Dan Ferris on investing in equities

You can't afford not to be invested in the relentless ascent of man.

~ Dan Ferris, "'Meme Stock Mania' with Jaime Rogozinski," Stansberry Investor Hour, 11:45 mark, October 28, 2021

Sheldon Richman on promoting libertarianism

Those of us who are trying to persuade people to embrace the nonaggression obligation – that is, classical liberalism, or libertarianism, may have an advantage though.  Most people already believe that they shouldn’t rob, hit, or kill, or otherwise aggress against others.  So those of us who are merely asking that this already widely accepted principle be applied across the board — even to people calling themselves the government — may have an easier job than we thought.

~ Sheldon Richman, "The Challenging Art of Persuasion," The Libertarian Institute, October 29, 2021

Larry Lepard on what Fed policy is doing to the middle class

They are causing the middle class to suffer.  For Jay Powell to say "the Fed doesn't cause wealth inequality" is just complete and utter bullshit.

~ Larry Lepard, interview with Daniela Cambone, Stansberry Research, 20:20 mark, September 24, 2021

John Bogle on investing and cycles

Your success in investing will depend in part on your character and guts and in part on your ability to realize, at the height of ebullience and the depth of despair alike, that this too, shall pass.

~ John Bogle

Bill Bonner on complacency about inflation

Bonner: I do think though that this period of, let's say, still calm inflation, this period where prices are going up (and some places they're going up a lot), but they're not going up as we might expect for money printing the way it's going on.  I think that that's a fake out on the part of the whole system.  It leads the Democratic Party - not just the Democrats, but Republicans, too - to think that they can raise that debt ceiling one more time and keep spending, spending, spending.  That is their plan and nobody ever questions it.  Nobody ever really questions, "How does this work?  Where does this money come from?"

Ferris: Where are all the loud voices of dissent about all of this spending?  They're gone.

Bonner: They're gone.  It's all become a political issue, not an economic issue.  Nobody doubts that you can do this from an economic standpoint, but the question is whether you can get away with it politically, which is a whole other issue.

~ Bill Bonner, "Preparing for the 'Zombie Apocalypse' with Bill Bonner," Stansberry Investor Hour, 25:35 mark, September 23, 2021

Ben Horowitz on our own uniqueness

Embrace your weirdness, your background, your instinct.  If the key's are not in there, they do not exist.

~ Ben Horowitz

(Dan Ferris' quote of the week on the Stansberry Investor Hour, 9:10 mark, September 23, 2021)

Phil Duffy on politics

In politics one can't win by being a better version of the opposition.

~ Phil Duffy

G. Edward Griffin on monetary collapse and false leaders

I'm encouraged by the fact that people are waking up, but I'm a little bit discouraged because, even so, many people are waking up to the pain.  They want to be relieved of the pain and anguish, but they don't yet - yet - understand fully what's behind it.  And I'm afraid that people in that state of non-informed awareness, but complaint - "I'm mad as hell and going to do something about it" - they don't know what to do about it.  For those people, they're sitting ducks for some demagogue to come along, the guy on the white horse, and he'll say what they want to hear him say, but he'll be no better than the guy before.  False leaders arise at moments like this.

~ G. Edward Griffin, "Brink of Totalitarianism; Get Out of the Banks, Own Physical Warns Jekyll Author," Stansberry Research interview, October 21, 2021

Roger McNamee on Facebook furthering authoritarianism

At some point we have to decide "Where do we want to live?" because the Facebook papers, among other things, have shown that Facebook in fact has - because of the design of its products - really furthered things like authoritarianism...  When you put 3 billion people on one network with no walls and then construct a business model that's designed to amplify the most extreme emotions of society, you're going to bring a lot of dangerous ideas from the fringes into the mainstream: white supremacy, anti-vax and the like.  And we're now seeing the cost of that.  And the question for investors is "Is it time to move on to something else?" because this company has shown that it is not going to take the public interest seriously.  And I think candidly that's a problem throughout Big Tech.

~ Roger McNamee, CNBC interview, 1:55 mark, October 25, 2021

Alexis de Tocqueville on democracy

Our contemporaries are constantly excited by two conflicting passions; they want to be led, and they wish to remain free: as they cannot destroy either the one or the other of these contrary propensities, they strive to satisfy them both at once. They devise a sole, tutelary, and all powerful form of government, but elected by the people. They combine the principle of centralization and that of popular sovereignty; this gives them a respite: they console themselves for being in tutelage by the reflection that they have chosen their own guardians. Every man allows himself to be put in leading-strings, because he sees that it is not a person or a class of persons but the people at large, who hold the end of his chain. 

