Gary posts David Bahnsen's response 3/19/09

http://www.garynorth.com/public/4735.cfm

David Bahnsen, The Morgan Stanley VP and Ex-Christian Rock Band Manager, Responds to My Critique: "Your Readers Are All Insane!"

Gary North

March 19, 2009

I posted this article on March 3. Link doesn't work, go to http://www.lewrockwell.com archives for North's article on 3/3/09

It is a detailed critique of David Bahnsen's economic theory of money, capital markets, and his praise of Alan Greenspan. I cited him verbatim. My article was a response to his published criticism of the pro-gold views R. J. Rushdoony and me. He did not name us. It appeared in Rushdoony's journal, the year after Rushdoony died.

First, Bahnsen went public. I bided my time, waiting for Greenspan's bubbles to pop. They did. Then it was my turn.

He sent me this in response, so I reproduce it without alteration or further comments.

Gary North's typical vicious and idiotic attack on me dated March 3 of this year does not deserve a response. In fact, I can't imagine who will read my response, since no sane person reads Gary. I have never been attacked before by a guy who has spent his entire life making a fool of himself in one brutal miscalculation after another. In fairness to Gary, I do not know if his history of false predictions has been motivated by something sinister, or just merely something intellectually deficient. I suspect a combination of both, but I have no idea. All I know is that there is no person I can think of who has less credibility on matters of economic foresight or cultural happenstance than Gary North. Gary wrote his diatribe on March 3, and I was just told about it today, March 15. I doubt he has 13 readers left, but his readers are likely very naïve people, or easily entertained (they are not likely friends or family, since he does not possess many that he is still talking to).

Gary wrote a book once called Crossed Fingers that I believe to be a masterpiece (though even it had to throw in a fair amount of conspiratorial idiocy). Gary had very little reputation left in 1998 when he began the process of putting the final nail in his academic and professional coffin. Then, he told people to sell everything and run to the hills because of two computer digits that were going to ruin western civilization. He went on Peter Jennings and announced to the world that he was pumping water and stuff like that. It was really, really funny. He wrote a newsletter where he bet the future of Christian Reconstructionism on Y2K ruining the planet. He also wrote a subscription newsletter where he said people should go to Las Vegas and pretend to be tourists in Hawaiian shirts and slowly but surely cash in their dollar bills for nickels and quarters. Again, absolutely classic comedy. I do not wish to pick a fight with a fruitcake. I do wish, though, to remember this lunatic for his very funny contributions to my life.

Sadly, he published a couple of my dad's books, and every now and then, Bahnsen becomes "google-able" with Gary North. But for the most part, he is forgotten - by everyone. I am running one of the largest wealth management practices in the country for the premier investment bank on the planet. Gary is still peddling completely insane newsletters to other quacks in remote parts of the country. I will stick with my life, thank you very much.

I have written some things about Greenspan in the past that I wish I could take back. My understanding of monetary theory and practice now lead me to repudiate much (not all) of Greenspan's ideology, though not for the same reasons Gary does. I do not get irritated when I read Gary's piece, because he is not taken seriously by anyone, anywhere. I do take Greenspan's continued insistence that the fed funds rate policy of 2003 and 2004 did nothing to contribute to the housing bubble. That is a level of delusion worth paying attention to. Gary's is, well, irrelevant. 

I am not a stock salesperson, and never have been. I have never received a commission for selling stock. I am a fee planner, a fact that my $250 million worth of clients know well. I work for an unbelievably fantastic organization, and Gary's understanding of what took place in the autumn of 2008 reflect the understanding you would expect an old, disconnected, sociologically distraught buffoon to have. I feel no need to correct him here for the 11 people who read his scam website. I certainly feel no need to correct him about the state of my career, real estate portfolio, compensation plan with Morgan Stanley, or other such matters. If Gary were to know the facts, it would probably cause his dysfunctional typing hands to do something to himself he would regret. I feel no need to add to the frustration Gary feels with his own life and career.

Gary taking glee in the recent policy-driven blow-ups of 2008 strikes me as a tad ironic. As gold gets closer to 40% of the real inflation-adjusted price it was at in 1980 when he was touting it like a fiend, and as stocks come off of the worst bear market collapse since the Great Depression, I can only say that my confidence in my abilities as a financial manager are enhanced by the last six months, not diluted. Gary does not know what he is talking about, ever. People who make their living doing sucker newsletters do not have to know what they were talking about, ever. Those of us making a killing in the real world - we do not have that luxury.