| By Van Bryan, Managing Editor, Bill Bonner’s Diary Bill was the happy wanderer this week, as he crisscrossed the globe. The point of travel, our editor says, is to learn and discover. This week, Bill learned plenty. A few lessons: how to get elected in Argentina… what the “originarios” have planned for the ranch… and why you should never tussle with an angry bull.
And don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of this email. Dan Denning, Bill’s coauthor on The Bill Bonner Letter, fills dear readers in on a startling revelation: Dan and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez finally agree on something!
 | Prepare for the Financial Volcanic Eruption
On Presidents Day, Bill hands the reins over to his right-hand man, Dan Denning. Writing only a few miles from an active volcano, Dan has his eye on a volcano of a different sort. And the ground is starting to tremble… | |
 | We’re Losing Our Originario “War”
On Tuesday, an update from the ranch. Bill’s two priorities in Gualfin: check in on the crops and quell an originario rebellion. The crops are doing well. The originarios? Not so much… | |
 | How Mob Rule Comes to America
In Ancient Rome, the people were given “bread and circuses” to keep them occupied… and passive. Today’s American empire has a similarly unruly populus… and a potentially ancient solution. | |
 | America: 52nd in Freedom
“Land of the free.” That’s what they say. But how free is America? Where do we rank in freedom? According to one study: 52nd. | |
 | Bill vs. the Bull
On the ranch, it’s a good old-fashioned cattle drive. Bill and the gauchos head out to round up the cattle. The cowboys are nearly at the pen. But that’s when the bull turned… | |
 | The Best Way to Hunt for Gold
Bill has long preached the value of gold. It’s the “one thing” you need in a market like this, our editor has said. But what’s the best way to buy gold? Or get the most bang for your buck? On Saturday, Casey Research’s E.B.Tucker reveals a gold-buying technique that 99% of investors never learn… | | Regards, Van Bryan
Managing Editor, Bill Bonner’s Diary P.S. Now we hand it over to Dan to fill you in on a few important stories you might have missed this week: Gold is on a tear… record-setting debt… and the one thing Bill and AOC may agree on. But first, don’t forget to go right here. Our friend E.B. Tucker, over at Casey Research, is hosting an urgent online event on Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET. E.B. and legendary speculator Doug Casey will reveal their No.1 money-making technique for 2019. It’s not weed stocks… cryptos… or options. Doug’s used this strategy to make millions in the past. The secret revealed on Wednesday. Save your spot, while there’s still time, right here.
The Richest River in the World | By Dan Denning, Coauthor, The Bill Bonner Letter - Gold up in all major currencies in 2019…
- Consumer debt hits $4 trillion…
- Common ground with AOC…
- Is the FBI turning America into “a nation of suspects”?…
- Google isn’t just watching, it’s listening too…
- Auckland, Nelson, and New Plymouth…
QUEENSTOWN, NEW ZEALAND – Greetings from the banks of the richest river in the world. At least it used to be. Gold was discovered in the Shotover River in 1862. The river flows out of Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown. I arrived here Wednesday night. Earlier today, I rode a mountain bike back into the city from Arrowtown over the Shotover. Arrowtown is a small gold-rush town that’s managed to stay charming and busy as a tourist town in the summer and a ski town in the winter. Sadly, I was told by my local guide that the town necessarily gets cold in the winter and especially dark, being in the shadow of the dramatic mountains around the area. Arrowtown is probably not a bolthole. And there’s not much about Queenstown I can tell you that you don’t already know or can’t easily find out. Doug Casey came here years ago (and has put me in touch with some other locals, who will give me the lay of the land on New Zealand politics). In the meantime, I’ve come here to find some peace and quiet by the lake, where I can write next month’s issue. It comes out on Wednesday. Until then, here are some of the stories we’re following that have changed since I last wrote you. | Recommended Link | | This Wednesday, Casey Research Is Revealing a One-Of-A-Kind Security That: Has nothing to do with stocks, options, cryptos, or bonds Has been known to deliver rare and exceptional gains as high as 2,131%, 2,463% and up – in as little as 8 months Can work whether the market goes up, down, or sideways Can be traded on your smartphone in a matter of minutes Plus, we’re also giving a “sneak peek” at three top picks to buy now. | | | | Gold Up in All Major Currencies in 2019 Despite falling short of $1,350/ounce, the gold price is moving. And not just in U.S. dollars. Gold is up in every major currency in the world this year, as the chart below from goldprice.org shows. 