~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835)

Joseph Ladapo on vaccine efficacy

As we now know, these vaccines are not preventing transmission.  Sure, they reduce the likelihood of transmission -- and even that is sort of questionable depending on how far out you go -- but they're not preventing it.  I've heard some leaders say things like, 'We'll create safe workplaces by mandating these vaccines.'  Well, they're really decoupled.  Because the infection can still happen whether people are vaccinated or not.  I mean, that's very obvious. 

You remember, these people were also telling you that all these breakthrough infections were rare.  Well, they're obviously not rare. In fact, they're common. 

So this idea that the vaccine mandates are needed to create safe workplaces is a complete lie.  It's continued to be repeated.  And you should know that it's not at all backed up by science.  In fact, the science says something that's completely the opposite. 

Part of the reason that some people are not comfortable with these vaccines is because of the climate of scientific dishonesty about the science -- whether it's natural immunity, denial of that in the face of data, or in the case of the vaccines, open, honest discussions about both effectiveness and safety.  There's been dishonesty around that. 

The reality of how safe these vaccines are is absolutely not public.  Healthy people who have had adverse reactions after the vaccine, there's been a concerted effort to prevent these types of stories, these experiences, from receiving the attention that they obviously should receive.  It's completely ridiculous.

~ Dr. Joseph Ladapo, Florida Surgeon General, October 25, 2021

(Quote was stitched together by Tom Woods from remarks to the media.)

Martin Kulldorf on vaccines and vaccine mandates

Well, first of all, vaccines is one of the greatest inventions of mankind. I would put it together with the wheel and the plow and the writing as one of the top 10 most important inventions which has saved millions and millions of lives throughout the ages. And if you are old and you haven’t had COVID, then I would urge you immediately to go and get vaccinated, it’s very, very important. COVID is a serious disease for older people, it is much higher risk than an annual influenza for example, so I think that’s an important message to send to anybody who is old and haven’t had this disease should go and get vaccinated from one of the three approved vaccines in the US or another vaccine in other countries. 

A huge problem with mandate is that we have many people who have already had COVID. They have immunity. We have known for over a year that if you’ve had COVID, you have strong lasting immunity to this disease and we now know more recently that the immunity from having had COVID is stronger and more durable than the immunity get from vaccines. So if you’ve had COVID but now people, even though they’re had COVID, they are mandated to get the vaccines, that makes zero sense from a scientific point of view, and it makes zero sense from a public health point of view. 

But it’s worse than that, it actually creates problems because when people see that they are forced to take a vaccine that they don’t need because they already are immune then that causes a lot of distrust in public health. And we have seen during this last year and a half that all the hard work we’ve done over many decades to build trust in vaccines are now disappearing because we’ve making these mandates that makes no sense from a scientific or public health perspective and I’ll go into that more in detail as we move along today.

~ Dr. Martin Kulldorf, "Lockdowns, Mandates, and Natural Immunity: Kulldorff vs. Offit," Brownstone Institute, October 6, 2021

Randall Forsyth on investing and risk taking

It has been observed that there are bold pilots, and there are old pilots, but there aren't any old, bold pilots.  The same may be said for investors.

~ Randall W. Forsyth, "Up & Down Wall Street," Barron's, October 23, 2021

OSHA relaxes reporting requirements to downplay side effects from COVID-19 vaccinations

OSHA does not want to give any suggestion of discouraging workers from receiving COVID-19 vaccination or to disincentivize employers’ vaccination efforts.  As a result, OSHA will not enforce 29 CFR part 1904’s recording requirements to require any employers to record worker side effects from COVID-19 vaccination at least through May 2022.

~ OSHA, "Protecting Workers: Guidance on Mitigating and Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 in the Workplace," #9, third paragraph, OSHA.gov, August 13, 2021

Robert Redfield on mask wearing

Facemasks are the most important powerful public health tool we have.  And I will continue to appeal for all Americans, all individuals in our country, to embrace these face coverings.  I've said it, if we did it for 6, 8, 10, 12 weeks, we'd bring this pandemic under control...  We have clear scientific evidence they work and they are our best defense.  I might even go so far to say this facemask is more guaranteed to protect me against Covid than when I take a Covid vaccine, because the immunogenicity may be 70% and if I don't get an immune response, the vaccine's not going to protect me.  This facemask will. 

