill – his stories, insights, and wisdom – where you always have. It’ll just have a slightly different look. And you can expect more unique ideas from other big thinkers in our pages. Best regards, Amber Lee Mason
Publisher P.S. As always, let us know what you think – good or bad. You can now write us at: feedback@rogueeconomics.com. | | - | FEATURED READS Pandemic Derails Americans’ Retirement Plans
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, almost half of those retiring didn’t have enough money saved for retirement. Now, in the wake of a devastated economy, retirement is being halted – or significantly delayed – for many Americans... The Federal Reserve Is Monetizing America’s Debt. Why?
World traveler Tom Dyson is holed up in South Florida with his family, waiting out the COVID-19 pandemic. But he’s still digging deep into the economy to teach you what’s really going on… MAILBAG After Monday’s Diary, “Siri, Where’s My Corona Bailout Check?”, one Dear Reader thinks Bill’s opinions would change if someone he loved contracted COVID-19... Bill, if one of your family members got this terrible virus or one of your best friends, you would think completely different, I hope. If you watch one of your loved ones slowly die, maybe you would wake up and think differently. – William D. And in the midst of a countrywide lockdown, others look through the COVID-19 fog and reach their own conclusions… I have mixed feelings about your position on COVID-19, which seems to be that the government should get out of the way and allow individuals and businesses to find their own way through this pandemic. It seems to me that, unless the statistics are really fudged, it is hard to escape that there are a lot of people dying from this virus, and that most of them are 60 or over. My wife and I are well within that group. It has been shown that a lot of younger people, and even many older ones, were not taking any precautions before they became mandated, and indeed, many are not even doing so now. We are trying to follow the rules for – what should be – obvious reasons. After all, we're talking about a high risk of dying here. How can you be so certain that if businesses were not shut down and populations not sequestered that fatalities would not be even higher than they already are? What would happen if businesses were permitted to remain open at their discretion, and employees were required to work or be fired? – Charles H. I had already done my own “figuring,” looking up previous and current death statistics, and came to the same conclusion: that the economic toll will be worse than the virus fatalities! Even if this ends tomorrow, it will take months/years to recover. Maybe the only “good” thing is that marginal businesses are wiped out, leaving room for more productive and innovative enterprises to take over. I am retired and live from my rental properties. Now, the government has told tenants they do not need to pay rent for three months. For now, but they are supposed to still “owe” the money, which the landlord needs to make an effort to try to collect. Really? Do you think that tenants who already live paycheck to paycheck, and are now having economic troubles, are going to actually PAY any back rent? – Gus G. Might a personal experience with COVID-19 change Bill’s perspective, as William believes? Are mandates required to keep people healthy, as Charles suggests? Write us at feedback@rogueeconomics.com. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT… Now Playing: State of 5G Summit With Silicon Valley Insider Jeff Brown (Expires at midnight) In this one-of-a-kind event, Jeff will reveal: Why the virus has shined a spotlight on 5G in Washington and is helping push the 5G rollout into a whole new growth phase Why a series of small stocks could soar 10x or more during this next phase And he'll even discuss his top 3 5G stocks Details here. 
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