Rome – What are we doing in Rome?

We'll tell you Monday. That will give us time to figure it out…

In the meantime, remember: Cash is king. It's one of the best-performing major asset classes this year.

It's also – by far – the safest.

Even billionaire investor Carl Icahn is now urging investors to get into cash. Cash will someday disappoint us. But probably not today… or tomorrow.

The War on Cash

But the authorities don't like cash…

As we've been warning Bill Bonner Letter readers, the feds have a bitter animosity toward cash. It has almost become a religious creed. Like the Temperance League's attitude toward alcohol, the feds are afraid that cash is a pernicious temptation, leading to sin and suffering.

People have a “propensity to save,” they say. This, they believe, causes all sorts of social ills – from poverty to unemployment.

Fortunately, the feds are there to protect us. They fight this weakness in the human character with a variety of measures.

Zero-interest-rate policy (ZIRP), for example.

“You can save your money,” say the feds “But you won't earn anything on it. And after inflation, you'll have less than you started out with.”

It's like alcohol-free beer: You can drink all you want without ever getting a buzz on.

There's quantitative easing, too. It offers wavering dipsomaniacs the opportunity for a more intense high.

Prohibition drove drinkers out of honest bars and away from safe libations. You had to go get your liquor at an illicit speakeasy. Mobsters often ran these. And much of the alcohol consumed was dangerous bathtub hooch.

Now, the feds drive investors into speculative stocks – often run by nefarious cronies – and dangerous “high-yield” (aka junk) debt. Investors will end up with an awful hangover, but at least they won't go blind.