Slow Noose Day

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sat, 06 Nov 2004 13:00:00 GMT
My copy of Michael C. Rupert's Crossing the Rubicon arrived yesterday. I think it will take me a while to get through it.

# Charley Reese at LewRockwell.com - A Storm Is Coming - time to get out of debt and accumulate wealth in hard assets. Guns and lots of ammo for example, though Mr. Reese doesn't say that. If the Busheviks continue to make enemies of the rest of the world, the dollar will become so much worthless paper. [lew]

Years ago I read a most significant book -- "The Rich and the Super-Rich," by Ferdinand Lundberg. What he had to say is very pertinent to our present economic situation.

The first point he made is that wealth is not money. Wealth consists of assets -- land, tools, factories and skills. Money is merely a medium of exchange. The difference is important. A truly rich man owns stuff -- land, houses, factories, means of transportation. He does not depend on a salary for cash flow. Nelson Rockefeller, for example, once testified before Congress that many years he had no taxable income. He, of course, didn't need it. He owned stuff, and he owed nothing.

The easiest way to understand this difference is to imagine that you are about to be marooned on a deserted island. You are given a choice of one of three cases: one case contains $1 million in gold; another contains $1 million in Federal Reserve notes; and the third case contains tools. Which would you choose? Well, unless you are hopelessly stupid, you'd choose the tools. With the tools, you could create the wealth necessary for survival -- shelter and food. Gold and dollars are useless unless there is someone willing to exchange real wealth for them.

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