"Mother Nature Has Found Her Man – Joe Biden"
by Bill Bonner
"Where has the horse gone? Where is the man?
Where is the giver of treasure?
Where are the seats at the feast?
Where are the joys of the hall?
Alas the bright goblet! Alas the mailed warrior!
Alas the pride of princes!
How the space of years has passed –
it grows dark beneath the night-helm, as if it never was!"
– “The Wanderer,” author unknown
SAN MARTIN, ARGENTINA – "We recently learned a new word. Actually, it’s a very old word: Enantiodromia. Naturally, the Greeks thought of it. As our colleague, Joel Bowman, tells it, it describes the “tension of opposites”… the rise and fall… the yin and yang… the first shall be last… Want to see it in action… in the flesh? Just look in the mirror. What was once young becomes old. People, companies, nations… all rise and fall.
But great nations do not fall on their own. They are knocked down by people – leaders who are up to the task… right for the time… who are capable of kicking Humpty off the wall.
Feckless Catastrophe: There are two sure ways to bring a nation down – war and inflation. By our reckoning, the decline of the U.S. began at the end of the last century – in 1999. That is when the stock market – in terms of gold – hit its all-time high.
It was also when America faced no significant enemies… when the U.S. federal budget was in surplus (allowing for a little funny accounting)… and when it was widely expected that the new technology – centered in the internet – would make us all smarter, richer, healthier, longer-lived… and happier.
Alas, beginning in 2000, Mother Nature, with her glorious sense of mischief, wanted to take America down a peg. And she found the man to do it – George W. Bush. His “war against terror” was a fateful, feckless catastrophe. It will cost $7 trillion, say the professors at Brown University who bother to add it up. And it produced nothing but misery.
National Disaster: Then came the Obama team, whose contribution to national disaster was the Obamacare plan… which added unfunded liabilities estimated between $43 trillion and $87 trillion, depending on whom you believe.
And finally, the Great Man himself, Donald Trump, arrived, wearing his steel-toed boots. In four years, he has added more to the nation’s debt than any previous president. He brought deficit spending to a peak never before seen in the USA. He made “helicopter money” – heretofore a joke – a reality. And he crushed conservativism out of the Republican Party. Now, Republicans are ready to spend, spend, spend, too. In the next go-round of giveaway money, for example, Donald Trump says he wants to “go bigger” even than the Democrats.
How do you pay for all these extra boondoggles when you’re already spending $2 for every $1 you collect in taxes? You print the money. This formula – aka “inflation” – has ruined countless countries. The U.S. will not be the first or the last.
Decision Point: And so… here we are, Dear Reader… at a decision point.
On Monday, we set the stage: an election is coming up.
On Tuesday, we brought forth our flawed hero, Donald J. Trump.
And on Wednesday, we looked at how he had made an already dangerous, and probably fatal, situation worse.
Today, we will look at the alternative – Joe Biden. Would a Biden presidency be “better?” And if so, how? Not wanting to keep you in suspense, our conclusion is this: If the goal of Mother Nature is enantiodromia – that is, cutting a great empire down to size – Biden is probably her man. His policy notions are even worse than those of Donald Trump. And his advisors and probable apparatchiks are more competent than those of the Big Man (for whom loyalty was more important than competence)… and therefore, perhaps, more likely to succeed in implementing his policies. (Competence is not always a benefit. If your 10-year-old tries to build a bomb in the basement, for example, you should be happy that he lacks the necessary skills.)
No Choice: Now on the downswing… In theory, the nation faces a choice. It could turn away from crackpot economics and divisive politics… balance its budget… recall its troops… and reenter the community of stable, civilized nations in a dignified and graceful way.
Or… it could continue on the path set by Bush, Obama, and Trump. But in practice, there is no choice at all. Because the people who actually run the U.S. government – the Deep Staters – are not about to renounce the source of their pride, their prejudices, their reputations, their power… and their wealth. And in Joe Biden they have found their champion. He is no visionary… no intellectual… no ideologue. Instead, he is a go-along, get-along political hack.
He went along with the war mongering of George Bush and Hillary Clinton. He went along with the Forever War… as it continued under Obama. He went along with Obama’s medical care extravaganza. A senator for 36 years… and vice president for eight, Joe Biden has gone along with practically every jackass program that saw the light of day. And he’s ready to go along with a whole new set of trillion-dollar bamboozles and boondoggles.
What was refreshing about Donald Trump was that he was willing to say what others only thought, and resist popular fads. (He had his own crackpot ideas.) Biden, on the other hand, will get behind every politically correct, claptrap idea that comes down the pike.
A Green New Deal? Sounds good!
A universal basic income? Check.
Higher taxes on the rich? Sure…
Free college? Yep, it’s on the list.
Reparations? Maybe.
These things tend to have open-ended price tags. But the most recent estimate for the package Biden is campaigning on is about $6 trillion, guaranteeing deficits of trillions of dollars per year…
Enantiodromia, Here We Come! And check this out. Federal Reserve governor Lael Brainard has been mentioned as a possible Treasury Secretary in the new Democrat-led government. What does she think? She spoke out on Wednesday… possibly to raise her visibility: "Further targeted fiscal support will be needed alongside accommodative monetary policy to turn this K-shaped recovery into a broad-based and inclusive recovery…"
Biden in the White House? Brainard at the Treasury? More fake money! More inflation! Whoopee! Enantiodromia, here we come!
Election Preview: But wait… Will Biden really win? And what will happen if he does? Will he actually be worse than Trump? Tune in tomorrow for the exciting – and surprising – conclusion to our Election Preview."
