Delta Airlines has a dedicated phone line for its Diamond-level flyers. A real person answers the phone, in about thirty seconds. The airline figured out people who fly a lot don’t like being on hold, or talking to machines.
I called the special number at 4:00 AM on December 30, 2024. My issue, partner airline KLM forgot to credit me for a mammoth 19 hours of business class travel to Morocco. With 44 hours left in the year, the error had me inches from qualifying for 2025 Diamond status.
The agent quickly figured out the problem, and fixed it. He then asked me how I liked Morocco. He told me he grew up there, and was proud of it.
Trying To Get Rugged
I told him the trip was great. Casablanca to Tangier, and some time exploring the northwest coastline near Larache. It’s a big country. And if Morocco were Africa’s ear, I only explored the tip of the helix. But there’s only so much time. And don’t let anyone tell you Africa’s close. There is no quick way to get there from the U.S.
Then I told the Delta agent, I couldn’t stop thinking about the Moroccan rugs I saw there. I love rugs. I told him TTL headquarters has a ~175-year-old Iranian Bijar. The living room of the Florida house has a ~115-year-old Turkish, and half way through the Morocco trip I realized the New York place badly needs a Moroccan rug. But I hadn’t thought about it when planning the trip. Which meant I didn’t have time to get rugged, typically a two day process.
He suggested a logical fix, another trip to Morocco. He went on to tell me there was a heavily discounted business class ticket just seven weeks away. I booked it. But the conversation kept going.
This Delta rep saved me a lot of time and headache. It’s what happens when you get information directly from the source.
He told me when it comes to rugs, forget about Marrakech, the popular tourist destination. The country’s secular Muslim society operates generally along a code. Profit, or mark-up on goods, is capped. Not officially, and not on select hand-made goods, but think of it overall as a gentleman’s agreement within the society.
However, the rug dealers of Marrakech often overlook this principle. They speak many languages, and sell with the skill of Al Pacino’s character in Glengarry Glen Ross. Plus, they don’t always have the best rugs.
And the way to get around all of that is to get closer to the source. He suggested Fes.
Where The King Hangs Out
Pronounced “Fez,” it’s a smaller city roughly four hours by train from Casablanca. The first train to Rabat is high-speed. The second train is slow speed, and occasionally has a chicken or goat on board. A first class seat cost me MAD 145 or roughly $14.
Fes is where the king hangs out. And Moroccans love their king. I’ve never seen anything like it. People talk about him like their favorite uncle. His picture is everywhere. I asked a woman about him while standing in a line. She fanned herself and said, “He’s so handsome.”
According to locals, it’s the arid conditions of Fes the king likes. I mean, it’s northern Africa, hard to imagine any part of it not being arid. Nonetheless, the ~1,300-foot elevation works for his majesty.
The city is old. All major cities in Morocco have a medina, or old, traditional market. Fes has the oldest. Dating back to the 9th century Idrisid dynasty.
Try to imagine a meandering patchwork of stone walls strung together more than 1,000 years ago covering most of the city center. Cars are forbidden, because they don’t fit. Best case, you could zip around on a scooter, but even that doesn’t work because there are steps. Random sets of steps, in random places.
People who know me say I have an unusually keen sense of direction. Maybe it’s the height, or overall confidence. Either way, I’m not sure I’ve ever been lost. But Fes came close to ending that streak.
Making things worse, smartphones don’t function in the medina. Sure, you can talk on the phone, take pictures, etc. But forget about using the map. The walls are so tight, odd-shaped, and sprawling, the blue dot of Google Maps lingers in the corner of the screen, as if it has no idea where to put you.
The trick to never being lost is sensing natural features of your surroundings. Instead of looking down at the phone, try looking around, with your eyes.
Up, down, left right… notice where the sun casts its shadow, certain patterns as you walk. It’s the same in any place, except the medina of Fes. There’s no topographical advantage to paying attention. It’s as if the city grew like an amoeba.
And everything looks the same. Around one corner, then the next, you’re worse than turned around.
You start noticing odd things. For instance, there are no dogs in Morocco, which really makes you wonder. But there are lots of cats. Every stretch of the disjointed medina seemed to have a scrawny cat waiting for me to drop something.
