America’s big devaluation began in 1971...and is on-going. In gold terms, the dollar has lost 99.2% of its value. And it is being devalued — though not officially — everyday.
Bill, a correction. The court did not strike down tariff's. It only said that IFFPA could not be used to justify the tariff's. As I am sure you know, there are other laws passed long ago to support going after tariff's.
I am sure everyone knows there will never be any refunds to those who have already paid tariff's.
Ah yes, the Citroën DS. We had one for two years. It did indeed rise up when started, and was generally a very comfortable car. Especially in the rear seat, as it was built for the comfort of the passenger, not the driver. And don't -- at the risk of losing your mind -- try to change a rear tire. Step one: remove the rear fender. Really. Totally remove it. Step two: use the pneumatic system to raise the car, if the car will even start. Step three: schedule expensive maintenance. The maintenance requirements of the DS drove owners to distraction and poverty.
French automotive design philosophy is drastically different from its American counterpart, and an American driver needs to re-calibrate his/her understanding of what a car is and what it is expected to do or be prepared to tear his/her hair out.
After reading Joel Bowman's Substack today regarding rapidly declining birthrates everywhere but sub-Saharan Africa; and John Ellis' reporting on the U.S. economy's terrifying exposure to a Chinese takeover of Taiwan; this post was almost uplifting...at least old Paris still looks like old Paris. Add to that the devaluation of the dollar, a heaping tablespoon of Ai and the huge overhang of debt that is about to break loose and bury us. Feels like the end of the world as this boomer has known it. So I'm left to pray about everything and worry about nothing...
Yep - well said. There is nothing like pondering the swirl of the World as it heads down the drain. There are those with hopium thinking maybe, just maybe, somehow the World will right itself. Nice thoughts.......but that and $10 will get you a latte at Starbucks. To me I am caught up in watching as the World splinters. Interesting times as the West ( most of the G7) tries to regain its power (unfortunately with muscle only) and we see the East playing chess and countering with long term strategies while watching the West destroy itself. What did Sun Tzu mumble - "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake" and one other - "If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him." Ol' Bill's head has to be spinning with thoughts of his younger days and the laments of seeing what lays ahead. Maybe Bill, it is time to pop a bottle of Tapiz Torrontés, kick back, and enjoy the "crepuscule" of our Age as it passes into history.
That quip about "never interrupt your enemy . . ." was Napoleon, not Sun Tzu, but your point is well taken.
I celebrated a business win Saturday night with good friends and a very large bottle of Dom Perignon. That old adage is really true, "Living well is the best revenge."
Reading your posts always reminds me that life is too short and never pass up an opportunity to stop and smell roses.
I didn’t see the swirl coming this hard and fast until 2007-8. The bailout of the Banks and Wall Street manipulators coupled with Congress’s refusal to make hard long-term decisions was the last best chance to turn this lumbering, leaking ship away from the shoals.
It may take living too long to final see the light. Career politicians are not statesmen - they become "bought" and "paid for" servants of the elites. Fully understandable. Just human nature and - as they say - human nature never changes. All empires fall - some more gracefully than others - but fall they do. This American Hegemony is in its last dying throws and let's hope the ship sinks slowly under the waves and not with a mushroom. One further quote from ol' Ben Franklin - "Life's tragedy is that we get too old too soon and wise too late."
yes "last best chance was Ron Paul" but the entire system defaulted and got the inverted replica that they have today .. sadly that is what USA deserved
First, thank you Bill, for not spending my time with a load of vitriol on DJT. You reported on the state of America but your assessment was relatively accurate. You will get the inaccuracies listed today in the comments, so I won’t spend my time with my disagreements. Instead, I’d like to give a brief account of my experiences with Paris. I have visited it only two times, the first as a tourist many years ago [in the late ‘70’s] and again in the ‘90s on business. Both were a disappointment. The first found the Parisians extremely rude specifically to Americans, but not to the Brits and Australians we were traveling with. There was no attempt to hide their distain and there was no apologies when we called them on their rudeness. The second time was business and we were traveling with Brits again so the rudeness was more covert, but nevertheless present just under the surface. It was obvious to my business companions and they apologized for the Parisians, but crickets from the culprits. I have not returned to Paris since and have no plans to ever go back. Remarkably, I have been to several other cities in France and found the residents to be just the opposite, polite, grateful for my being there and spending my dollars, helpful when language was an issue, etc. I suspect I’d have gotten a better reception if I were recognized as an American billionaire, but c’est la vie.
