The Bolshevik Blueprint

Plus, the Davos Deciders, ruble bargains, backfiring sanctions and more...

(Source: Getty Images)

Bill Bonner, reckoning today from San Martin, Argentina...

As predicted… rich Russians are using America’s sanctions war to get richer.  

Bloomberg:

… almost one month of suspension, shares in Moscow climbed, with the benchmark MOEX Russia Index rising as much as 12%. While only 33 stocks resumed trading, Russians with fortunes linked to them added $8.3 billion combined, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index tracking the wealthiest 500 people in the world.  

Scores of Russian billionaires got sanctioned by the European Union and the U.K. after the Kremlin started its war against Ukraine. Some got their possessions in those jurisdictions seized, and others rushed to shift ownership of their stakes while they still could. But for the 10 tycoons whose shares resumed trading, the advances were adding to their paper gains.

Western sellers dump their stocks at fire sale prices. Who buys them, for pennies on the dollar? Russians!    

Bonehead Central

Oh what a wicked world! A pistol in every hand… and every target has toes. The whole sanctions program is backfiring… driving Russians, Chinese, Iranians and Indians closer together… hastening the decline of the dollar-dominated international money system… raising prices for US consumers...slowing US economic growth… and leaving the oligarchs with more real wealth than they started with.

Whose boneheaded idea was it to get involved in this Russo-Ukrainian squabble anyway?

That is our subject for today - where do these boneheaded ideas come from?

Chelsea Clinton didn’t have to figure things out entirely by herself. She attended Stanford and Oxford, for example. But we have it on the authority of German journalist Ernst Wolfe, who may be a complete crackpot for all we know, that she has another alma mater, not listed on her Wikipedia page. Run by the World Economic Forum (sponsor of the Davos shindig… where rich influencers fly in on their private jets and lecture the middle classes against using gas ovens)… it is by invitation only. And the list of those who wear the school colors is breathtaking.   Larry Fink, Larry Page, Christine Lagarde, Emmanuel Macron, Justin Trudeau,  Gavin Newsom, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates… almost the entire company of the Great and Good… captains of industry… cherubim and seraphim… the leaders of the New World Order… the indefatigable improvers of the world we live in. Yes, it’s a very elite club, dear reader, and you ain’t in it.

Some reports put the number of “Davos Deciders” in the thousands. Indeed, if all these people were laid end to end… well… that would be nice.

The (Dis)Invitee List

Conspicuously absent from the list is Donald J. Trump.  

Donald Trump was never accepted by the elite. Out of control. Shooting from the hip. He said what he thought. And often what he thought was neither very smart nor very nice. Most important, it was ‘off message.’ That’s why the media worked so tirelessly to unseat him, claiming that the election of 2016 was illegitimate because of Russian interference. The charge was preposterous from the get-go. Everyone was trying to influence the election; there was no plausible reason to think that the Russians, with a very limited budget and very limited reach, would have had any effect at all.

The mainstream elite saw The Donald as a threat. It turned out, they had nothing to worry about. Instead of dismantling the elites’ programs… he expanded them. He didn’t close a single overseas military base. He didn’t cut a single dollar from the federal budget. He went along with the Covid Panic… pushed for even lower interest rates… and then, borrowed, spent, and printed more money than any president in history.

Also not among the distinguished alumni of the WEF is Russian president Vladimir Putin. He explained why in a speech on October 18th, 2021; he wanted to no part of it:

“We see with bemusement the paralysis unfolding in countries that have grown accustomed to viewing themselves as the flagships of progress. Of course, it’s none of our business… the social and cultural shocks that are happening in some Western countries…  Some believe that aggressive blotting out of whole pages of your own history, the affirmative action in the interest of minorities, and the requirement to renounce the traditional interpretation of such basic values as mother, father, family, and the distinction between sexes are a milestone… a renewal of society.

…The recipes they come up with are nothing new… the Bolsheviks followed the dogmas of Marx and Engels. And they also declared that they would go in to change the traditional lifestyle, the political, the economic lifestyle, as well as the very notion of morality, the basic principles for a healthy society. They were trying to destroy age- and century-long values, revisiting the relationship between the people, they were encouraging informing on one’s own beloved, and families. It was hailed as the march of progress. And it was very popular across the world and it was supported by many.  As we see, it is happening [again] right now…

“.. when great authors of the past such as Shakespeare are no longer taught in schools and universities because they [are considered] as backward classics that did not understand the importance of gender or race.”

But the assault on the past goes beyond the ‘woke’ values of California and East Coast universities. Of special interest to us is the attack on traditional money; that’s where the real damage will be done. Today, the dollar is being intentionally inflated and sanctioned away.

And now, the feds have no choice. Stuck in an ‘inflate or die’ trap, either they inflate the dollar and destroy America’s middle class… or they crash the stock market, the economy, and much of their own wealth and power.

The elite deciders will make the call. Which way will it go?

Stay tuned…

Bill Bonner

Joel’s Note: You probably saw that, earlier this week, Big Bad Vlad demanded “unfriendly countries” (40-plus of them) begin payment for their Russian gas deliveries in rubles.

According to the Kremlin website, Putin said "it makes no sense for Russia to supply its goods to the EU, the US, and others and receive payments in compromised currencies."

The EU - particularly Germany - is already in quite the bind, as energy expert, Byron King, told BPR subscribers on our private Winter Catastrophe Zoom call a couple of months back. (Paid readers can access the full recording - as well as the transcript - right here.)

You might have noticed, too, that Russia has been stockpiling gold over the past decade or so, lessening its reliance on the west’s petrodollar hegemony. It now has the fifth largest gold holdings (officially) in the world.

What does this mean for gold, for energy prices and the continued dominance of dollar-denominated global trade? And, more importantly, what can you do to prepare your portfolio for any upcoming… ahem… “unpleasantness” in the markets?

For a start, you can sign up to receive invitations to BPR’s private Zoom calls, where we invite members of Bill’s own network - such as Byron King, Rick Rule, Chris Mayer and others - to lend us their years of experience on such matters.

It’s all part of the benefits our paid members enjoy… along with twice weekly investment updates from Tom Dyson and Dan Denning and in-depth research reports to help you navigate these tumultuous times.

Take a look at what’s on offer and join us at Bonner Private Research - all for less than a couple of “compromised currency units” a week - right here…