Marc Faber : IS THE AGE OF DEMOCRACY A PASSING PHASE IN THE HISTORY OF THE WEST AND THE WORLD?

In his monthly Market Commentary: dated November 1st , 2019 . Doctor Marc Faber , asks the question : IS THE AGE OF DEMOCRACY A PASSING PHASE IN THE HISTORY OF THE WEST AND THE WORLD? Welcome to The Atlantis Report . One of the most widely held beliefs around the world is that democracies are far superior political systems than other forms of organizing societies such as monarchies, theocracies, oligarchies, etc. Having only lived for three years of my working life in democracies and for most of the time in Hong Kong and in Asia, I can say that even though I could never vote in any of the Asian countries I worked in and did business with, I have enjoyed far more freedom in Asia than in highly democratic Switzerland and in increasingly socialist America. The freedom Asian countries enjoyed without democracies has also produced some economic benefits. Hong Kong's GDP per capita growth has vastly outpaced European growth since the 1960s. Patrick Buchanan asks in an essay Is Democracy a Dying Species? He further asks, "what happens when democracy fails to deliver? What happens when people give up on democracy? What happens when a majority or militant minority decide that the constitutional rights of free speech, free elections, peaceful assembly and petition are inadequate and take to the streets to force democracy to submit to their demands?" From an investment point of view I believe that the demonstrations around the world are bringing MMT and the implementation of a Universal Basic Income a step closer. Expansionary fiscal and monetary policies should be mildly negative for sovereign bonds and net positive for corporate profits. I wish my readers a wonderful festive season and I hope they will remember the words of Michael Parenti who wrote that, “If Big Brother (of Orwell's 1984) comes to America, he will not be a fearsome, foreboding figure with a heart-chilling, omnipresent glare as in 1984. He will come with a smile on his face, a quip on his lips, a wave to the crowd, and a press that (a) dutifully reports the suppressive measures he is taking to save the nation from internal chaos and foreign threat; and (b) gingerly questions whether he will be able to succeed.” My friends Dee and Richard Lawrence recently sent me a report about their last visit to Honduras where they are actively building stoves through Proyecto Mirador . On behalf of my readers and myself I shall make again a small donation to Proyecto Mirador. Honduras is one of the poorest (and most corrupt) countries in the world and spending time there is not as comfortable as staying on the French Riviera. However, it gives Dee and Richard great satisfaction when they receive a message from a housewife such as Ada Marina Salgado Escobar who writes “I am delighted with my stove and I have never had such a beautiful thing as this and thank you.” When I read above message I felt deeply humbled. With kind regards Yours sincerely Marc Faber. Doctor Marc Faber is right , democracy is showing its limits worldwide . In America, The republic was a resounding success, the "democracy" peddled by the left was a failure from the start. It was never morally praiseworthy to vote. How could such a responsibility so easily result in praise? Voting while stupid, voting while ignorant, or voting while under the influence of the mob is the equivalent of drunk driving and mowing down the whole country. If you haven't studied politics and history for decades, and you vote, you are most likely a villain. Do the moral thing, stay home and read a book. Democracy enables the many to outvote the few: a profoundly threatening prospect to the few. If the few possess power and wealth, they may respond to this prospect by resisting democracy before it arrives—or sabotaging it afterward. Democracy has never been the “only game in town”, just better than others in terms of offering ordinary citizens more chance or hope of having some say in the decisions that affect them. No country has ever lived up to the ideal of the people truly governing themselves. Attempts to realize this ideal could only be measured by different degrees to which ordinary citizens have influenced political outcomes and achieved self-government in their daily lives. It is not democracy, but rather the imperfect mechanisms for achieving it that are failing in the face of today’s challenges. Instead of jettisoning one ideology (which is unfortunately what democracy has come to mean for many) for other more dangerous alternatives, it is up to every one of us to realize that, for self-preservation, we must try even harder to find some way to prevent others from dictating how the world and our lives will turn out.









Marc Faber is an international investor known for his uncanny predictions of the stock market and futures markets around the world.Dr. Doom also trades currencies and commodity futures like Gold and Oil.