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War, What Is It Good For?
Porter's Journal Issue #120, Volume #2

How The Media Manipulates The Public Into War
This is Porter’s Daily Journal, a free e-letter from Porter & Co. that provides unfiltered insights on markets, the economy, and life to help readers become better investors. It includes weekday editions and two weekend editions… and is free to all subscribers.
An ear for an ear… Finding ways to need a war… Spanish slaves… Profitable sugar… Kuwait needed an ear… Why P&C stocks are slumping… |
Table of Contents
ditor’s note: The market is fixated on some obvious problems in the credit markets – office commercial real estate, subprime auto lending, etc. These issues aren’t new, and they will be fixed with more printing – like all credit problems in a paper economy. Meanwhile, our subscribers are also frustrated with the poor performance of our property and casualty (P&C) stocks this year, compared to everything else that’s ripping higher.
In our minds, these are “normal” problems, and, unfortunately, we know many of you will overreact and abandon a winning strategy. Stay the course. And, if you want something to worry about… then worry about things that matter. Like Jenkin’s ear.
Let me explain…
My concern isn’t a 10% correction in the S&P 500. And it’s not lower interest income in our P&C portfolio. It isn’t even a 50% correction in Bitcoin or a badly needed pull back in gold. My concern is the things our government has been doing – things that we haven’t seen since the 1930s.
A government that’s desperate to avoid a default will always do three things.
They print money. That’s been going on ever since the Global Financial Crisis bailouts doubled the national debt in 2009. It was this debt monetization that launched my first warnings (The End Of America) that our country was heading down a very dangerous path.
The next mile marker on the road to national perdition is erecting tariffs. While tariffs can easily be sold to the public, they are devastating to our economy. They always wipe our farmers. And they will cause a huge increase to consumer prices, as they disrupt global supply chains. Paying more for things like steel, clothing, wood, and cars doesn’t make us richer. Every economist understands this sophistry. Free markets create vast wealth. Governments (and their taxes, including tariffs) squander enormous wealth.
And as the impact of these policies is felt (higher inflation, less economic growth, a collapse in real per capita GDP, lower living standards) a scapegoat will be found. Just like with Jenkin’s ear.
And there will be a war. If you go back through American history, you’ll find this pattern is always the same. What led to the Spanish-American War? The financial crisis of 1893. What led to America’s involvement in World War I? The Panic of 1907, which led to the Federal Reserve (1913) and the ability to finance a global war. What led to WWII? The Great Depression and the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act.
When the elites’ financial dominance is threatened, they will find an ear. And they will cut it off.