Then there’s the marketplace aspect. It’s the essence of the medina. There are spices, leather goods, cooking utensils, clothes, and the smell of meat. Freshly killed animals have a distinct smell. I think it’s the blood. And you’ll see plenty that.
I passed chickens with dime-sized eyes that indicated whatever was about to happen didn’t seem good.
But I did find my way. I crossed the medina at least a dozen times, maybe more, on foot, without the help of a human guide, or a phone map. I had to make this repetitive trek while performing the requisite leave and come back, touch and go type of meetings with Abdul, the man I felt had my future rug.
How To Buy a Rug
Buying a rug is a whole thing…
In the west, we’re used to browsing in stores. Best case, we might ask for free delivery or a small discount when buying several of something. Rug buying involves none of that.
For starters, there are no prices on the rugs. And the clerks respond to the price inquiry by engaging in the initial step of what turns into a multi-day ordeal.
But the right rug is worth all the effort. People say the right rug really ties a room together. The Tucker kids know they exist on rugs people lived and died on, back as far as Civil War times.
And rugs differ wildly by region. India makes gorgeous new rugs these days. They’re reasonably priced, considering the quality. They’re often ornate, and materials vary based on price.
In my opinion, nothing beats old rugs. There’s something about the natural wear a floor covering takes over a century of use. Plus, the sizes are odd. People didn’t stick to 8x10 or 10x12 back then. You’ll see all kinds of shapes and styles within the antiques.
Then there’s region. The Bijar rug in TTL HQ is valuable for its wet double welted wool. That means the high, rugged mountains produce unique wool. Weavers soak the wool, then pound it along each row during production, causing the welt to harden as it dries. Bijar rugs can last half a millennia.
Some people like silk rugs from east Asia. I’m take it or leave it on those… they don’t groove with my overall aesthetic, a mix of midcentury modern and bohemian. Which is why the Moroccan Berber rugs lured me to Fes.
Berber rugs are generally more plush, easy feeling, with colorful or flowy designs. They make you want to sit on a cushion or wear lots of linen.
You can get newer Berber rugs. But I came here for the antiques.
Here We Go
Abdul takes me across the street and upstairs, tells me to sit down, then disappears. He returns with espresso, his brother, and some other guy who was a non-English speaking heavy smoker.
They start tossing rugs on the floor, watching for a reaction. In my experience, the smart move is to narrow the options first by size, then by style.
We got the size thing done after about 20 rugs. I’d measured my intended rooms in advance, including furniture, etc. Now we’d focus on style.
These guys are good. They watch your every move. So much as raise an eyebrow and they’ve got you. Forget about playing poker with them. Once they see you show an ounce of affinity for something, they start the dance.
However, this is about what I had in mind.
It’s 370cm by 275cm. The rest of the world doesn’t do feet and inches… but if they did, it would be just a touch over 9ft by 12ft.
Antique rugs come in odd sizes. They show wear in funny places. The back of the rug tends to look more raw than modern rugs, especially machined rugs.
Abdul tells me his father bought this rug. Sadly, his father passed two years ago. That makes this rug very special to him.
But Abdul doesn’t know who he’s dealing with. The son of a furniture merchant, everything I know about business, or commerce in general, I learned in a furniture store.
My response, “Move on to the next one, there’s no way I can buy this rug from you, it’s not right.”
This caught him off guard… and we looked at more rugs. But I knew it was the right one.
The Negotiation
Truly, I hate negotiating. And while I tend to be an effective negotiator, the process repulses me. Which might be why I have generally good outcomes.
Abdul asks me what I’d pay for this rug I clearly feel is right for my space. He’s come off the dead father angle and asks for my, “one democratic price” which is a phrase I’d never run into.
I stuck with the father angle… shaking my head, refusing to deal on this sacred carpet. I stood looking, slowly making a silent back and forth gesture of no with my head. I put my arm around him and my hand over his heart then said, “Some things live in here brother, and can’t be cheapened with money.” The whole thing had him baffled.
He tells me MAD 200,000 for this rug…which he normally would not sell, and should sell for a minimum of MAD 250,000 but he is willing to make an exception.
MAD is the Moroccan dirham. It’s important to take a peek at the currency of any country before you visit. In early 2016 I landed in Zurich just as the Swiss franc finished an awful 2015. Since watches priced annually back then, on fixed MSRP, I bought a Rolex Submariner with date just because of the discount and tax waiver. It was about ~20% less than the price in the U.S. Such a bargain, I should’ve bought two.
