There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved. Ludwig von Mises - Economist There may be no means to avoid the collapse but there are actions you can take to protect yourself and your business ..read more

With New Zealand already in recession what comes next? Is there any need to worry about the NZ Reserve Bank printing $1 billion of new money a week or that the government plans to increase its debt from 19% in 2019 to 54% of GDP by 2024? Peter Bernholz has studied 29 hyperinflations.  They have remarkably similar characteristics: 28 have taken place in the last 120 years (the other was the Assignats launched during the French Revolution.) All took place outside of a gold-standard, that is with fiat money like the NZ dollar All are associated with huge budget deficits.  He says ..read more

Egon von Greyerz from Matterhorn Asset Management AG enables people to preserve their wealth by storing gold in Swiss underground vaults.  In this interview he explains the surge in new deposits this year and why gold is not just for the rich.  Fiat currencies have already lost 98% of their value since 1971.  It is now a race to the bottom of the last 2%. The more “helicopter money” printed the faster the end comes – inflation followed by hyperinflation. The USD will lead the way but all fiat currencies are in the same race. The outcome is inevitable – there is nothing the ce ..read more

The over-riding sense I have from reading When Money Dies – The Nightmare of the Weimar Collapse is how similar the time was to our own: money printing that cannot be stopped and official blindness that money printing is the cause of the problem.  The main difference is that this time the monetary inflation is global with the Reserve Bank joining in by printing $1 billion of new money a day.   In Germany the result was the utter destruction of the economy, society and morality as the money became worthless.    Another key take-away for me was the "miraculous" ability for ..read more

In this article I suggest hyperinflation is the only likely outcome of the current economic situation over which central banks have no control. I think it is a fallacy to believe central banks are in control of financial markets, or that there can be any outcome to the current situation other than hyperinflation.  If we set aside for a moment the psychological need to believe someone is in control lets us take a look what is in fact some very simple logic.  If the logic stands up it relieves the need to analyse much of the current information overload and helps us make better curre ..read more

Adrian Orr, Govenor Reserve Bank Did you know the Reserve Bank is printing about $1b a week? Newsroom Managing Editor Bernard Hickey has put together a thoughtful piece about the huge rise in government debt funded by Reserve Bank money printing.  I highlighted this earlier and agree with Hickey it should be a key election issue. Why is it not? Hickey points out that once people begin to understand what the government and Reserve Bank are doing it could further undermine the credibility of the NZ dollar.  The Reserve Bank’s money printing is: like having your a son or daughter l ..read more

Finally some good news about covid-19.  John Mauldin has put together an exhaustive resource of evidence based research on the virus.  The virus is dying out naturally….lockdown is of no value and only delays herd immunity…children have practically no risk and do not spread the virus…wearing masks serves no useful purpose…. Clearly the majority of governments have got their response badly wrong.  The good news is that with this definitive reference source, if you choose, you can easily distinguish reality from fiction ..read more

RedPill Money is not politically correct because no amount of saying the “right thing” is going to recreate a vibrant NZ society and economy.  I still consider truth a virtue but it is only found as we re-learn how to think for ourselves and base decisions on evidence. For example I wrote to the Prime Minister and Chief Medical Officer on 27th March, 31st March, 6th April and 14th April urging them to take an evidence based approach to the coronavirus.   No reply.  The result has been the devastation of the economy, huge increase in government spending, and no end to lock ..read more

The unprecedented expansion of money supply by the New Zealand Reserve Bank with all its social, economic and political consequences is only possible with certain kinds of money.  This makes choosing the kind of money we use an important consideration.  I outline 5 kinds of money based on their stability, degree of central control and how open they are to abuse. Continue reading here ..read more

Money determines most of our lives but the one question no one asks is who gives money its value?  The government?  No, otherwise money could not lose its value during hyperinflation as we have seen in Zimbabwe.  Actually people like you and me give value to money.  As soon as we realise that it is we, not government or banks that give value to currency then the idea of going for a loan to the bank where they can charge you interest on money they create starts to look slightly ridiculous.  When we start to understand we are the source of monetary value how does thi ..read more