HELPING PHYSICIANS ATTAIN FINANCIAL SECURITY
By Robert M. Doroghazi, M.D., F.A.C.C.
The quotes I use to illustrate my points are taken from Conquest, Tribute and Trade: The Quest for Precious Metals and the Birth of Globalization by Howard Erlichman (Prometheus Books). The title of these last three letters is borrowed from This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly by Reinhart and Rogoff (Princeton University Press).
“After the fall of Antwerp in 1585, Amsterdam and other towns were flooded with as many as 100K Protestant refugees having capital, business skills and trading networks”
“While Amsterdam prohibited the immigrating Portuguese Jews and Conversos (mostly Jews and Muslims, who converted (forcibly) to Christianity) from joining guilds or building a synagogue (until later), they must have been thrilled by the separation of church and state, the absence of the Inquisition, the ability to reside in a neighborhood of their choosing, and the right to acquire property. The Conversos returned the favor by introducing Amsterdam merchants to the extended Converso families who dotted the globe”.
RMD comment: Religious freedom, economic freedom, and political freedom go hand in hand.
For more than 3 centuries, we had basically no restrictions on immigration. If you wanted to come here, you could make it (or fail) on your own. The US attracted many of the brightest, hardest working, entrepreneurial people in the world.
Over the last 75 years, our policies have become more and more restrictive, and in my opinion, counterproductive. Millions enter illegally, yet we put a myriad of restrictions on the bright people who want to come here legally. More and more of the smart ones who come here for their university training are going home after they finish. We are providing our competitors with the best university-trained minds on earth.
“The VOC (Verenigde Oostindiosche Compagnie, the Dutch equivalent of the British East India Company), was a state-backed enterprise, (whose) charter was explicit about geopolitical objectives—attack the economic power and prestige of the Iberian Crowns (Spain and Portugal) throughout Asia”.
“The Dutch were happy to conduct business with Hindus, Muslims, Jews or fellow Christians as long as there were profits…they focused solely on business”.
“(The) Dutch were trading their way into the control of massive stocks of precious metals and recycling them into business enterprises. Spain’s escalating balance of payment’s deficit…(was) transferring huge volumes of bullion…(to) entrepreneurial Dutch merchants”.
(Wall Street Journal, 1/12/11. “China Shows Its Growing Strength. Stealth Jet Upstages (Secretary of Defense) Gates. New Move to Make Yuan a Global Currency”).
RMD comment: Just substitute China for the Dutch and US for the Spanish. We live beyond our means, argue over entitlements, and bash the Chinese, while they work hard, have a long-term strategy implemented with a coordinated effort, and accumulate wealth in the form of gold, rare-earth metals, commodities, commodity producers, and production companies.
Whether the Chinese are playing fair and square or not (they are not), they are acting in their own interests. We need to stop bashing them and get our act in order.
Moreover, we have let political agendas, such as the carbon tax, disputes over genetically-engineered agriculture, and all other sorts of business-killing law suits and regulations, dictate our economic policies.
Wall Street Journal, 1/18/11. In an op-ed entitled “Toward a 21st-Century Regulatory System”, President Obama says “”Sometimes, those rules have gotten out of hand, placing unreasonable burdens on business, that have stifled innovation and have a chilling effect on growth and jobs”
RMD comment: Maybe Mr. Obama has been reading my newsletter.
My conclusions (from the last three letters):
1) We will not solve our problems until there is a serious discussion about controlling spending. Although it will be painful, that means Social Security, Medicare, and public employee pensions and benefits.
2) The US dollar will depreciate (lose spending power) vs. other currencies. Note; history shows that all paper currencies end up worthless. I cannot imagine a more risky investment than a 30-year government bond.
3) Hard assets; commodities and their producers, quality collectibles, and to a lesser extent, equities and real estate, will retain value.
4) The ultimate storehouse of wealth is gold. I again recommend that the core position of your entire investment portfolio be physical gold in your personal possession (at the safe deposit box).
5) Where your money is domiciled will become increasingly important. I will devote the next issue to opening a foreign bank account.
6) Could the government directly confiscate wealth, such as your personal IRA? Probably not, but???
7) It is the politicians we elected that have created this mess. We cannot expect them to show the will unless we show the will.
8) You will know the end has arrived when the Federal Reserve is dissolved and we return to a metallic/commodity-backed currency.
RMD
I have discovered You Tube. At first I went there only to see videos of some of my favorite songs, like “I Wonder Why” (Dion and the Belmonts), “Keep on Dancin’” (The Gentrys), “Linda” and “Drag City” (Jan and Dean), “Henry the Eighth” (Herman’s Hermits), “Cara Mia” (Jay and the Americans), “The Wayward Wind” (Gogi Grant), and “A Lover’s Concerto” (The Toys. The tune is so pretty because it is based on “Anna’s Minuet”. Anna Magdalena was Bach’s second wife).
What really got me going on YouTube was old TV shows from when I was growing up in Granite City, IL (across the river from St Louis. You can see the top of the Arch from my mother’s home).
There were cartoon shows on when we got off school. “Captain 11” (KPLR, Channel 11, thus the name), played by local radio legend Harry Fender, played the “Three Stooges”. “Cooky (James Bolen) and the Captain” (Dave Allen) were on KMOX (CBS, Channel 4). The show started out with “Seven bells, it’s time for Popeye” and was sponsored by Hill Brothers Shoes (2 pairs for $5 in 1960). The “Wrangler’s Club” with “Texas Bruce” (Harry Gibbs) was on KSD (Channel 5, NBC), and sponsored by Adam’s Dairy.
I find it hard to understand why people like snow. My only conclusion is they don’t work for a living. I admit if you look at snow, it’s pretty. Because of the reflection (and amplification of light), both day and night appear brighter (I wonder if this helps people with seasonal affective disorder).
But otherwise, if you must be somewhere, you must shovel the snow to get out. If you work, if you must drive to get to your job, snow is not cool (a pun).
In general, I am not a fiction/poetry guy, but I believe Dante’s (Alighieri) “Divine Comedy” is one of the 5 greatest books I have ever read (the classics are the classics because their beauty and wisdom are eternal). When Dante, guided by the poet Virgil, (his hero), meets the three-headed Lucifer, chewing and inflicting pain for eternity on Judas, Cassius and Brutus, (the greatest traitors to humanity), at the lowest level of Hell, his feet are (paradoxically) frozen in ice!!
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