"Different Kind Of Dumb"
The US has just spent $95 billion it didn’t have for benefits it will
never get. A conventional cost-benefit analysis reveals huge,
real costs and unlikely or imponderable benefits.
by Bill Bonner
Dublin, Ireland - "Yesterday, the question - are China’s deciders as dumb as US deciders? - was left open. It seems almost axiomatic that the answer is ‘yes.’ But it might be a different kind of dumb.
We all are human...all too human, as Nietzsche put it. Fear, greed, jealousy, hate, the lust for power, conniving, generosity, patriotism - the basic elements are always there. But power structures - such as the Post-WWII world order - change. So, today... we put aside right or wrong, good or bad, axis, schmaxis...evil, schmevil... and look at what kind of change might be coming.
In America’s latest ‘foreign aid’ bill, we find many of the ‘negative’ features of the human character. Larceny, Corruption, Delusion, Stupidity, Hubris - it’s all there. The nature of its dumbness is routine; the level of it is perhaps extraordinary.
Russian Repo: As for the larceny, the measure included a Repo section that allowed the feds to steal property that is owned by Russians. It is as if, in response to the US invasion of Iraq, France had seized Americans’ bank accounts in Paris.
The Corruption follows soon enough. The effect of the measure is really to raise the bid for US-made weapons. The money goes from the US to the deciders in Israel, Taiwan and the Ukraine. They skim off some for themselves. The Taiwanese take a little. The Ukrainians take a lot. The rest goes back to the US firepower industry, whence some of it makes its way to the “think tanks” that lobby... and politicians who vote... surprise!... for more war.
As for the canny Israelites... the US in WWII spent 43% of GDP on defense. Luxury consumer items almost disappeared from the shelves. Americans tightened up their belts to win the war. And now, “Israel’s very survival is at stake,” says Mike Johnson. But for all the talk of an ‘existential battle,’ the Israelis don’t seem especially concerned. They spend only 5.3% of GDP on their military, relying on Trump, Biden, Johnson et al. to provide the money they need.
What’s in it for the US taxpayer? We don’t know. But if the Palestinians had the kind of political power in the US that the Israelis have, we’d be sending artillery and planes to them, rather than to their enemies. The US government has been bought.
Democracy Delusion: Then, there is the Delusion... that Ukraine is a model democracy and that by sending it more money the Ukraine will win the war and the world will be a better place. Even the Ukrainians don’t believe it. In WWII Americans lined up at recruiting offices, eager to ‘do their part.’ Not so in the Ukraine. The New York Times: "In Ukraine’s West, Draft Dodgers Run, and Swim, to Avoid the War."
Stupidity. We don’t know the future any better than Johnson, Graham, Frum, Biden, Clinton or Trump. But anyone with any historical, military, or cultural perspective knows that there’s always more to the story. Zelensky has banned eleven opposition parties, seized control of TV news coverage, cancelled elections, prohibited speaking Russian and persecuted Orthodox Christians.
What kind of democracy is that? Is Putin really planning to ‘roll over Europe?’ Where is the evidence? More to the point, is there any reason for Americans to give a damn or a dollar who wins the battle for the Russian speaking provinces of Ukraine?
The US has just spent $95 billion it didn’t have for benefits it will never get. A conventional cost-benefit analysis reveals huge, real costs and unlikely or imponderable benefits. So why do it? More security? Not likely. More peace? Not at all. More prosperity? Just the opposite. All it will get for sure is more debt - about $1,000 per household.
Higher rates, lower stocks: The extra borrowing will exert upward pressure on interest rates. Money will then leave the stock market to take advantage of the higher rates on bonds. Stocks will go down in value. Consumer prices will go up (pushed up by larger deficits)... Americans will be poorer…and the Primary Trend will run its course.
But wait... there’s more. Hubris. Why beef up US military power so as to “counter” Chinese influence? Why ban TikTok or subsidize the US chip industry? Why make China an enemy? Why seek “primacy in Asia?”
Is it because working with China in a peaceful, mutually beneficial way would not benefit the corrupt political system...nor the firepower industry...nor its lobbyists and think tanks...nor the politicians who take its money and vote its way...nor would it support the Primary Trend? A win-win relationship with China would not increase consumer prices...nor would it boost US debt...nor would it contribute to higher interest rates and lower asset prices. Nor would it give jackass warmongers anything to go on TV and blab about.
And tomorrow we’ll take a peek at the “New World Order.” We’ll see that the Chinese, though human, may be a different kind of dumb…and America’s strange policies may actually help them achieve the glory they aim for."
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