In the case of the rug errand, a quick consult with the Bloomy while sprawled out in the Air France lie-flat seat showed MAD at 10:1 against the dollar.
Meaning easy math, dividing everything by 10. Or, $20,000 for this rug, which really would tie the room together.
At this stage, Abdul wants a counter offer, the higher the better, for him. He’d then grind me down to a price that worked for him. Like giving up ground in a conflict, you can’t get it back.
Instead, I offered no price. I stuck with the, “It’s too sacred” line. Finally, as I put my shoes back on, he appealed for just please sir, one offer. I told him, “I do like this carpet, but I did not come here to spend that kind of money on two rugs, and I don’t want to insult you by offering a ridiculous number just to get there.”
There was another rug for a bedroom, but we settled agreed rug was a non-issue. I figured out regular hand-woven 7x10 newer rugs were MAD ~25,000-40,000 and good negotiation got it down to MAD ~10,000-15,000. So, USD $1,000-1,500. He still made money at that price, but the rugs are really great, and far cooler than what’s available in the U.S.
The point is, we really needed to haggle over the antique… that was the bulk of the purchase.
I left the store.
Back Through the Medina
I walked back through the entire medina, all the way across, 30 minutes each way.
Back at the riad, Moroccan for boutique hotel, I made a coffee with the hand grinder and Kalita Wave pour over I travel with. I talked to a friend on the phone. I knew this was the right rug. I had to go back across the medina and keep working on Abdul.
When I came back, Abdul and his crew brought out the antique, and we picked up where we left off. It’s almost like a mediation in a lawsuit…where you take breaks to ease tension. Now we’re at MAD 160,000 for both rugs. I’m still non-committal. No counters…just reluctance to offend him. This visit takes an hour, it’s exhausting.
Then I leave again. He tries to get just one more offer out of me, nothing. We’re down to MAD 120,000 and I’m really thinking this is about where it needs to be.
The truth is, I figured a rug of this quality would cost $20,000 in Florida, or closer to $30,000 in New York. That’s without leveraging any previous business or really working on it the way I did in Fes. And for the right rug, it’s fair.
I’ve seen people gamble a multiple of that on high-risk stocks, sending money flying right out the window. A great rug lives with you. It’s part of your life, it’s woven into your experience. It’s the feeling on your feet when you get good news, smile, and celebrate. Or, when life throws you a curveball. People die…often too soon. Things happen, and they hurt. We’re human, and we have feelings. And we process those feelings in our chosen space. The space we choose to live in says a lot about us. In my space, I let the rugs do the talking.
Abdul is a pro, and while I’m not on his level, I’m no British tourist wearing tube socks with Birkenstocks and a fanny pouch either. I went back with MAD 100,000 cash. I took blue U.S. $100s. 5 banded stacks of $2,000 each from my bank. Who incidentally asked me exactly what this money would be used for when I requested it. I told them drugs, which caused a blank stare. It’s a better answer for banking regulators than “I’m going to Africa to buy carpets.” In modern America, being overly truthful can get you in trouble.
The Close…
Like everyone in the world these days, Abdul sat on a stack of carpets, hunched over his smartphone, watching YouTube videos. I had to rouse him.
He jumped to attention and summoned the crew to unfurl more rugs. I stopped him. I apologized in advance, thanked him for his hospitality. I’d first kicked this off Friday around noon. The medina closes on Friday afternoon. You’re not generally supposed to conduct business. We got some initial work done, then I came back Saturday morning. It was 5:00 PM on Saturday at this point.
I told him I had MAD 100,000 and wanted to let him know before I left town that’s where I stood, and appreciated his time. This was a stunner for him. Not at all what he expected. While he read me initially, I read him now.
I knew this was the very low end of what he’d reasonably be able to do. I also knew he’d still make money at this price, a modest amount, but not a really good tourist-sized score.
He seemed fatigued, told me to give him USD $100, and the other guys $50, and we’d do the deal at MAD 100,000. Plus, I’d have to haul the 7x10 rug with me back across the country, via train with occasional livestock on board, then up to Tangier for some R&R, then back to Casablanca before ditching it with Air France. The larger rug would go FedEx. We had a deal.
