"Same Old, Same Old"

"Same Old, Same Old"

By Bill Bonner

"The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists."

- Ernest Hemingway

RANCHO SANTANA, NICARAGUA – "Today, we’re putting aside our travel tales and turning to more important matters – the future of the nation, that is. For a president, there are only two things that really count: Protecting the citizens’ wealth… and protecting their freedom. Typically, presidents do neither. Instead, they eat away at them, like termites hollowing out a log. They waste the nation’s wealth on jackass programs… inflate the currency… and make enemies all over the world, with their wars, sanctions, bullying, and meddling. With those basics in mind, it is probably not too early to look at what the new Biden team has in store for us. In short: Same old, same old.

Plus Ça Change: Looking back a few weeks, we wonder… What was all the election bruhaha about? What difference did it make who was elected? We forecast that it would make none. And as to the basics, we were right. Nothing much has changed.

War? If anything, the Biden Bunch is likely to make a bigger mess of things than the Trump gang. To his everlasting credit, Donald Trump was the first American president in nearly 50 years not to start a new war. But Biden has already signaled that he won’t cancel Trump’s sanctions… that Russia and China will continue to be regarded as adversaries… and that those in the military/industrial/Deep State complex can begin building new vacation homes.

Lest we forget, as a senator and then as vice president, Biden played his part in getting Democrat support for the War on Terror, the invasion of Iraq, and the other military misadventures of the last 20 years. He and the “queen of the warmongers,” Hillary Clinton, pushed the bombing of Libya and the war in Serbia before that.

Professional Warmongers: And now, the liberal media says Biden is bringing professionalism back to American foreign policy. Yes, he’s replacing Trump’s amateurish incompetents with seasoned war criminals and career cronies. The rascals are taking refuge in the nation’s capital. Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, Neera Tanden, and Michèle Flournoy – smart scalawags, every one of them.

Wasting no time, the retreads and has-beens from the Clinton and Obama days are back on the job… desperately trying to remain relevant (and keep the cash flowing) by throwing their weight around. CNN reports: "US deploying B-1 bombers to Norway to send a message to Russia." "The US Air Force is deploying B-1 bombers to Norway for the first time in a move that sends a clear message to Moscow that the US military will operate in the strategically important Arctic region and demonstrate that it will defend allies in the area against any Russian aggression close to the country’s border."

Going Big: As for the other part of the formula – inflation – nothing has changed there, either. The Biden boys and girls are going to “go big,” just like the Trumpistas before them. It’s hard to exaggerate the biglyness of Trump’s inflationary push. During his reign, the spending… the deficit… the budget… the debt… and the money-printing all expanded more than ever. Not even in wartime was so much monetary and fiscal inflation added to the system.

And if Donald Trump had somehow managed a recount, and gotten another four years in office, it would inevitably be more of the same – more spending, more deficits, more debt, and more money-printing. The Donald was all for it.

And so is Joe Biden. The bigness of Biden’s plan is so loony that even the loons themselves are beginning to wonder about it. Here’s Breitbart: "Leading Liberal Economist Sounds Alarm Over Biden’s $1.9 Trillion Covid Bill." "One of the world’s leading liberal economists dealt Joe Biden a blow in recent days, warning that the president’s $1.9 trillion Covid relief legislation could ignite an inflationary conflagration.

Olivier Blanchard, the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund and perhaps the most cited economist in the world, spelled out his case against the Biden bill in a series of tweets on Saturday. Blanchard’s argument is that the size of the stimulus injected into the economy would be too large, especially when added to the measures taken last year. The additional spending power created by the additional $1.9 trillion budget deficit would drive up prices and force the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates."

But to hear the “experts” tell it, printing-press money is just the panacea that America needs. The only question, for them, is, “How much?”

Bird on a Wing: They believe they can use government spending – funded by fake money – to stimulate the U.S. economy… to rescue American families from poverty… to redress the wrongs of the patriarchy, white supremacy, Big Business, greed, and nature… and even to save the planet from the evils of carbon dioxide. And they believe (according to the now-popular Modern Monetary Theory fantasy) that the only real limit is consumer price inflation.

When the cost of living rises above their target, they say they’ll let the printing presses cool down… and raise taxes to control inflation. But as we know, that’s not going to happen. Those who live by the printing press die by the printing press, with more and more “liquidity” (aka fake money) needed just to stay in the same place. Yes, Dear Reader, it’s “inflate or die.” And Joe Biden, like Trump before him, will continue to inflate the American economy.

And what’s this? Agricultural commodities are up 13% over the last 12 months. Metals are up 18%. The buzzard of consumer price inflation hath but a short way to fly… And as we reported yesterday, lo… the bird is on the wing. Stay tuned…"

- www.rogueeconomics.com