The World According to Doug Casey

Recently by Doug Casey: Our Economic Future: From Best to WorstCase

Doug is out of range, traveling at present. Not to leave you without your weekly dose of Doug, here’s a collection of some classic quotations from him. We’ll be back with fresh Doug soon.

“Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.”

“[What politicians are doing] is not only the wrong thing, it is the exact opposite of the right thing.”

“Chances are slim to none, and Slim is out of town.”

“The average entrepreneur in China is better off than the average entrepreneur in the U.S.A. or Canada.”

“The Constitution in the U.S. is a dead letter. It has been parsed and interpreted out of existence.”

“Things are going to be so bad, they’re going to be even worse than I think they’ll be.”

“America doesn’t exist anymore. It’s the United States. America, which was basically an idea, a concept, is dead and gone. The United States is just another of 200 awful little nation-states that have spread across the face of the earth like a skin disease. There’s no longer any difference that I can tell between the U.S. and any other country.”

“I am more than a libertarian; I don’t believe in the right of the state to exist. The state is unnecessary for society to exist. Everything that needs to be done can be done by the market.”

“The U.S. dollar will eventually reach its intrinsic value.”

“Remember that through most of U.S. history, residential real estate was not viewed as an investment. You didn’t buy a house to make yourself wealthy selling it to someone else. It was viewed as an expensive consumer good that depreciated – you bought or built a house to live in it, just as you bought clothes to wear or a horse to ride. It was just a part of life – a necessity, a convenience, but an expense.”

“One of the reasons I’ve done well in real estate is that I tend to buy things that I like personally and can see using myself. Why? Because I understand these things, and you shouldn’t invest in things you don’t understand.”

“You don’t own your property. Try not paying your real estate taxes for a year or two, you’ll find out who really owns your property.”

“Gold will not just go through the roof, it will go to the moon. The gold mania has not even started.”

“Historically, junior resource stocks are the most volatile class of securities in existence.”

“I have very little doubt that we will see some form of currency control within the U.S. and some other countries, because one thing you can count on is that the government never controls itself. What it does is control its subjects.”

“Anyone who doesn’t transfer significant assets outside of the country they live in will get exactly what they deserve: being led to a lobster trap and cooked.”

“Your biggest risk today is not an investment risk – it is a political risk. So you’ve got to diversify politically. This is absolutely critical.”

“Increasingly desperate states will be the greatest risk to your wealth.”

“Alcohol, tobacco, and firearms – the three things you need for a decent hunting expedition. Or a Class One party. A Class Two party would also include sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll.”

“That’s the problem with America today. You all do as you’re told. It is the law and you accept it.”

“American spirit is dead – except on cigarette packs, which is rather ironic.”

“One of the definitions of stupidity is an inability to correlate cause and effect.”

“For discretionary travel, my first choice is always some place on the U.S. State Department’s “stay away” list. I hate crowds, and due to the hysteria, the hotels, restaurants, attractions, and taxis are empty. So they appreciate your business, and prices are low. And, if you’re actually concerned about that stuff, security is usually much improved after an ‘event’.”

“My mantra: liquidate, consolidate, speculate, and create. To which I add and must emphasize again: diversify your political risk.”

“When the food riots start in New York, LA, London, Paris, etc., I want to be good and far away.”

“The U.S. dollar is an ‘I owe you nothing’ and the euro is a ‘Who owes you nothing?’”

“I only like to do something when the odds are stacked heavily in my favor.”