I and some friends were touring Europe (by train) during the fall of 1971. We had a passenger join us on our way to Denmark who worked at the American Embassy in Paris.
He advised us to bypass Paris as Americans were not treated very well, so we didn't go there.
Next time they need help I would say "Sucks to be You"!.
Bill Bonner is self-proclaimed "relatively rich". He helps some other "relatively rich" guy plunk down "$2 million" for an "apartment" in mid-town Pahree, like I would part with $4000 (after serious deliberation over a few weeks) for a 2002 Northstar Cadillac, as I did back in Dec. 2025, for the "experience". Bill, buddy, you're in the advice-for-money business. Being RICH is a requirement. You ARE rich; celebrate it! And if not celebrate it, at least face it. There's nothing inherently wrong with it. If you're trying to BS me and your subscribers on your own "relative" situation, how seriously are we supposed to take your advices? Best always. PM
Is it? The currency unit en France is the Euro, which currently trades about 15% higher than the Dollar. So, I gave Mr. Bonner a discount! Best always. PM
How refreshing to NOT hear the normal carping about Trump. One of the few commentaries I've actually bothered to read completely! Hooray!! ( :-) [Yeah - not so good at smiley faces. Not much practice lately.]
If you ever want to see a special side of Paris, go during the summer solstice.
My wife and a couple of dear friends and I happened to be there at the same time as the Paris Air Show. We had no idea when we booked the trip. Once we found out, we couldn’t resist. It is the world’s premier aeronautics event. Yes, much of it is military and heavy on drone technology, but seeing the newest fighters carving up the sky in full aerobatic displays is unforgettable.
And yet, that wasn’t the highlight.
We had rented an Airbnb in Montmartre, near Sacré-Cœur, the same dramatic backdrop from John Wick 4. After a long day of wandering the city, we walked to a small restaurant around the corner for a late dinner. It was one of those perfect Paris meals where everything just works.
Then we noticed the place across the street rolling out massive speakers onto the sidewalk.
We assumed it was a private event.
By the time dessert arrived, the music started. EDM. Loud enough that conversation at our own table became a shouting match. More speakers appeared. Young people gathered. Dancing began.
When we stepped outside, the real surprise hit us.
The entire street had transformed.
What had been a typical tourist-filled Montmartre evening was now a full-blown open-air celebration. Half the restaurants had turned themselves into mini outdoor clubs, each with its own DJ, each with its own crowd spilling into the street. Everywhere you looked there were people moving to the music.
And it went on for hours.
Two, maybe three in the morning. Music. Dancing. A citywide exhale as the longest day tipped into night. A celebration of light, of summer, of simply being alive on a turning planet beneath the sun.
Well Bill, I guess you thought Trump really was able to fix this country in no time flat. After one short year, with no help from Democrats you are disappointed that he wasn’t able to turn around 4 years of chaos. Glad you gave him plenty of time to do it.
We never had the good old days as adults. What I read is how boomers inherited a grand place while younger generations inherited heaps of debt and little opportunity. I don’t know what opportunities my children will have. Debt slavery it seems like. But hey, as long as social security checks go out to boomers, and Medicare pay, party on.
The court struck out the use of IFFPA. The 40 page advice of the 3 disagreeing judges pointed to 4 other laws that Trump could use instead. Which is what he did 90 minutes after the release of the decision.
Repaying the collected tariffs could take years of legal cases so the govt gets to keep the money until then.
President Trump with a real serious face is telling everybody that the Golden Age is still coming. You ever notice when a Golden Age is real, nobody has to announce it? Rome didn’t have Caesar out there going, “Folks, trust me, the aqueduct numbers are tremendous.” But Trump’s up there like a substitute teacher explaining why the class hamster is dead, “no no no… the hamster’s resting, historically resting.” Meanwhile inflation’s chewing through groceries like termites through a church pew, and they keep saying it’s only three percent. Three percent where? A farmer’s market? No, not even that. More like a surgical theater where they remove your wallet under bright lights and call it preventive care. I bought lettuce the other day, had to sign closing documents. There was a notary, two witnesses, and a priest just standing nearby in case the transaction went terminal. The cashier slid the receipt across the counter real slow, like a toe tag.
