We begin with a retraction and an apology...

We were shocked and appalled when we received the following email from a dear reader, accusing of us of paddywhackery. It began:

'I subscribe to Mr. Bonner's newsletter and was astounded to read the November 11, November 12 and November 13 (2013) editions. In all three editions, the Irish Culture was ridiculed and defamed.

'Specifically, in the November 12 edition, Mr. Bonner used the term "drunken Irishmen." He also burdened us with a narrative of two Irish girls (unnamed), who Mr. Bonner delighted in characterizing as hapless drunks. What do these references have to do with financial reporting? I can only surmise Mr. Bonner has a deep-seated bias against the Irish culture, Irish citizens and the millions of Irish descendants around the globe. [...]

'By separate correspondence, I am notifying the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) of the discriminatory references in Mr. Bonner's emails and the failure to retract and to apologize for the discriminatory statements. The AOH is America's largest Irish American organization founded in 1836 in New York, NY.

'This email will serve to reiterate my request for a retraction of the derogatory statements and an apology for publishing them. Further, in response to this email, please provide me with Mr. Bonner's professional affiliations, professional titles and financial industry credentials.

'Thank you in advance for your response and cooperation.'

These grave charges certainly deserve a full response. So here it goes...

Dear Offended Reader,

Our sincerest 'oops'! We had no intention of committing a hate crime...and certainly not against our own kin and countrymen. Just to set the record straight, we retract our story and want to issue a full apology, complete with groveling, sniveling and wetting of our pants.

Yes, we take it all back. We saw no drinking of any alcoholic beverages in any of the several pubs in the city of Kilkenny in the Republic of Ireland, on Friday and Saturday nights during our recent trip there.

Nor did we see anyone who had drunk too much of any said alcoholic beverage. We saw no one so much as raise a glass of Guinness. As for Jameson, Paddy and Powers, they must have been withdrawn from the market. As far as we could tell, Kilkenny was as dry as West Texas.

And we certainly did not see one of two fat girls (the one with the tattoo on her thigh and five-inch platform heels) fall dead drunk at our feet outside Cleere's bar on Parliament Street. Cross our heart and hope to die.

So, we hope the Ancient Order of Hibernians will take pity and pardon us. We realise now, to our great sadness, that we are a disgrace to Erin's Isle and an embarrassment to the entire Irish diaspora, of which we are part.

We would very much like to thank you for bringing this to our attention and us to our senses...and helping us to realise that we didn't see what we thought we saw...nor did we hear what we thought we heard...and if we had, we should have kept it to ourselves anyway.

We are pathetically sorry...and deeply disturbed by these charges. All we can say in the manner of a weak explanation, clearly no defence, for we have none, is that we must have had too much to drink.

With warm regards

Bill

Now, back to the world of finance...

Last week, Janet Yellen told the Senate what everyone wanted to hear: that the Federal Reserve would continue to support asset prices. With the 'Yellen put' in their pockets, investors bid up the Dow to over 16,000 by the end of the week.

What to make of it?

We're down in Nicaragua at a private meeting of members of our family wealth advisory service, Bonner & Partners Family Office. The aim of our service is to help our members protect and grow family wealth so that it is around for future generations. And we're thinking...

Thinking is the last resort. You only do it when you're desperate. When your opinions, predictions and guesses don't seem to be working out, you're forced to consider alternatives.

Although we have no doubt that Federal Reserve policies will prove disastrous, we have nothing but doubts about what form the disaster will take. John Williams of ShadowStats.com recalculates the Consumer Price Index (CPI), official unemployment rates and GDP figures based on more honest data and alternative methodologies.

What he discovers is that the CPI is higher, unemployment is higher and the GDP is lower than the feds would have us believe.

Williams reckons there is only one outcome possible: hyperinflation. A year ago, he expected it in 2019. Now, he's moved up the schedule. He now expects hyperinflation to begin in 2014.

Why?

Because the Federal Reserve is more aggressive than previously expected...and because the rest of the world is losing confidence in the US dollar and its guardians.

The overseas portion of the US money supply is huge - with dollars in every central banker's vault as well as in the private accounts and hidey-holes of millions of people all over the globe.

When these people lose faith, the trickle of these dollars returning to the US will increase. Prices will begin to rise - slowly at first, then suddenly, in a flood.

Will John Williams be proven right?

We'll have to wait to find out!

Regards,

Bill Bonner
for The Daily Reckoning Australia