~ Robert Redfield, CDC Director, appearing before U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, 2:10 mark, September 16, 2020

(Immunogenicity is the ability of a vaccine to build an immune response to the virus.)

Marcus Aurelius on happiness

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.

~ Marcus Aurelius

Vasko Kohlmayer on why the left pushes transgenderism

The well-being of so-called transgender people is not... what Joe Biden and his handlers really care about.  After all, Joe Biden had never been known to be particularly friendly toward LGBT.  It is the movement’s proclivity toward reality negation that those who pull the strings of this frail man find so appealing.  They have appropriated the transgender cause because it allows them to gaslight the American people, and gaslighting has become the left’s modus operandi.

~ Vasko Kohlmayer, "The Great Struggle of Our Time: The Battle for Reality," American Thinker, October 17, 2021

June 9, 2014

Thurgood Marshall on liberty and crises

History teaches that grave threats to liberty often come in times of urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure.

~ Thurgood Marshall

Kevin Duffy on Texas Governor Greg Abbott's executive order to stop private vaccine mandates

Governor Abbott is interfering in a business owner's ability to run his company as he sees fit.  If the owner wants all employees to tattoo their left butt cheek with the company's logo, he ought to have that right.

~ Kevin Duffy, tweet, October 20, 2021

Bronwyn Williams on the role of economists

People have an assumption that economists try to impose economics onto society rather than using economic tools as a way to hold a mirror up to society. 

~ Bronwyn Williams, "Manufactured Inequality | Bronwyn Williams & Russell Lamberti," YouTube, 1:45 mark, July 15, 2021

Eric Hoffer: "Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many"

It has often been said that power corrupts.  But it is perhaps equally important to realize that weakness, too, corrupts.  Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.  Hatred, malice, rudeness, intolerance, and suspicion are the faults of weakness.  The resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but from their sense of inadequacy and impotence.  We cannot win the weak by sharing our wealth with them.  They feel our generosity as oppression. 

~ Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms, Section 42, 1955

Eric Hoffer on hatred

Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. 

~ Eric Hoffer, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements (1951)

Bruce Berkowitz on Sath Klarman

If he isn't Elvis, he's pretty close.

~ Bruce Berkowitz, founder of Fairholme Capital Management and Morningstar's domestic stock manager of the decade, "The Financial Life: Seth Klarman," Bloomberg Businessweek, June 21, 2010

The Washington Post uses Colin Powell's death to push vaccination

The lesson we should learn... is that the vaccines work best when they work broadly and that, had Powell been protected both by the vaccine and by low rates of infection in his community, he might still be alive. 

~ Philip Bump, "Colin Powell's dealth is a Reminder that vaccination is about every person, not just one person," The Washington Post, October 18, 2021

(Colin Powell died of Covid-19 earlier in the day at the age of 84.  He was fully vaccinated.)

Kevin Duffy on the national defense case for free trade

Life is about tradeoffs.  Yes, we can protect this or that industry, but there is a cost: lower living standards.  With that comes fewer resources for things like defense. 

Second, where does it end?  Once you start protecting one industry under the national defense excuse, they'll all scream for protection. 

Third, and perhaps most important, the interdependence gained through trade is our best defense!  As  Bastiat pointed out nearly two centuries ago, countries that trade with each other have an economic deterrent to fight each other (war is an extremely costly endeavor). 

Fourth, protectionism invites a bigger role for government (which it gladly accepts).  That means less individual freedom and more dependence on government. 

Fifth, the United States has the most defendable position on earth.  We are surrounded by two oceans and two friendly neighbors, account for 40% of global military expenditures, and have an arsenal of nuclear weapons that can wipe out mankind many times over. We also have one of the highest gun ownership rates in the world, a second line of defense. 

Imho, neutrality (which the founders advised) and free trade would make us far more prosperous AND secure.

~ Kevin Duffy, Facebook post, October 18, 2021

Eric Hoffer on propaganda and deceit

Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves. 

~ Eric Hoffer, "The Passionate State of Mind," 1996

Michael Savage on Hillary Clinton's propaganda techniques

I listened to Hillary [Clinton], and I heard the double talk.  She's so good at it, and I'm not making this up, that the Communist Chinese have sent their cadres to study her speeches.  They say she's the finest propagandist they've ever heard. 

~  Michael Savage

Noam Chomsky on propaganda

Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.

~ Noam Chomsky

Aldous Huxley on dehumanization

The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human. 