Gold keeps coming up with the readers I’m meeting all over New Zealand. “But gold doesn’t yield anything. And it costs you money to store it,” a man pointed out at a Rotary meeting I spoke at in Nelson. Fair points. “You buy gold for disaster insurance,” I told him. And at the rate we’re going with government debt, it’s not going to yield much either. When you add in renewed discussions by the IMF (International Monetary Fund) to “delete” your bank savings with negative interest rates, owning physical gold makes more sense than ever. By the way, Doug Casey and E.B. Tucker will be showing you how to buy gold bullion and how gold stocks give you “leverage” to a rising gold price (something many of us at Legacy think will eventually happen, we just don’t know when) later next week in the Diary. Chris Lowe has been on the story all week in The Daily Cut (our in-depth daily research note that’s made available to all Legacy Research paid-up subscribers). If you haven’t signed up yet, what are you waiting for? It’s right here. | Recommended Link | Democrats have the power and America is Doomed With the Democrats taking charge, for the third time in U.S. history our government is preparing to “nationalize” America’s currency. Before long, everywhere you go, they’ll be talking about how we must reset America’s currency… to keep things fair… to build a stronger country… to “wipe the slate clean.” But think about it: Where will all this new money come from? | | | | Consumer Debt Hits $4 Trillion Good news everyone! Americans are spending like there’s no tomorrow. And at this rate, there may not be… at least for some borrowers. Total U.S. consumer debt went over $4 trillion for the first time in American history, according to data published by the Federal Reserve this week. There were increases in auto loan debt (mostly refinancing), student debt, and credit card debt. 
Total credit card debt went over $1 trillion for the first time. The average U.S. household has a balance of $4,293 on its credit cards, according to credit card data provider Experian. But we can afford it! Non-mortgage debt service payments average around 10% of household disposable income.. Just before the Financial Crisis, it was 13%. One of the bedrock facts of Bubble Empire Finance is that wages decline in real terms of the middle class. They use credit to make up the difference. This dynamic has been hard at work for the last 40 years, as America’s manufacturing base declined and China joined the world economy. The average interest rate on American credit cards is 17.41%. My worry: The hollowing out of the middle class has been going on for years, driven by the Fed and Wall Street, turning the American economy into a casino run for the benefit of financial asset holders. The next debt crisis is far more likely to come from either the corporate bond market or the government bond market. It always does. Common Ground with AOC Finally! I’ve found something to agree on with New York’s freshman socialist Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She sits on the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by Maryland’s Elijah Cummings. That committee has promised to investigate the use, abuse, and implications of widespread facial recognition technology. Ocasio-Cortez hasn’t said anything about facial recognition that I’m aware of. But it would be great if she and other progressive members of Congress could get on board and sight the Digital Bill of Rights that Bill and I unveiled at the Legacy Investment Summit in Bermuda last year. A ban (or at least a moratorium) on the use of facial recognition is a key part of the bill. Why? You can’t be free if you’re being watched all the time. And all this data taken from watching you in public is being banked. It’s the most thorough invasion of privacy you could ever imagine, short of the government being able to read and monitor your thoughts. If America is to ever truly call itself a free country again, facial recognition by the cops and surveillance cams has to be strictly limited. (It would be my preference to outlaw it altogether, a concept firmly in tune with the tradition of negative rights that strictly limit what the government cannot do in relation to you and your property.) By the way, we haven’t figured out how to make a page where you can “sign” the Digital Bill of Rights by adding your email address. And to be fair, not everyone might want to have their name on a list like that. It could get you in trouble, if not now, then, at some point in the future. (Are you now or have you ever been a signer of the Bonner-Denning Digital Bill of Rights?) But we don’t’ mind doing a bit of antagonizing. We’re working on it and will let you