The jobs report was beautiful though, healthcare and social assistance. So the fastest growing part of the economy is people trying to keep other people from dying. That’s not an economy, that’s hospice with Wi-Fi. Manufacturing ain’t growing, coal ain’t growing, fewer fellas working… and the officials say morale is strong. Of course morale is strong. You ever seen a guy with nothing left? Calm as hell. That’s enlightenment. Buddha reached nirvana under a tree, modern buyers reach it under a foreclosure notice. Same principle, detachment from earthly possessions, especially the ones the bank already took.
Then you got Paris, their big shining city. Used to be artists, philosophers, rebellion. Now it’s million-dollar apartments and tourists asking waiters who Sartre is. Whole place smells like lilies. Romantic, sure… if you ignore the fact lilies are funeral flowers. City feels like a very expensive open-casket viewing for culture. You walk around and think, is this alive or just preserved? But people love it. They say prosperity is right around the corner, and I believe ‘em, because when you’re trapped in a burning maze, every wall eventually becomes a corner.
Yes BILLY BOY we were all there in one way or another as post WW2 Europe was still recovering from trauma like we'll be doing again hopefully .. your legions of naysayers or outright killers of of any opinion except their own are on the warpath and have never experienced our world of the 50's, 60's 70's but that world is gone totally and only some of the stage resembles the past but the characters on the stage are hardly human .. learning to live in today's world it the very hardest task of old age .. in every category of music art literature film entertainment etc nothing seems to achieve or compare to our memories of days gone by .. almost time to let the younger guys take over the stage and enjoy our sweet sour painful joyful memories of days gone by .. see ya up there in the sky of memories, of a life gone by that was so much greater than today.
Bill, a correction. The court did not strike down tariff's. It only said that IFFPA could not be used to justify the tariff's. As I am sure you know, there are other laws passed long ago to support going after tariff's.
I am sure everyone knows there will never be any refunds to those who have already paid tariff's.
These games will continue.
Jim Marshall
Feb 24, 2026 the official U.S. inflation rate is 2.4%... not 3%
The gov't shut down in 2025 is said to have lowered the GDP by around 1%
-
France is comparable to California in population and GDP.
And the fact both suck at the moment...
Ah yes, the Citroën DS. We had one for two years. It did indeed rise up when started, and was generally a very comfortable car. Especially in the rear seat, as it was built for the comfort of the passenger, not the driver. And don't -- at the risk of losing your mind -- try to change a rear tire. Step one: remove the rear fender. Really. Totally remove it. Step two: use the pneumatic system to raise the car, if the car will even start. Step three: schedule expensive maintenance. The maintenance requirements of the DS drove owners to distraction and poverty.
French automotive design philosophy is drastically different from its American counterpart, and an American driver needs to re-calibrate his/her understanding of what a car is and what it is expected to do or be prepared to tear his/her hair out.
The DS was a work of art, overcomplicated and difficult to maintain and repair!
Just like modern cars, nice to drive but expensive to service and repair.
Still on the bright side, if the technocrats get their way cars will become just a memory of a past time.
You will own nothing and "be happy".
After reading Joel Bowman's Substack today regarding rapidly declining birthrates everywhere but sub-Saharan Africa; and John Ellis' reporting on the U.S. economy's terrifying exposure to a Chinese takeover of Taiwan; this post was almost uplifting...at least old Paris still looks like old Paris. Add to that the devaluation of the dollar, a heaping tablespoon of Ai and the huge overhang of debt that is about to break loose and bury us. Feels like the end of the world as this boomer has known it. So I'm left to pray about everything and worry about nothing...
Yep - well said. There is nothing like pondering the swirl of the World as it heads down the drain. There are those with hopium thinking maybe, just maybe, somehow the World will right itself. Nice thoughts.......but that and $10 will get you a latte at Starbucks. To me I am caught up in watching as the World splinters. Interesting times as the West ( most of the G7) tries to regain its power (unfortunately with muscle only) and we see the East playing chess and countering with long term strategies while watching the West destroy itself. What did Sun Tzu mumble - "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake" and one other - "If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him." Ol' Bill's head has to be spinning with thoughts of his younger days and the laments of seeing what lays ahead. Maybe Bill, it is time to pop a bottle of Tapiz Torrontés, kick back, and enjoy the "crepuscule" of our Age as it passes into history.
