What a marvelous day to read the news. Looking for something to laugh at, we are spoiled for choice.

First, we are deeply in debt to our old friend Marc Faber for several things today. Somehow, we missed a delightful little piece by our favorite columnist, Thomas L. Friedman. Marc brought it to our attention in his "Gloom, Boom and Doom Report."

All of Friedman's pieces are little...in the sense that the ideas are so miniscule and light that they disappear almost before you can savor them. And they are all delightful too - in the sense that they make us laugh...delightedly.

Writing before the elections last fall, Friedman offered Americans some voting advice:

"Americans should let Karl [Rove] know that they are not stupid."

Already, we are giggling. Because we wondered who could still be reading Friedman now, except the stupid...or the cynical...or an economist looking for entertainment.

Friedman went on...

"They should let him know that the patriotic thing to do in this election is to vote against an administration that has - through sheer incompetence
- brought us to a point in Iraq that was not inevitable but is now un-winnable."

And here our midriff muscles get a workout. For Friedman was one of the loudest advocates for the war. He urged the Bush administration into this mess. And he was so annoyed at the French for staying out of it that he practically called for war against them too.

Now that the war has gone as the frogs predicted, our columnist lays the blame on the Bush team! The war was a good idea, he maintains; the Bush boys just weren't up to the job. Imagine how much better it would have turned out if John Kerry, Al Gore or Hilary Clinton had been running the show!

Ha...ha...ha...!

What would they have done...send more troops? Or spent more money? We checked the "National Priorities Project" website and discovered that we've already spent $357,120,600,000 on the war. The numbers were spinning so fast we weren't able to get the exact figure. But that's already more than $1,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States...and more than $12,000 for every citizen in Iraq...or, get this, $10 million for every 'insurgent' killed by U.S. forces. What would the Democrats have done...paid even more?

We are also indebted to Marc for pointing out another little detail from Friedman's puff of nonsense. If the voters don't throw out the Republicans, he said, "It means our country has become a banana republic."

What bread doth this man eat? What air doth he breathe? What is in the water he drinks?

In many respects, America already is a banana republic - but without tropical fruit and the nice weather. Faber explains:

"A banana republic isn't characterized only by a rotten political system, ruled by a small, wealthy and corrupt elite clique, usually put in power or supported by foreign interests, but also by huge wealth and income inequities, poor infrastructure, backwardness in many sectors of the economy, low capital spending, a reliance on foreign capital, money printing and budget deficits, and of course a weakening currency.

"A banana republic is also characterized by a ruling class that curtails people's personal freedoms and is moving toward a heavy-handed military dictatorship under the excuse of fighting guerilla (or terrorist) opposition groups or enemies. Moreover, the fact that the ruling class or elite comes from different political parties isn't a relevant factor in classifying a country as a banana republic; what IS relevant is the determination of the elite, irrespective of which party its members belong to, to shift wealth from the majority of the people (the masses) to themselves, usually through simply printing money and incurring chronic budget deficits, and frequently also through senseless warfare."

It doesn't bother us that the United States is...or is becoming...a banana republic. Some of our favorite places in the world have been banana republics. We like the low prices...the climate...and the comic politics. But what bothers us is that the United States seems to be going sour. The heat of the tropics seems to have gone to its head. It has begun to take itself and its politics seriously. It is one thing to con the voters with a 'war on poverty' or a even a 'war on drugs.' But this war on terror - with its world-wide gulags, its fear tactics and airport searches, its foot-soldiers with their missing limbs, its hired hacks and propaganda - takes much of the fun out of it.

*** We wondered at the end of last week whether the price of gold would hold over $600. So far, it has. Perhaps we will never again see $600 gold. Ever.

*** It's a "Global Gusher," says the Economist, estimating that global liquidity has grown at 18% per year for the past four years - "probably the fastest pace ever."

What we are seeing in today's markets is merely the wash and ripple of this huge tide of money sloshing around the planet.

"Property may go down in other places," said a friend yesterday, "but never in Central London. Because this is where the rich are coming. They've got a lot of money, and they're coming here everyday...buying up houses in Mayfair and Kensington. Russian gas moguls. Arab oil princes. South American planters. Even hedge fund managers from New York. People make their money all over the globe. But here is where they come to store it...to manage it...and to spend it. No, you can worry about your suburban houses in Cincinnati or San Mateo. But don't worry about Central London."

And don't worry about the art market either. "World awash in cash drives bull market in art," says the LA Times.

Of course, we need to remind readers and ourselves that nothing lasts forever. Even granite eventually cracks and wears down into fine sand. As for a liquidity bubble it can be here today and gone tomorrow. This one has already lasted longer than we expected. When will it end? How?

Bill Bonner is the President of Agora Publishing.  For more on Bill Bonner, visit The Daily Reckoning.