No-one Can Stop an Idea whose Time has Come

A month has gone by since I started a Facebook page called Anarkistene, which is Norwegian for "the anarchists". It's a page targeting my fellow Norwegians where I link to their local news and explain how anarchy would solve the problems described.

Norwegians have a tradition for local governance, and I know the local culture well, so I'm confident I should be able to build a reasonably large following, and things have gone well so far. I'm adding a new follower every three days on average, and discussions have been polite and constructive. There's a genuine curiosity related to the anarchist philosophy.

Adding to my confidence is the fact that people are tired of technocracy. There's disillusionment with the progressive idea that society should be run by experts. People are looking for a radical change, and anarchy is as radical as it gets.

Contrary to popular belief, anarchy is a philosophy sufficiently developed to serve as a realistic alternative to state power as the source of governance. It's not as abstract as many think, and my aim is to demonstrate this with examples and solutions.

I've adopted a simple process to grow my page. Every day, I add a few news stories to my page, each with a short description of an anarchist solution. I also comment on posts on other Norwegian pages to attract attention to my page.

None of this feels much like work. I enjoy the anarchist perspective, and I have no trouble defending it. Speaking on behalf of a philosophy, it's also easier to be radical. As long as a statement is true to the philosophy, it can be stated without moderation. I can for instance say that taxation is theft whenever taxation is discussed, and I can defend the position whenever someone tries to counter it.

With more than ten years of experience with the philosophy, I feel confident I can run the page without going afoul with its principles. My goal for 2024 is to grow the page to at least 100 followers.

Ludwig von Mises

By Ludwig von Mises Institute - Ludwig von Mises Institute. Originally from en.wikipedia; description page is/was here. Original uploader was DickClarkMises at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

Prediction for 2024

It looks like my observation a year ago has been confirmed. 2022 was a turning point and the start of a new era. Peak booster, peak Pride, peak Ukraine and peak global warming is behind us, and a new direction in politics and the economy has commenced.

This has not yet been fully realized by the elite. But I suspect that 2024 will be the year that the disaster, in their eyes, becomes apparent. There will be a push back, and this will lead to division and strife. However, they will not succeed. The tide has permanently changed.

The elites of the West are in for a rude awakening. The war in Ukraine will be revealed for the disaster that it is. Most likely, we'll see a collapse of the Ukraine army, with the Russians suddenly free to march on Kiev and other major cities. The Russians will demand far more than they did back in 2022, and the West will have no option but to sign whatever peace deal they are dealt.

The war in Gaza will also come to an end. It will be a victory of sorts for Israel. But the mess they've created will be near impossible to clean up. In the end, they'll have to invite Egypt in to help them sort things out. However, the rest of the world will by then have permanently changed their views on Israel and the West.

Trust in the dollar and Western technology has been eroded, and we'll see inflation and gold take off in a big way as a consequence. Once gold settles above $2,100, we'll see its price quickly move to $3,000. This follows from the fundamentals, and also technical analysis. Gold may well go up a whopping 50% relative to the dollar in 2024.

The stock market, and real-estate prices are not going to do nearly as well as gold. At best, they'll stay flat in nominal terms. At worst, they'll tank dramatically. Those invested in gold may see an opportunity to roll into real-estate or stocks in 2025. But in the meantime, we'll stay with our positions unchanged.

Quarterly performance of gold up until Dec. 2023

PSI20 Performance and Outlook

The PSI20 has appreciated by 11% this year while gold has appreciated by 9%. The difference is so small that nothing has been lost in not investing in the PSI.

Looking at the components of the PSI, it looks that a portfolio made up of these would only have appreciated 4%. I'm not sure why there's a discrepancy between the index and the components, but the difference is probably due to weighting. However, it's clear that my portfolio made up of PSI's components would have underperformed gold.

With the economy looking increasingly grim, there's no need to rush into the PSI. Adding to this sentiment is the fact that every component has a sell rating by the Trading Economics web site.

Here's an overview of what the components are, and how they performed this past year:

• EDP Renovaveis | EDPR - Spain-based company active in the renewable energy sector.
  Market cap = €18.73B (€21.03B)
• EDP | EDP - Portugal-based utility company.
  Market cap = €18.85 (€17.99B)
• Jeronimo Martins | JMT - Portugal-based company engaged in the food retail sector.
  Market cap = €14.52 (€13.45B)
• Galp | GALP - Portugal-based holding company engaged in the oil and gas industry.
  Market cap = €10.22 (€9.34B)
• Navigator | PTI - Portugal-based company primarily engaged in the paper manufacturing operations.
  Market cap = €2.55 (€2.76B)
• BCP | BCP - Portugal-based privately owned bank.
  Market cap = €4.12 (€2.24B)
• NOS | NOS - Portugal-based company engaged in the broadcasting and telecommunication industry.
  Market cap = €1.65 (€1.96B)
• Sonae | SON - Portugal-based holding company primarily engaged in the retail trade of food.
  Market cap = €1.75 (€1.84B)
• REN | RENE - Portugal-based holding company involved in the energy sector.
  Market cap = €1.55 (€1.7B)
• Corticeira Amorim | COR - Portugal-based holding company engaged in the cork industry.
  Market cap = €1.21 (€1.18B)
• Semapa | SEM - Portugal-based holding company engaged in three business segments: Paper and Pulp; Cement and Derivatives, and Environment.
  Market cap = €1.07 (€1.13B)
• Altri | ALTR - Portugal-based holding company primarily involved in the production of bleached paper pulp from eucalyptus.
  Market cap = €0.96 (€1.11B)
• CTT | CTT - Portugal-based company principally engaged in the provision of courier services.
  Market cap = €0.49 (€0.47B)
• Mota Engil | EGL - Portugal-based company primarily engaged in the construction industry.
  Market cap = €1.18 (€0.33B)
• Ibersol | IBS - Portugal-based company primarily engaged in the operation of restaurants.
  Market cap = €0.28 (€0.24B)
• F Ramada Investimentos | RAM - Portugal-based holding company primarily engaged in the production and sale of steel products and storage systems.
  Market cap = €0.17 (€0.17B)
• Novabase | NBA - Portugal-based company active in the provision of information technology (IT) solutions.
  Market cap = €0.14 (€0.12B)
• Pharol | PHR - formerly Portugal Telecom, SGPS, S.A., is an open company.
  Market cap = €0.03 (€0.05B)