know when it’s ready for your John Hancock. In the meantime, if you haven’t seen it yet, you can read it here. Send us an email and tell us what you think. Better yet, send it to all your friends. And THEN send it to all your enemies (although, hopefully, you don’t have many of those). Is the FBI Turning America Into “a Nation of Suspects”? A new federal law coming into effect this year requires U.S. states to connect their Rapid DNA machines with the FBI’s central database of fingerprints, creating the prospect of a national DNA database, in which every American is a potential criminal. (Remember what Zamyatin wrote back in the 1920s, foreshadowing today: “The only means of ridding man of crime is ridding him of freedom.”) Rapid DNA machines allow local and state police to quickly take DNA samples from suspects. Note I said suspects, not convicted criminals. The new law requires all DNA samples to be sent to the FBI’s CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) system. That’s the problem. “People need to stand up and take notice before it is too late because we are heading toward an Orwellian totalitarian state,” says John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute. Anyone concerned with protecting what’s left of our civil liberties would have to be terrified at the FBI building a database on law-abiding Americans. Given what we’ve been finding out about the FBI lately – likely infiltrating and spying on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016, and then seriously advancing the notion that members of the president’s Cabinet should invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to have him removed from office – it’s amazing Americans have averted a coup by the Deep State. Or have we? Google Isn’t Just Watching, it’s Listening Too And in more creepy news from Big Tech, there’s Google. It admitted this week that it’s known for 18 months that its networked home security system, Nest, has a microphone in it… and it didn’t tell anyone! A microphone, last we heard, is a kind of listening device. Nest is part of the trend toward the “smart home,” where your refrigerator orders milk for you and your blender conducts an affair with your washing machine, while the oven is busy courting the microwave. The microphones in Nest were discovered when Google’s Assistant (a seemingly benign AI concierge) asked owners if they’d like the microphone turned on. Google’s PR people said the microphone was never meant to be a secret. And now that it’s not, there are likely to be some people who are happy to have a listening device installed in their homes (like Amazon’s Alexa, or your “smart TV,” or your phone for that matter. The more things like this I see, the more I hope you’ve read the “Going Dark” report put together by our Legacy team last year (Subscribers to The Bill Bonner Letter can read it here). You may not be prepared to drop off the grid entirely. But there are some simple things you can (and should) be doing to protect what’s left of your vanishing privacy. Auckland, Nelson, and New Plymouth That’s it for my quick scan of the world. Now I’ll get back to writing up my report on recent visits with readers in Auckland, Nelson, and New Plymouth. I particularly liked New Plymouth and will share why with readers of the Letter next week. The South Island has a reputation for being more naturally stunning. And I can’t say that’s wrong. Below are a few pictures from my first few days here in Queenstown. It’s a world-class adventure/tourism city. The quality of life is high. But so is the cost of living. Still, “a man can live very richly in New Zealand,” one of my readers told me at lunch in Auckland before I headed south. It was a great lunch on a sunny day by the harbor, with a few glasses of wine to facilitate the conversation (in which gold played a big role). Dan explores the New Zealand countryside Dan crosses a footbridge in the New Zealand countryside No matter where you are in the world, most people who are at or near retirement age (at least in Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of South America) face the same dilemma: Do I play along with this ridiculous racket and keep my money in stocks and government bonds? Or do I pull the pin before the mobs rise up and start seizing assets and hanging people from lampposts? I’ve taken up that question in next month’s Letter. And I’ve enlisted the help of an old friend to find out how investors can plan for the worst but still deliver good investment returns without heading for the hills. But be ready to head for the hills too, just in case. Until next week, Dan Denning
Coauthor, The Bill Bonner Letter | 
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