"The Dark At the End of the Tunnel"
By Bill Bonner
"The price tag will be high."
– President-elect Joe Biden
WEST RIVER, MARYLAND – "Wow… What a week! What a way to begin a new year! Many people were outraged and appalled by last week’s shenanigans in Washington. And this morning, calls for impeachment, destitution, or lynching are still running riot over the internet. But
nothing very serious happened last week. The Temple was defiled. But there was no attempt at a coup. Nobody burned the Capitol down or massacred the Washington elite.
And now that that episode is behind us… with Trump leaving office… several vaccines to stop the coronavirus… employment on the rise… the stock market hitting new highs… and Democrats in control of the House, the Senate, and the White House…what could go wrong? Should the pessimists simply go home? Should the declinists put on happy faces… for now, the Biden Clan can finally get to work… and do what the MAGA mob could not – make America great again? Oh, Dear Reader… you’re not serious, are you?
A Matter of Time: We’re looking at an empire… aging, corroding, weakening… rolling over… with a ruling class that is desperate to hold onto power. Joe Biden called the storming of the Capitol an act of “terrorism.” And Rep. Jason Crow, D-Co., says “We are witnessing the birth of a domestic terrorist movement in the United States.” So it’s probably just a matter of time before the vicious birds unleashed in the Mideast in the “War on Terror” come home to roost in the USA. But that is just a guess… Let’s stick with what we know.
High Price: And so far, all is well. The shelves are still filled with food. The U.S. dollar still has value. The stock market is still high. And the lights still work. Enjoy it while you can. Because the real trouble will probably begin this year, as we enter a more treacherous phase. Thanks to the chaos sown in 2020… we need to prepare for a bumper crop of bitterness, economic decline, and political discord in 2021… and beyond.
Dig this, from AL.com: "A pair of Democratic Senate wins in Georgia has given new life to a proposal for a $2,000 stimulus payment. Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff’s victories gave Democrats effective control of the Senate and Chuck Schumer, D-NY, is expected to become Senate Majority Leader. Schumer has long supported the increased stimulus and said a higher payment will be one of his top priorities. “One of the first things that I want to do when our new senators are seated is deliver the $2,000 checks to the American families,” Schumer said this week."
According to Joe Biden, more money is on the way. He says he’ll reveal the details on Thursday. But the “price tag,” he says with pride (and maybe a little insanity), “will be high.”
Big-Spending Democrats: On that, if nothing else, the president-elect will surely be proven right. The price tag for all of this nonsense – lockdowns, bailouts, giveaways, money-printing, racketeering, trillion-dollar deficits, the War on Terror, corruption, and associated jackassery – will be much higher than he suspects. Bush, Obama, Trump… and presently, the hack from Delaware… all share the same goal – to keep the elites in power, at any cost. And that now means “Inflate or Die.”
The feds created a debt-drenched society. Now, they must add more and more fake money to keep it from falling apart. In 2020, tax revenues covered only about half of government expenses. And with the aforementioned Joe Biden taking office in nine days, and Congress now controlled by big-spending Democrats (rather than big-spending Republicans), we can expect the printing presses to run hotter than ever.
Permanent Boondoggle: In the first instance, more fake money may mean higher stock prices. This from Business Insider: "The S&P 500 will climb another 10% as the Democrat-controlled government passes new stimulus, Credit Suisse says. Democrats’ upcoming control of the US Senate paves the way for a new fiscal stimulus and healthy stock-market returns throughout 2021, Credit Suisse analysts said Thursday.
The team led by Jonathan Golub lifted its 2021 S&P 500 price target to 4,200 from 4,050 in a note to clients, implying a roughly 10% rally from current levels. The bank expects the index’s earnings-per-share to climb to $175 this year and reach $200 by the end of 2022."
Remember, the big change in 2020 was that while the feds had been passing trillions to their friends on Wall Street, now, they will try to support Main Street, too. Here, we are guessing again… but most likely, the Democrats will try to turn the episodic “stimulus” checks into a permanent boondoggle. That is, someone will notice that occasional bailout checks create a herky-jerky economy.
Temporary Measure: As it is, nobody knows what to expect. Consumers are reluctant to consume; businesses are reluctant to hire… and investors aim for short-term, speculative gains, rather than making the kind of long-term capital commitments that increase real wealth. Economists will tout the benefits of “regular,” predictable stimulus measures – otherwise known as a “Universal Basic Income.”
It will be a “temporary” measure, of course – like the Federal Reserve’s low interest rates, U.S. troops in the Mideast, Amtrak subsidies, the War on Poverty, the War on Drugs, debt ceilings, quantitative easing, social distancing, and airport security screening. But a Universal Basic Income will keep the money flowing… until the dollar itself is worthless."
