Reader Dale C. sent this example of urban myopia: Yahoo rates College Majors That Are Useless. [JWR’s Comments: These geniuses seem to have concluded that there is no need to study how to raise food, when you can just buy it from a supermarket. (That’s where they think meat comes from: “You know from those plastic-wrapped trays.”) The urban elitist view seems to be that any venture where one is at risk of getting their hands dirty is “useless” or somehow offensive. The their minds, farming, ranching, and mining are out, but high finance, LBOs, and derivatives are in. But I have a news flash for them: Simply passing money from hand-to-hand creates nothing. Unless you first mine it, grow it, fish for it, or breed it, then you haven’t created any new wealth. Any later processes merely improve on what has been created or extracted. The post-industrial “service economy” is a myth. Do want to build real wealth, geometrically? Then raise pecus.]
The editors of The Daily Reckoning warn that Fed currency swaps are again growing rapidly. This points to a massive bailout of Europe in the works, and more debasement via monetization.
Infographic: A Look at the Gold Tree; Where Gold Comes From and Where it Goes
Is Europe Throwing Us into a 1930s Moment?
Items from The Economatrix: