A Wealth.net Exclusive:

In the early 2000’s Mark M. Rostenko seemingly had it all: nearly 20 years trading experience in the rough-n-tumble world of Chicago commodities exchange, and a rapidly growing financial advisory newsletter called The Sovereign Strategist. He was making extremely prescient calls about various overall markets and then zeroing in on individual trades with laser-like precision. …

Used to be a time when debt was something you actually planned to pay off. People used to have “mortgage burning” parties, after that final payment was cashed by the bank and the homeowner truly became one, it wasn’t uncommon to have all their friends over, serve food and drinks and then ceremoniously burn the mortgage.…

There are two ways to acquire wealth. One can produce it or one can take it from those who have produced it. The first method has often been called the economic method. The second method has many names. It has been called stealing, or usurpation, or expropriation, or “eminent domain”. Whatever, the description, there is one constant.…

The post’s headline is a riff on the oft-cited response of Mohandas Gandi when asked his thoughts on Western Civilization. The implication being, of course, that the scenario asked about had yet to be attempted. As I watch the conclusion of part 3 of the BBC Documentary “The Love of Money” the narrator enumerates the fundamental axioms of thought which were slain in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis:

(excerpt from The Privateer Issue #662)

It has been well said by several competent economic historians that there are only two kinds of paper money – those which are already worthless and those which are going to be worthless. There has never been an exception to this rule. At some point in the history of all PURELY paper currencies, prices expressed in them become irrelevant simply because they are no longer used as a medium of exchange.…