Sovereign

By Heritage Auctions for image, Mary Gillick for coin - Newman Numismatic Portal, Public Domain, Link

Another Step Towards the New World Order

Norway has just passed a new law regarding lockdowns and health passports. From now on, the Norwegian bureaucracy is to take its orders directly from the WHO regarding such matters. The Norwegian government will no longer be involved in the decision making.

This might sound alarming, especially considering how draconian the WHO proved itself to be during the virus scare, and how wrong they were in their decisions. However, this shift of power from the local level to a centralized organization is likely to prove counterproductive for the globalists.

This is because law enforcement must by necessity happen at the local level. But if the orders come from far away, the law enforces will feel less than committed to execute them.

History tells us that extended command lines result in inefficient execution of orders, especially if the people charged with the execution feel that they act under the command of a foreign power. Moving decision making from the local level to a centralized level is therefore likely to produce disobedience at a larger scale.

Mask of the beast

Attrition Warfare against the State

Javier Milei took office as Argentina's president yesterday, and his first act in office was to cut the number of departments by more than half. But this was not enough for libertarian purists. They were quick to point out all the things he didn't do, and the things he has done which seem distinctly un-libertarian.

I too, have my doubts about Milei, but it's not helpful to constantly focus on the negative aspects of a story. The fact is that he has done a lot of good already. He has promoted anarchist thinking, and he has demonstrated with action that the state can be reduced if the will is there to do so. That's more achieved by one man than all the grumpy purists put together.

The situation is reminiscent of how things were at the height of the virus hysteria, when I recommended for the first time a strategy of attrition. The idea is to resist with meekness when the enemy pushes forward, and to take full advantage of any retreat.

What we have in Argentina is an example of enemy retreat, and it doesn't matter that it may be only a partial retreat. Milei has created an opening in the lines of our enemies, and we should be quick to fill the space created for us by his actions. The same appears to be happening in a lot of other areas as well. We have almost completely defeated the virus hysteria, we have a climate crisis story unravelling, and Pride is in decline.

The old order has a long way to go before it's completely defeated, but the unravelling is happening at an astonishing rate. There're a lot of things happening. Much of it very much to our advantage.

Bridge across the Douro river

Taking Ownership of the Anarchist Brand

In a previous post, I suggested that we should embrace the right wing label put on libertarians such as Javier Milei. The reason for this is that it will clear up some confusion regarding the political axis. With Milei clearly a small state proponent, the left becomes equally clearly a big state thing. Nazis, were big state proponents, so they end up next to Lenin, and not to the right of conservatives where they are currently positions by political pundits.

This in turn, makes it clear that all anarchists are located to the right on the political axis, because anarchists are by definition believers in a stateless society. No-one can be both left wing and anarchist at the same time. Anarcho-Communism becomes an oxymoron.

Some may object to this analysis and claim that some non-capitalist anarchy is possible, and that may well be so. But such an arrangement will necessarily have to be stateless in order to call itself anarchy, and that means that there can be no centralized monopoly on force anywhere. There can be no rulers. If the system implies that some group of people has monopoly power on force, it's not anarchy it's a state.

In the absence of a state, Anarcho-Capitalism becomes the default, because it's the only system that replaces all centralized institutions with private entities, operating in a free market, and with no one actor wielding monopoly power on the use of force.

The only real anarchism is Anarcho-Capitalism in its various flavours, such as Voluntarims and Private Law Society. In other words, we can refer to ourselves simply as anarchists. The anarchist brand is ours.

The political axis

Will We See Gold at $ 2,100 per Ounce Before Year End?

Gold has had a good fourth quarter, with a move from $ 1,820 to $ 2,070 so far. But will we break above $ 2,100 before the end of the year? Only time will tell, but there are good reasons to be optimistic.

Central banks are continuing their gold purchases in order to avoid the US dollar. Geopolitical instability makes it important to go away from the US dollar as a reserve currency, especially if there's a chance that the US will become the adversary in a future conflict.

On a technical note, we've seen the highest monthly close ever in November, and the highest weekly close ever on Friday. Gold even traded above its highest price ever for a while in the Friday session. All of this may bring out enough buyers to prevent the gold price from reacting down from current levels, as has happened three times before in the past two years.

Once gold breaks above $ 2,100, we're likely to see $ 3,000 within two years. If it doesn't, we'll have some more time to accumulate gold at current prices.

Quarterly performance of gold since 1997