And I’m certain it’s the right rug. My guess is the age is ~80-100 years old, likely not more. It’ll live on under my feet and the weight of a Noguchi coffee table in New York City. I told Abdul not to worry about it for at least the next 40 years.
Money is For Living Now
My friend Tom Morgan says, “Optimize for the present.”
What he means is, this is it. This is your trip around the rock.
The American notion that we’ll start living later, once we have a certain amount of goofy paper money is crazy.
Crazy because we keep moving the goal posts. I’ve seen people trash relationships, abuse trust, and compromise their already shaky morals to get more money they’re yet still afraid to spend. From the outside, it looks insane.
Meanwhile, people say I’m insane for hurling myself half way around the world for a rug. I guess we have a difference of opinion… But I’m not willing to sacrifice today for an uncertain future.
Increasingly, I don’t see the point of charging ahead for more. All the time people scoff and say the dreaded phrase, “Easy for you to say… you’re rich.” It’s the ultimate philosophical copout. You can’t start thinking things through once you’re rich. You don’t start practicing your one-handed backhand on the tennis court after you’re a professional… you do it when you’re 7 years old, and you keep doing it until you’re 97 years old.
Looking at money and wealth that way might change your perspective. It might shift your view from reactive to proactive.
The problem with reactive thinking is you’re never prepared for anything. Instead of making decisions based on what you want, every move is a fearful response to something external.
Take last Friday for instance. Stocks got waxed. People seemed to freeze in place. These are the people who say an intercontinental rug errand is a crazy waste of money. Meanwhile, they freeze while watching a chunk of their precious stock portfolio evaporate.
The recent January market action was nothing less than blow-off. Meaning popular stocks jumping what you’d expect in a year, in one week, or sometimes a day. It’s a sign of excess.
Any Edward Jones advisor will tell you the stock market returns some low number of ~8% per year dating back to the Model T era. The stock buyers I hear talking complain it takes a whole year to double their money, they missed out on so many other opportunities waiting so long… it’s wild, if you listen. But people don’t.
It’s a blind lust for more, without any idea what more will do for you. Will you go on a rug errand after another 10%, 100%, or 1,000%? There must be some threshold where you’ll start living…
The antidote is simple. Take some time to define what it is you want more than anything else. Don’t tell anyone the answer, this is very personal, and no two people prioritize the same thing. So, keep it to yourself. But take the time to do it.
And once you identify it, add detail on what life looks like with that goal reached. Be specific. Describe to yourself what this feels like. What is this ideal life, and what does a day, week, month look like.
If you do this seriously, you might find it’s possible now. You’ll maybe see it’s your unexamined compulsive day-to-day behaviors, maybe being caught up in something, that’s what holds you back.
More money won’t fix it, only changing your perspective will. Then, just maybe, you’ll see you can begin living that life you’re sacrificing today in search of… right now.
The Gold Rally
Check this out…
It’s the number of $1 bills you need to buy one ounce of gold.
Someday, it’ll be larger. But probably not imminently. The gold price should rise slowly…according to the central planners.
If you own gold, you know there’s no feeling like holding it in your hand… it’s ineffable. For centuries, people sweat to get it, protect it, and hoard it. It’s the only asset that doesn’t rely on a counterparty to do something. For us these days, it’s protection against the inevitable downward path of the currency we’re forced to use.
But the action in the gold market over the past few months is odd. Odd in that we’ve almost decided ~$2,900 is the new price. Trading on either side of that number seems designed to shake people out of the trade and keep a collar on the price.
Since 2000, the gold price moved up ~920% compared to only ~310% for the S&P 500 Index. Ask the Edward Jones guy to explain it…
But since 2010, gold rose only ~168% compared to ~440% for the S&P 500 Index.
The almost 25 years back to 2000 marks the major part of a shift away from free market capitalism, towards centrally controlled capitalism. It means drastically more intervention into the process of fixing prices of interest rates, certain commodities, and arguably, stocks. And it’s all by design.
Like Dosing Us With Prozac
The central planners figured out if our 401k value and our home value rose at a steady pace, we’d be happy.
Being happy means much more than ensuring the sedated masses don’t rise up like hungry barbarians throwing rocks at government buildings. The central planners figured steadily rising asset values would make people comfortable, which would cause them to borrow, and spend.
