Tuesday, January 19, 2021

"A Man of Distinction, So Refined"

"A Man of Distinction, So Refined"
By Bill Bonner

"The minute you walked in the joint
I could see you were a man of distinction,
A real big spender.
Good looking, so refined.
Say, wouldn’t you like to know what’s going on in my mind?"
- "Big Spender", by Shirley Bassey

WEST RIVER, MARYLAND – "Here’s the nation’s new go-to person for everything that concerns money. Reuters reports: "Janet Yellen, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee to run the Treasury Department, will tell the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday that the government must “act big” with its next coronavirus relief package. “I believe the benefits will far outweigh the costs, especially if we care about helping people who have been struggling for a very long time,” she said in the statement, which was obtained by Reuters.

Who are these people who have been struggling? American household income (thanks to the feds’ bailouts and giveaways) was at its highest point ever last year – with $1 trillion more in earnings than the year before. And we need not remind dear readers that the U.S. government is broke – with a $2 trillion deficit already on the books.

Acting Stupid: But acting “big” is rarely the same as acting smart. In this context, it means acting stupid. There are two important tasks for an American president. He is meant to protect Americans’ freedom and their wealth. Everything else is detail. But already, the incoming jefe is promising to squander more of both. (I’ll come back to how he will squander Americans’ freedom later in the week...) But hey… give the guy a chance. It’s his turn!

Donald Trump acted “big,” too. He set a record for wasting wealth – with the largest budget increases in history. He followed Barack Obama, who was no slouch at dissipation either; he added $8.5 trillion to the national debt during his eight-year term, a 73% increase. He also put in place the “Obamacare” plan, an open-ended “entitlement” that is sure to bankrupt the country as Americans grow older.

hen, of course, there was George W. Bush, whose “big” act was the wacky War on Terror. It will cost $7 trillion. (We’ll get to his “Patriot Act” later this week, when we look at the loss of freedom I alluded to above.)

Act Bigger: But Mr. Biden seems to want to act bigger than any president before him. That is, he wants to out-retard them all. This is not necessarily his fault. You get to Hell one step at a time. The road is well trod and he’s already far along. All he has to do is keep walking. One foot after the other. Left after right. A is followed by B… It doesn’t matter who does the hauling. The ankle bone is connected to the shin bone… And when you’ve got an aging, degenerate empire… led by an aging Deep State hack… what do you expect?

Permanent Stimulus: And, by the way, the American people will whoop and holler… lining up behind him like a yahoo mob going to watch an execution. Then, thanks to the hard work of the public schools and the mainstream media – two pillars of the Elite Establishment – the poor knuckleheads will gladly salute their own firing squad.

Look at this, reported by MassLive.com: "Nearly two-thirds of Americans are on board with a progressive proposal – backed by some Massachusetts lawmakers – calling on the federal government to cut monthly $2,000 stimulus checks to Americans over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new poll shows.

Data for Progress, a progressive polling and advocacy group, asked 1,166 likely voters across the country last week if they’d support or oppose the idea of a “$2,000 per month direct cash payment to every person for the duration of the pandemic.”

Sixty-five percent of respondents say they’d support recurring $2,000 checks, an idea still advocated by Sens. Ed Markey and Bernie Sanders, who along with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris proposed a bill for monthly checks back in May. Forty-one percent of respondents “strongly support” the idea, while 24% “somewhat support” it."

Note that this is not a one-time “stimulus” of $2,000 they are calling for, but MONTHLY checks… a permanent stimulus plan. It would function as a kind of monetary pacemaker… giving consumers a jolt every month just to keep their greedy little hearts pumping.

Does anyone ask, “Where will the money come from?” Does anyone worry about the expanding federal deficits… or the tilting tower of debt? No? Why not? Because they don’t have to.

Something for Nothing: That is the wonderful magic of the post-1971 money system. It corrupts federal spending… It distorts and weakens the economy… And it also eats away at the brain.  The Federal Reserve has multiplied its balance sheet (the foundation of America’s money supply) by nearly 10 times so far this century. That is what paid (indirectly) for the War on Terror… Obama’s debt… the Wall Street boom… Trump’s tax cuts… and the COVID-19 “relief” boondoggles.

And now, brains all across the country are abuzz about the great things coming down the pike. “Something for nothing” is no longer a joke; it’s a fact of life. People expect to get a free lunch every day. And $2,000 a month will soon seem miserly."
Since you insist...
Shirley Bassey, "Big Spender"

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