The Coming Global Monetary Reset
Friday, August 14th, 2026
Bill Bonner, from Poitou, France
We stood on the veranda Wednesday night...about 8:30 in the evening. A rectangle of thick, smoked glass...taken from a welder’s screen...was held up to our eyes. Then, turning to the sun, we saw a rare celestial spectacle — an eclipse of the sun.
The temperature is expected to rise to 100 degrees today. The trees are dying. The rivers are running out of water; the ponds are mere puddles of scummy green sludge. And now this...the heavens themselves have turned against us...blotting out the source of light, warmth, and energy to which we owe our lives.
An End Time-ish feeling was irresistible.
“I wonder how many ancient astronomers went blind trying to figure it out,” said Elizabeth.
The phenomenon must have had the ancients scratching their heads. The moon was in motion. The sun rose in the East and set in the West, surely it was in motion too. And the Earth?
Aristarchus of Samos was a 3rd century BC mathematician who was probably the first to get a grip on it. He proposed a ‘heliocentric’ solar system (with the sun at the center). The Earth went around the sun one time per year, he said, and it rotated on its own axis once a day. He also supported the idea, not original to him, that the sun was but just one of a multitude of stars.
But just because an idea is correct doesn’t mean you can’t be roasted for saying so. David Myton:
On February 17, 1600 Giordano Bruno, naked, hands bound behind his back, was led out onto Rome’s crowded Piazza Campo de’ Fiori where he was tied to a large wooden stake and then burned to death. It would have been a ghastly sight, Bruno writhing and screaming until mercifully he passed out, choking on the smoke as his life turned to ashes.
The Pope himself, Clement VIII, had given the order. Clement was God’s man on Earth. Bishops and cardinals represented Clement. Priests and executioners merely did their duty. You might think anything you want; but there are times to keep your mouth shut.
Elites — whether they be dressed in the elegant frocks of the high priests or the blue serge of the low-bred dictators — wield power as a combination of fraud and fear. Nine times out of ten, fraud is enough. Fear is brought into service, like a hitman by the mob, when fraud alone won’t do the job. The medieval church claimed a monopoly on truth — and enforced it, when necessary, ruthlessly. That is still the same formula, more or less, for today’s secular authorities.
When the scourge of Covid stuck in 2020, we were told to ‘follow the science’ and obey the feds. You might think you risked nothing by going for a walk, or swimming in the ocean, but the authorities had other ideas. And if you defied them, you could be fined...or put in prison. And if you dared to defend yourself, ultimately, there was the stake.
The circumstances change, the patterns of human behavior...from Eden to Pennsylvania Ave...not so much.
It has been so hot this week, about all we could do was stay indoors and read. Fortunately, our old friends have written new books. Porter Stansberry sent us two of them, newly minted. In one, Porter brings his ‘End of America’ theme up to 2026 and adds a surprising insight. Hundreds of years before the Pope roasted Bruno, Philip the Fair, king of France, burned his own heretic — Jacques de Molay — head of the Knights Templar.
The Templars had become the richest group in Europe. And while King Philip charged them with heresy, the real reason for arresting thousands of them and burning their leader on the banks of the Seine was an ancient one: money. Philip had already robbed the Jews. He had plundered the Lombard banks. He had debased the currency — the silver livre. But his purse was still empty. So, he rounded up the Templars from all over the kingdom and stole their land, their buildings, their art, and their wealth. And to make sure it looked like a religious crusade and not a shakedown, he grilled poor Jacques.
Porter smells smoke. And he warns us that the feds today can be just as conniving and ruthless as Philip the Fair. The US government is deep in debt. And it is spending money as if it were printing it up in the basement. Neither party can object; shutting down the money machine would bring mobs into the streets and mean almost certain defeat in the next elections. As we opined yesterday, the pin is patient. But Porter sees it reaching the debt bubble in 2029.
The other volume Porter sent is the result of years of trailing Warren Buffett. It is a remarkable piece of work in which Porter identifies ‘what went wrong’ at Berkshire Hathaway. In a couple very short sentences, he reveals:
When Buffett bought pieces of great public companies, he outperformed. When he bought whole private companies, he did not.
Porter’s book is not just a look at Buffett, but it is also a great study of how to make exceptional returns...slowly and steadily...without taking on more risk.
Finally, comes another book from another comrade — Chris Mayer. We haven’t gotten our hands on the book yet, but we know Chris’s investment strategy well. Here’s how the book jacket describes it:
“In The Investor’s Odyssey, Mayer provides the beeswax and the mast to lash yourself so you can ignore the voices of the sirens. In investing, they go by names like ‘take profits’, ‘rebalance’, and ‘the market is overvalued.’ Using the Odyssey as a powerful organizing metaphor, he walks readers through every major challenge the long-term investor faces. Packed with financial history, memorable case studies—The Investor’s Odyssey is an essential guide for anyone serious about playing the long game.”
Chris’s message is also his method. Buy good businesses at reasonable prices. And hold on. They don’t always go up, but they ought to.
Good reading!
Regards,
Bill Bonner