Right on the Money: Doug Casey on Economics, Investing, and the Ways of the Real World with Louis James

Chapter 31

Doug Casey on Self-Immolation—Individual and National

July 13, 2011

Louis: Labas, “Dougas,” as we might say in Lithuania—sure is beautiful here! It’s 11:30 P.M. and the sun is below the horizon, but the sky is still smoldering. Where are you, and what’s on your mind this week?

Doug: It’s afternoon here in Aspen, a nice little communist town in the Rockies. From here the world seems to be turning as usual, but that’s only because the place is full of people who are so rich that they’re largely insulated from the real world, as are the parasites who live off them. We’ll have to talk about the politics and sociology of Aspen sometime. But out in the real world, the engines are grinding toward a halt on the American Titanic—but it’s still moving, so everyone thinks everything is fine. There are signs that the 2008 iceberg was bigger than the crew is telling us, however, for anyone paying attention. Did you hear about that man who set himself on fire in front of a courthouse in New Hampshire?

L: I did, but only through e-mail from friends.

D: Yes, the same with me; we have the same friends. It’s truly shocking that a story like this got absolutely zero major media coverage, even though it went out on AP. In Tunisia, a fruit and vegetable street vendor sets himself on fire to protest his government making his life impossible, and it sparks a revolution that doesn’t even stop at his country’s borders. Something similar happens in the United States and no one even hears about ...