That quip about "never interrupt your enemy . . ." was Napoleon, not Sun Tzu, but your point is well taken.
I celebrated a business win Saturday night with good friends and a very large bottle of Dom Perignon. That old adage is really true, "Living well is the best revenge."
Reading your posts always reminds me that life is too short and never pass up an opportunity to stop and smell roses.
Napoleon also said, promise the people everything and give them nothing!
He was known as the "widow maker" with his lust for war!
I didn’t see the swirl coming this hard and fast until 2007-8. The bailout of the Banks and Wall Street manipulators coupled with Congress’s refusal to make hard long-term decisions was the last best chance to turn this lumbering, leaking ship away from the shoals.
It may take living too long to final see the light. Career politicians are not statesmen - they become "bought" and "paid for" servants of the elites. Fully understandable. Just human nature and - as they say - human nature never changes. All empires fall - some more gracefully than others - but fall they do. This American Hegemony is in its last dying throws and let's hope the ship sinks slowly under the waves and not with a mushroom. One further quote from ol' Ben Franklin - "Life's tragedy is that we get too old too soon and wise too late."
yes "last best chance was Ron Paul" but the entire system defaulted and got the inverted replica that they have today .. sadly that is what USA deserved
First, thank you Bill, for not spending my time with a load of vitriol on DJT. You reported on the state of America but your assessment was relatively accurate. You will get the inaccuracies listed today in the comments, so I won’t spend my time with my disagreements. Instead, I’d like to give a brief account of my experiences with Paris. I have visited it only two times, the first as a tourist many years ago [in the late ‘70’s] and again in the ‘90s on business. Both were a disappointment. The first found the Parisians extremely rude specifically to Americans, but not to the Brits and Australians we were traveling with. There was no attempt to hide their distain and there was no apologies when we called them on their rudeness. The second time was business and we were traveling with Brits again so the rudeness was more covert, but nevertheless present just under the surface. It was obvious to my business companions and they apologized for the Parisians, but crickets from the culprits. I have not returned to Paris since and have no plans to ever go back. Remarkably, I have been to several other cities in France and found the residents to be just the opposite, polite, grateful for my being there and spending my dollars, helpful when language was an issue, etc. I suspect I’d have gotten a better reception if I were recognized as an American billionaire, but c’est la vie.
I and some friends were touring Europe (by train) during the fall of 1971. We had a passenger join us on our way to Denmark who worked at the American Embassy in Paris.
He advised us to bypass Paris as Americans were not treated very well, so we didn't go there.
Next time they need help I would say "Sucks to be You"!.
Bill Bonner is self-proclaimed "relatively rich". He helps some other "relatively rich" guy plunk down "$2 million" for an "apartment" in mid-town Pahree, like I would part with $4000 (after serious deliberation over a few weeks) for a 2002 Northstar Cadillac, as I did back in Dec. 2025, for the "experience". Bill, buddy, you're in the advice-for-money business. Being RICH is a requirement. You ARE rich; celebrate it! And if not celebrate it, at least face it. There's nothing inherently wrong with it. If you're trying to BS me and your subscribers on your own "relative" situation, how seriously are we supposed to take your advices? Best always. PM
Come on man…… He gave some homeless guy a fin in Baltimore not long ago! Now thats rich!
My response to panhandlers is "I'm not going to give you any money, but I will buy you a bottle." You should see their eyes light up. Best always. PM
that's 2 million francs ..
Is it? The currency unit en France is the Euro, which currently trades about 15% higher than the Dollar. So, I gave Mr. Bonner a discount! Best always. PM
How refreshing to NOT hear the normal carping about Trump. One of the few commentaries I've actually bothered to read completely! Hooray!! ( :-) [Yeah - not so good at smiley faces. Not much practice lately.]
If you ever want to see a special side of Paris, go during the summer solstice.
My wife and a couple of dear friends and I happened to be there at the same time as the Paris Air Show. We had no idea when we booked the trip. Once we found out, we couldn’t resist. It is the world’s premier aeronautics event. Yes, much of it is military and heavy on drone technology, but seeing the newest fighters carving up the sky in full aerobatic displays is unforgettable.
And yet, that wasn’t the highlight.
We had rented an Airbnb in Montmartre, near Sacré-Cœur, the same dramatic backdrop from John Wick 4. After a long day of wandering the city, we walked to a small restaurant around the corner for a late dinner. It was one of those perfect Paris meals where everything just works.
