New Horizons by Max Roy

                                                                        Take your Pick!               Dollars, Rubles, Yuan or Gold? What’s that all about? Did you know there is a struggle going on for world domination? Probably you did. Did you know that the currency being used in international trade is a principle thing at the heart of it? Did you know that the way this turns out can affect many of us in the Western world? Did you know the many countries are lining up on one side or another in this titanic battle that can change the way things have been operating in the world for the last fifty years? Who knew? About fifty years ago the Saudis and the U.S made an agreement that all oil trade in the world would be contracted in U.S. dollars. The agreement, called SWIFT, has resulted in the total of all energy transaction, (about one-third of all international trade in value terms,) being priced for payment in U.S. dollars. This has solidified the position of the U.S. dollar as t

        What Are We Going To Do? We were in the midst of a struggle against COVID- a world-wide pandemic that attacked us all. Of course it hit hardest where people were not aware of what was going on. And then it became politicized, when some people thought they could exploit the issue for narrow political ends. More people died than had to. More people are dying than should have, many millions would not have, if we had gotten it right. On top of all the normal challenges in life, we have got all this turmoil, how do we fight it, how do we protect ourselves, how do we do this without destroying the livelihoods of billions? We know that just over the horizon there are all those people who are having it much tougher than we have it, putting bread on the table, taking care of their kids, even struggling to stay alive. We’re not thinking too much about it most of the time because, let’s face it, we have our own row to hoe. We are more than fully occupied. Then BOOM, we have this Ukr

                                 What’s the Plan? The leaders we have chosen are children in the wilderness, No moral motivation prompts the actions that we’ve seen, The masters that they serve will someday all to us confess The criminal conspiracies that human lives and rights demean. Given that we know the truth, The question now that’s so uncouth, What’s the plan? They tell us that our time on earth is running out its term, Poisoning sea and sky and living things for all their very worth, Making many promises, signing words to say we it confirm, Wind and fire and flood now our earn-ed legacy on earth, Given that we know the truth, The question now that’s so uncouth, What’s the plan? Maddened wild animals, we hunger for each and every crumb We see upon a neighbor’s plate that we so long to own, Let loose upon the world, death, destruction, we are numb To all the misery and pain into which our lifetime’s thrown. Given that we know the truth, The

    Making Investments, Collecting Dividends Just rolling into 2022, long, long after beginning to record and tell the stories I have been telling. A good number of the companions with whom I began this trail have passed on to greener pastures. Those remaining are all the more precious. I can celebrate the achievements of my offspring, my near and dear, having been around to witness the cavalcade firsthand, all flags flying. A longtime investor, I am able to see where investments I made have paid off with dividends, and where I missed the boat and have little to take any credit for. As for all of us, these are the stories of a life lived. Some of the details will have been exposed, much will remain for speculation. We began this trail along with our fellow travelers, innocents abroad, with no conception of where we came from, and why, and no inkling of where we were going. All of us came aboard the bus of life with empty pockets and no idea that our job, in the end, would be to f

           Profiting From ADVERSITY No-one wants to have hard times assigned to them as a matter of course. We all want our daily lives to be the essence of normality. Living with parents and siblings, dad, or/and, mom going on to perform the daily tasks they have chosen. The kids going to school and preparing themselves for careers they find appropriate to the talents and skills they discover they have. Don’t we look on that sort of pattern as what we want for all peoples around the world? We know that that reality is not one that we can take for granted. Distress is not something we want to wish on people. We want to do whatever we can to avoid putting people into difficult situations that will cause them distress. Yet, it is a feature of human nature that when people find themselves placed in difficult situations, some sometimes come up with actions and behaviors in dealing with them that result in benefits not only for themselves, but for many other people around them. The stre