~ Aldous Huxley

Lee Cheng on racial preferences in college

Stossel: You Asians, we white people, we're doing well in America.  We don't need extra help, but some other groups do, and there's a history of nasty discrimination against them.  Isn't it Harvard's job to try to make up for some of that?

Cheng: The right path out of the history of discrimination against individuals based on race is not more discrimination.  I have three kids, and I'll be damned if I'm going to not fight very, very hard to make sure they don't get treated like second-class citizens in the land in which they were born.

~ Lee Cheng, Asian American Legal Foundation, "End Racial Preferences at Colleges?," John Stossel interview, 3:40 mark, October 15, 2021

Time Magazine on Milton Friedman's inflationary advice in the late 1960s

Milton Friedman's opinions have particular weight now because the Nixon Administration has placed great reliance on the policies that he prescribes to deal with the current inflation...  Ironically, Friedman's principal complaint is that the Federal Reserve is overdoing the restraints in its effort to cure inflation.  "If the board continues to keep the growth of money at zero for another two months, I find it hard to see how we can avoid a severe recession," he says.  "The board has made the same mistake that it has made all along. It is going too far in the right direction."

~ Time, December 19, 1969

Zou Lan on Evergrande spillover: "controllable"

The risk exposure of individual financial institutions to Evergrande is not big and the spillover effect for the financial sector is controllable...  This short-term extreme reaction is a normal market phenomenon.

~ Zou Lan, head of financial markets at the People's Bank of China (PBOC), "China central bank official says spillover effect of Evergrande's debt woes is controllable," Reuters, October 15, 2021

Tom Woods: "Is society itself not in some way self-ordering?"

I'm suggesting that libertarians have a fresh new way to look at the world because we actually ask, "Do we need institution X, do we need institution Y, and if we do need these things, do they have to be provided the way they're tradionally provided?"  Could we not learn to interact with each other on a purely voluntary basis?  Is society itself not in some way self-ordering?  Incidentally, that's why I've taken a great interest in economics.  And I feel like just the field of economics, when you understand it right, shows you something important about how society is self-ordering.  It shows you something about how social cooperation occurs spontaneously.  That's not what we're taught.  The model of society that we learn in school is that somebody with a bullhorn has to be barking out orders and then everybody obeys.  I think they're may be a more attractive way for arranging society.

~ Tom Woods, "Tom Woods: The Making of an Anti-War Libertarian," Reason TV, 2:40 mark, October 10, 2018

Kevin Duffy on the left-right political spectrum

The left and right are ideological twins separated at birth.

~ Kevin Duffy

Tom Woods and Michael Malice on gun control

Woods: People look at gun violence and say, "guns have no redeeming qualities."  But the fact is, when it comes to fighting oppression, they are the great equalizer.

Malice: It's what allowed a petite, black woman [Harriet Tubman] to be able to stand up to the Confederacy and to the police of her time who were trying to catch slaves.  The 2nd amendment wasn't put in place so that people could have fun on the range.  The 2nd amendment was put in place as insurance, specifically in case the government got out of control.

~ Tom Woods and Michael Malice, "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Real American Heroes," YouTube, 13:15 mark, June 14, 2021

Robert Tew on adversity

The struggle you're in today is developing the strength you need for tomorrow.

~ Robert Tew

Robert Tew on positive attitude

Positive results will come when you start to replace your negative thoughts and habits with positive ones. 

~ Robert Tew

Robert Tew on complaining

Complaining is a complete waste of one's energy.  Those who complain the most accomplish the least.

~ Robert Tew

Robert Tew on negativity

Don't let negative and toxic people rent space in your head.  Raise the rent and kick them out!

~ Robert Tew

Gustave Le Bon on the transformation of men by crowds

By the mere fact that he forms part of an organised crowd, a man descends several rungs in the ladder of civilisation.  Isolated, he may be a cultivated individual; in a crowd, he is a barbarian — that is, a creature acting by instinct.

~ Gustave Le Bon

Gustave Le Bon on crowds and civilization

The ascendancy of crowds indicates the death throes of a civilisation.  The upward climb to civilisation is an intellectual process driven by individuals; the descent is a herd in stampede.  Crowds are only useful for destruction.

~ Gustave Le Bon

Gustave Le Bon on crowd behavior and images

A crowd thinks in images, and the image itself calls up a series of other images, having no logical connection with the first...  A crowd scarcely distinguishes between the subjective and the objective.  It accepts as real the images invoked in its mind, though they most often have only a very distant relation with the observed facts...  Crowds being only capable of thinking in images are only to be impressed by images. 

