The term carpetbagger originally referred to post-Civil War Northerners who
moved to the South during reconstruction for either economic gain, political
gain, or both. They frequently arrived with hastily sewn suitcases made of
carpet remnants, hence the moniker “carpetbaggers.” Carpetbagging has
subsequently also become a popular description for non-native politicians who
for expediency and opportunity establish political roots in some newfound
territory. (Think: The Bush family in Texas or Hillary Clinton in New York.)
Carpetbagging has now evolved to describe virtually any unscrupulous, or
opportunistic outsider seeking financial gain. In the context of this last
definition there has never been a time when carpetbagging has experienced such a
renaissance as it has in modern finance. It’s the golden era of carpetbagging.
You could say, in fact,
we are living in a veritable carpetbagger’s paradise.
They Should have called it “Carpetbanking”
Of course, by definition
all
bankers are in the business of carpetbagging. The very nature of owning the
pieces of paper we exchange for real goods and services means there’s a constant
source of outside profiteering, at the expense of local people in useful
society. You can’t buy, sell, lease, or conduct a single transaction without a
carpetbanker somewhere getting his cut. Maybe though in the case of bankers we
need to update the term carpetbagger to “Guccibagger.” Unscrupulous outsiders
plying their trade elsewhere has been a Fed tradition since 1913.
We’re no longer in Bedford Falls, Mr. Bailey. Mr. Potter’s heirs are alive, and
prospering all over the planet.
National Pastime
Carpetbagging has indeed become so fashionable as to be a National pastime.
Fully aided and abetted by the (not) Federal (and not) Reserve, with full
cooperation from the Federal government it has morphed to new dimensions. Things
like ZIRP, stock market bubbles, housing bubbles, and everything bubblelicious
in between are all fully sanctioned events. By “sanctioned” I mean, heavily
subsidized; ultimately by YOU, dear taxpayer. Carpetbaggers thrive on OPM and
implicit guarantees of success. Why reinvent the con when you can merely pack up
your magic carpetbag and climb on the carpetbagging hypersonic loop? All aboard!
The (Dis)information Super Highway
The carpetbagging highway is in fact a 10-lane super interstate stretching all
the way from Silicon Valley to Washington DC. Buy Tesla? Of course, that Musk
chap is working on a hyper-speed of light gismo which will transport you to Mars
in the morning and still have you back by 8 PM to watch
American Idol.
With that in mind how can TSLA stock not hit $5,000? Amazon? It’s a foregone
conclusion that the Bezos machine will eventually sell
everything
to
everybody.
He’s not only going to sell everything to everybody, he’s going to be able to
read your mind and deliver it while you are still thinking of it! Gone are the
days of even having to bother with those pesky keystrokes. Yessirree, in the
land of Amazon there will be no exertion, no jobs, and no profits, yet somehow,
it’s all going to work out. Who cares about social chaos and starvation when you
can load the boat on AMZN
now
and get rich! Living in a carpetbagger’s paradise is like watching perpetual
Brady Bunch reruns. Everything works out, and it always ends with a happy song.
Vegas Hotel, or a Tree in Southern Greece?
Gold and silver owners know full well the carpetbagging nature of derivatives,
and how they are used to suppress and manipulate the underlying product. You in
fact don’t need to know a damn thing about mining, precious metals, or even
what
gold and silver are, to profit handsomely from them. Does gold come from the
ground, or does it grow on trees in southern Greece and Italy? Isn’t a golden
nugget some hotel in Vegas where Elvis hung out? Who cares, why bother, just
know that you will make money playing the cartel game. Short gold on 1% rallies,
NFP Fridays, option expirations, and other key no-no times and you will come out
like a Northern carpetbagger in 1868 Biloxi. The name of the game is take what
they give you, and it’s obvious TPTB are fully quiescent in facilitating paper
profits derived from suppressing precious metals, and in doing so ruin an entire
industry.
Hard Times (At least for Now)
These are no doubt hard times for precious metal investors. The discouragement
is understandable, the unfairness of it all hard to swallow. The Bitcoin, Tesla,
and FAANG carpetbaggers have been partying like it’s 1999, a most recent
investing mania era, in addition to the Prince song. Carpetbaggers rarely see
the violent upper cuts that hit them out of nowhere. Like a few Northerners who
got tossed out on their ear into a muddy street in the South it wouldn’t take
much to turn this carpetbagger’s paradise into a 1-way muddy street to hell.
Tesla, Amazon, and other Uber-bubbly delights can become the latest incarnation
of 1990’s dot.com stocks, which never made money and fell back their intrinsic
values: zero, or near-zero. Pack your (non-carpet) bags, we’re traveling back to
the world of real
money;
which is always gold and silver. It’s been a long journey from 2011. The return
trip should be far more pleasant, even if it isn’t on a Mars hyper-light-speed
gismo.
James McShirley
November 30, 2017
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