That in turn would beget more borrowing and spending, by individuals, and companies. In a November 2010 Washington Post opinion piece, then Fed Chairman Bernanke called it a virtuous circle. Meaning the effect would generate more effect, sending markets into an upward spiral.
“Easier financial conditions will promote economic growth. For example, lower mortgage rates will make housing more affordable and allow more homeowners to refinance. […] And higher stock prices will boost consumer wealth and help increase confidence, which can also spur spending. Increased spending will lead to higher incomes and profits that, in a virtuous circle, will further support economic expansion.”
Ben Bernanke – Washington Post – November 3, 2010
It worked. And it’s no surprise the virtuous circle predicted by the leading central planner looped higher and higher over the ensuing decade.
Sure, there were problems. Nobody thought the house-bound mask-wearing citizens of 2020 would take to internet gambling in the stock market while isolated. Or that we’d see the advent of pre-revenue startups raising money at 10-figure valuations. People get carried away… and it never lasts forever.
But we’re a long way into this. There are unintended consequences. We have super billionaires. We’ll eventually have the Forbes Trillionaire List.
And the average people central planners hoped to sedate with methadone-like perma-bull markets, seem utterly lost. They’re in exactly the philosophical spot you’d expect… the crosshairs.
My bet is almost nobody in the average segment of society took this perma-bull market as a chance to build sustainable wealth. That might mean laying out a pie chart with a percentage of each asset class they’d like, and rebalancing it quarterly.
Instead, they likely bought the hot thing of the day, most recently meme coins, maybe made a little money, then gave it all back. I’d love to hear in the comments if anyone took the occasional sprinkle of phantom profits out of the hot market to buy a few gold coins, or an unleveraged rental property. I’d truly love to know… because I think most bounced from one bull to the next, dizzy from all the excitement.
Most people sleepwalk into junkie behavior, it’s only later they first blame, then weep over what could have been.
And part of why I’m afraid I might be right is I wrote the easiest to read gold book in the history of genre, which is a very small genre. After selling a mountain of copies, I’m not sure people got the core message, which led us as expected to the current ~$2,900 gold price.
Preserving hard-earned savings in a centrally planned economy isn’t appealing until the hot trades tumble. People still don’t seem to understand gold. From the bottom to the top, nobody wants to own it.
I’d guess the King of Morocco owns some, but most people can’t bear to buy it and let it sit. So what if it’s up 11% year to date. Or 44% since a year ago February 24, 2024. That’s not enough…
People need options, futures, options on futures, ETFs, anything but just plain gold. It’s doesn’t move fast enough for the gotta have more junkies.
While today’s average investor has no time to examine the thinking behind what they do, professionals are even worse.
I don’t know one professional money manager, of size, willing to commit capital to gold. Not one. And I don’t want to hear about one of the half dozen gold bugs struggling to their WeWork bill. I’m talking about the mainstream, the bulk of the world’s ~$300 trillion in assets.
At the new what appears to be fixed price of gold, $2,900, the total value of mined gold above ground is ~$20.2 trillion. It’s a big number. For reference, the total value of all U.S. listed stocks stands at ~$62 trillion.
For the ~$20.2 trillion gold hoard to grow, you’d expect worldwide asset values to rise, and I’m not sure they will, immediately at least.
The DOGE Trump movement is amusing to watch, but may be sand in the gears of what Ben Bernanke called a virtuous circle.
Think about it, if QE ignites a virtuous circle, sending the Fed’s balance sheet from ~$800 billion to ~$9 trillion in the process, reversing it would create an opposite circle. Maybe it’s a despair circle.
But maybe not for gold owners… Monetary games, credit expansion, Fed control of what was once a free market, did wonders for paper wealth. You can’t buy a Rolex, a house, or at times, even a nice car. People have more money than sense, and they still need more.
And if the virtuous circle that caused all this stops, you might spend a few minutes thinking about what kind of life you want to enjoy before it happens. I don’t mean getting over on the rest of the plebes by grave dancing on their loss.
What I mean is figure out what’s enough to live the life you want. To chill out on nice rugs, eat well, live well, enjoy the time as it slips through the hourglass. Everyone else seems fixated on more, maybe defining what more will get you is worth a few minutes away from YouTube and Instagram. You might see things differently when you return.
Where Gold Goes Next
(To keep reading click here)