~ Gustave Le Bon

Gustave Le Bon on how the crowd clamors for illusions

The masses have never thirsted after truth.  Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.

~ Gustave Le Bon, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, p. 137

Scott Gottlieb on vaccine mandates

I don't think governors should be stepping in to block private businesses from imposing mandates if a business thinks it's the only way they could protect their workers or their customers.  It should be their perogative to do that.  Just like I don't think the federal government should be stepping in to tell small businesses and private businesses that they have to mandate vaccination.  If we could leave this to be local decision making by businesses and by local authorities, I think that that would be optimal.

~ Scott Gottlieb, CNBC interview with Becky Quick, 1:15 mark, October 12, 2021

Michael Crichton on consensus science

I want to pause here and talk about this notion of consensus, and the rise of what has been called consensus science.  I regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks.  Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled.  Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you're being had. 

Let's be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus.  Consensus is the business of politics.  Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant.  What is relevant is reproducible results.  The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus. 

There is no such thing as consensus science.  If it's consensus, it isn't science.  If it's science, it isn't consensus.  Period.

~ Michael Crichton

Rand Paul on vaccine mandates

You want more people to choose vaccination?  So do I.  You want to lesson vaccine hesistancies?  So do I.  You want to have that happen?  Quit lying to people about naturally acquired immunity.  Quit lording it over people, acting as if these people are deplorable and unwashed.  Try persuasion instead of government cudgels.  Try humility instead of arrogance.  Try freedom instead of coercion.  Most of all, try understanding that there's no more basic medical right than deciding what we inject into our bodies.

~ Senator Rand Paul, "'Do You Have A Science Degree?': Rand Paul Mocks Becerra's Qualifications To His Face," YouTube, 2:10 mark, October 1, 2021

Jim Cramer dismisses concerns about stagflation

While we wait for the world to go back to normal, don’t let the stagflationistas scare you away from the stock market.  We don’t really have a stagnant economy, and to the extent it’s slowing, I’m betting that will be pretty temporary.  As for inflation, it’s real, but we just need to buckle up and stop trading off every little tick of oil or every dime of ketchup.

~ Jim Cramer, "Jim Cramer says stagflation worries are overblown and investors shouldn’t panic," CNBC.com, October 11, 2021

Doug Casey: "There are basically two types of people in the world"

There are basically two types of people in the world—people that like to manipulate the physical universe and create things and people who like to manipulate other people and control them.  The people who go into government, whether they’re Democrats or Republicans, are the latter.  They’re dangerous. 

The problem is that the average citizen in every country around the world has come to think that the government is the most important entity in society.  It’s not; it’s a coercive fiction, a parasite that produces nothing.  The wrong kinds of people are being given even more control.

~ Doug Casey, "Doug Casey Reveals 3 Ways You Can Opt-Out of the Rising Insanity," Doug Casey's International Man, October 4, 2021

Doug Casey on public schools

Schools do not teach critical thinking—if indeed they ever did—at least since Plato’s Academy and Aristotle’s Lyceum.  Critical thinking is the habit of questioning all assertions and examining everything that we think we know in the light of knowledge, logic, the scientific method, and your own research.  That doesn’t exist anymore in schools.  In fact, the government and the establishment don’t want schools to turn out critical thinkers and free thinkers.  To the contrary, they want obedient, indoctrinated serfs who will do as they’re told and act as cogs in the wheel.

~ Doug Casey, "Doug Casey Reveals 3 Ways You Can Opt-Out of the Rising Insanity," Doug Casey's International Man, October 4, 2021

Doug Casey on the old America

America used to be totally unique, but now the US is just another nation-state like all the others.  Of course, change is a constant in all areas of life.  But I’ll miss the America of the before times because it was a refuge for things like free thought, free speech, free markets, and entrepreneurialism.  Oh well, nothing lasts forever, and America had a pretty good run.

~ Doug Casey, "Doug Casey on the Rise of Phyles and Like-Minded Communities… and Why You Need to Find One Right Now," Doug Casey's International Man, October 7, 2021

Time Magazine Cover
March 14, 2011

Frank Zappa on television

I'm vile and perverted.  I'm obsessed and deranged.  

I've existed for years but very little has changed.  

I'm the tool of the government and industry too.  

For I'm destined to rule and regulate you.  

You may think I'm pernicious, but you can't look away.  

I'll make you think I'm delicious with the stuff that I say.  

I'm the best you can get... have you guessed me yet?  

I'm the slime oozing out of your TV set. 

~ Frank Zappa