| jpdell33 | -- 11-23-2018 @ 1:09 PM |
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As Mr von Greyerz pointed out today navigating between Scylla and Charybdis often means literally choosing between a rock and a hard place. Scylla being dangerous rocks near the toe of Italy's boot and Charybdis the whirlpool that forms near it in the Straits of Messina. Mythology tells of the story of three ancients who made this choice. Jason and his Argonauts sought divine guidance from the Gods and successfully found the middle way. The other two - Trojan war veterans Odysseus and Aeneas made other choices. Argos and neighboring Mycenae were ruled by Agememnon and his brother and started the Trojan War when Prince Paris of Troy stole the fair Helen from the King of Argos. Agememnon gathered his allies and invaded Troy not just to rescue the fair Helen but to take over the lucrative taxation of ships navigating the Dardanelles that made Troy wealthy. Troy was taken by Odysseus of Ithaca and the city sacked by Agamemnon. Aeneas a prince of Troy escapes and takes what Trojan survivors there are and flees for the western Mediterranean. On their respective journeys, both Odysseus and Aeneas find themselves on the Italian littoral. Odysseus trying to return to Ithaca sails too close the rocks of Scylla and smashes his ship there killing most of his crew. The survivors are then sucked into the whirlpool Charybdis and only Odysseus survives. Meanwhile Aeneas and his Trojan survivors make their way to Carthage where they linger for several years while Aeneas and Queen Dido of Carthage have an intense affair. Eventually Aeneas tires of Dido and takes his Trojans north to found Rome. Having heard of the dangers of Scylla and Charybdis, he sails around Sicily and successfully arrives at the Tiber. The jilted Dido curses Aeneas and so begins the enmity between Carthage and Rome. Aeneas' route around Sicily becomes a death trap of severe storms for Roman fleets in the early Punic wars. So what has this to do with Trump. Everything as he makes his choices with the Saudi's on the Khashoggi affair. Trump not wanting to upset the Saudi's (as they are the true anchor of our policy in the Middle East) and dashing our ship of state on Scylla, opts for the dangers of Charybdis of the American press and his Democratic opposition in Congress. In siding with the Saudi royalty, he not only continues the long, uninterrupted, and mutually beneficial relationship with the Saudis that goes back to Herbert Hoover (with all it mega deals). He insures the survival of what remains of the petro-dollar that China and Russia are trying to upend with gold backed financial schemes. This tells me the US has no answer for these threats, and must rely on Saudi good graces. While I trust Trump will successfully navigate his current Charybdis, unless he can work with the Fed to find an effective answer to the Russo-Chinese threat, we face many years of ever increasing danger to our world economic hegemony. The Fed's ostrich-like approach and complicity in squandering American gold reserves means no answer will be coming from them. Trump, meanwhile is gambling that vastly increased US oil production will buy us some time. The Aeneas solution is more difficult. Our split with China, like that of Aeneas and Dido maybe sowing the seeds of disaster for our future. Trump needs to reconcile our trade and military disputes with China before the damage is irreparable. Trump's next action should be to ban the export of American gold and purchase it to restore our treasury stock. Gold is the only real money. The one form of money that ultimately values all other forms. So long as China and Russia believe we have more of it than them so much will be our breathing room. Curiously though, most of the world's privately owned gold is in India, they may be the ones holding the high hand when all this sorts out. This message was edited by jpdell33 on 11-24-18 @ 4:14 PM
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| bmurphy | -- 11-23-2018 @ 1:21 PM |
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Thanks for laying all that out. Quite a piece. There were high hopes for Trump to come through for the gold camp due to his own reasons. So far, as we know all too well, nada. Perhaps all that will change soon. All the best Bill
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