Then we noticed the place across the street rolling out massive speakers onto the sidewalk.
We assumed it was a private event.
By the time dessert arrived, the music started. EDM. Loud enough that conversation at our own table became a shouting match. More speakers appeared. Young people gathered. Dancing began.
When we stepped outside, the real surprise hit us.
The entire street had transformed.
What had been a typical tourist-filled Montmartre evening was now a full-blown open-air celebration. Half the restaurants had turned themselves into mini outdoor clubs, each with its own DJ, each with its own crowd spilling into the street. Everywhere you looked there were people moving to the music.
And it went on for hours.
Two, maybe three in the morning. Music. Dancing. A citywide exhale as the longest day tipped into night. A celebration of light, of summer, of simply being alive on a turning planet beneath the sun.
Ah, Paris.
The Worst part of France… Macron
The French had to endure several Napoleons!
Well Bill, I guess you thought Trump really was able to fix this country in no time flat. After one short year, with no help from Democrats you are disappointed that he wasn’t able to turn around 4 years of chaos. Glad you gave him plenty of time to do it.
We never had the good old days as adults. What I read is how boomers inherited a grand place while younger generations inherited heaps of debt and little opportunity. I don’t know what opportunities my children will have. Debt slavery it seems like. But hey, as long as social security checks go out to boomers, and Medicare pay, party on.
The court struck out the use of IFFPA. The 40 page advice of the 3 disagreeing judges pointed to 4 other laws that Trump could use instead. Which is what he did 90 minutes after the release of the decision.
Repaying the collected tariffs could take years of legal cases so the govt gets to keep the money until then.
President Trump with a real serious face is telling everybody that the Golden Age is still coming. You ever notice when a Golden Age is real, nobody has to announce it? Rome didn’t have Caesar out there going, “Folks, trust me, the aqueduct numbers are tremendous.” But Trump’s up there like a substitute teacher explaining why the class hamster is dead, “no no no… the hamster’s resting, historically resting.” Meanwhile inflation’s chewing through groceries like termites through a church pew, and they keep saying it’s only three percent. Three percent where? A farmer’s market? No, not even that. More like a surgical theater where they remove your wallet under bright lights and call it preventive care. I bought lettuce the other day, had to sign closing documents. There was a notary, two witnesses, and a priest just standing nearby in case the transaction went terminal. The cashier slid the receipt across the counter real slow, like a toe tag.
The jobs report was beautiful though, healthcare and social assistance. So the fastest growing part of the economy is people trying to keep other people from dying. That’s not an economy, that’s hospice with Wi-Fi. Manufacturing ain’t growing, coal ain’t growing, fewer fellas working… and the officials say morale is strong. Of course morale is strong. You ever seen a guy with nothing left? Calm as hell. That’s enlightenment. Buddha reached nirvana under a tree, modern buyers reach it under a foreclosure notice. Same principle, detachment from earthly possessions, especially the ones the bank already took.
Then you got Paris, their big shining city. Used to be artists, philosophers, rebellion. Now it’s million-dollar apartments and tourists asking waiters who Sartre is. Whole place smells like lilies. Romantic, sure… if you ignore the fact lilies are funeral flowers. City feels like a very expensive open-casket viewing for culture. You walk around and think, is this alive or just preserved? But people love it. They say prosperity is right around the corner, and I believe ‘em, because when you’re trapped in a burning maze, every wall eventually becomes a corner.
I think Voltaire would take some pleasure in your musings !
Lordy Lordy, all those Indians, Russians and Chinese people filling up the Louvre queue in the way of our American cousins, tutt tutt 😉
Yes BILLY BOY we were all there in one way or another as post WW2 Europe was still recovering from trauma like we'll be doing again hopefully .. your legions of naysayers or outright killers of of any opinion except their own are on the warpath and have never experienced our world of the 50's, 60's 70's but that world is gone totally and only some of the stage resembles the past but the characters on the stage are hardly human .. learning to live in today's world it the very hardest task of old age .. in every category of music art literature film entertainment etc nothing seems to achieve or compare to our memories of days gone by .. almost time to let the younger guys take over the stage and enjoy our sweet sour painful joyful memories of days gone by .. see ya up there in the sky of memories, of a life gone by that was so much greater than today.
Bill, I arrived in 1976, lived on Blvd St. Germain, right near metro Odeon.