Free Money may Finally be Coming to an End...

MONETARY TRICKLE-DOWN – A/K/A FREE MONEY – MAY FINALLY BE COMING TO AN END

 

 

“That indignity of inflation is what’s really cruel about inflation -- it hurts people who have less, it hurts them more,” Daly said. “And it has that sense that you’re trying as hard as you can and you still can’t make it.” 

 

-       FED, Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly

 

“The electricity market is no more a functioning market because there’s one actor -- Putin -- who’s systematically trying to destroy it and to manipulate it so we really have to react to that and that’s why we’re addressing now the composition of the electricity market,” she told a press conference in Denmark on Tuesday.

 

-      EU, President Ursula von der Leyen

 

By Gregg Wall (9-3-2022)

 

Citizens around the globe maybe witnessing the end of an era… the end of ultra-accommodative monetary policies that have fed some of the greatest egos and excesses the world has ever seen (and hopefully, will never see again).  

 

Ultra-accommodative monetary policies – with Japan as an early test pilot – have been used to bailout billionaires, markets, and failed laissez-faire/libertarian industrial policies for decades.  In the U.S., these central bank policies – namely, interest rate suppression and quantitative easing - came into vogue after the 2008 crash, when billionaires and Wall St. were bailed out with trillions in dollar printing.  Moreover, these billionaires and Wall St were not only bailed out, but made obscenely wealthy (in the greatest transfer of wealth, the world has ever witnessed).

 

Now, multiple crises of a catastrophic nature have brought into clear focus the problems ultra-accommodative monetary policies have created or helped to create.  Included in the list of crises, with many of these serious problems perniciously feeding upon one another: extraordinary national & private sector debts; energy policies (the lack thereof); failing globalization & neoliberalism; a pandemic; over reliance on markets and the private sector; collapsing ethics within Western governments – which have, often, become little more than patronage and spoils systems; in the U.S. in particular, the moral hazard surrounding endless war and debt racked up to finance same; and incessant consumer price gouging (commonly referred to in the MSM as “inflation”).

 

And it is this last crisis… excessive profit taking, at the expense of the economy, the nation, and America’s citizens…  that the Federal Reserve’s policies are largely & uniquely responsible.  Let’s take a quick look, specifically, at what free money & QE have wrought: 

The private equity (PE) and financial engineering business models have thrived.  The industry thrives on cheap debt and leverage and here the Federal Reserve’s policies have been highly rewarding to PE.  A PE industry that with great consistency loads businesses up with debt, rewards management & ownership with billions and billions (in the aggregate, trillions), and destroys jobs, opportunity, future investment, and innovation.  By the way, our current FED chair came from a private equity firm, the Carlyle Group.  As a result of PE destroying businesses, the model ensures greater market concentration and aids and abets cartel & monopoly formation. 

 

M&A and industry consolidation have thrived under the FED’s free money policies.  Thanks to FED and central bank policies…. cheap money has made consolidation, leveraged buyouts, cartel and monopoly formation all that much easier.  Many American industries are now dominated by a handful of actors that are too big to fail.  This gives these industries extraordinary power over consumers, labor, suppliers, smaller businesses, and indeed, over U.S. and, in some instances, global governments. 

 

As I mentioned recently, in another write up, the number of billionaires has soared to catastrophic levels.  The majority of these individuals did not earn their way to billionaire status, by the sweat of their brow; but instead, merely road successive tidal waves of free money, as the US national debt soared from less than $2 trillion in the early eighties to in excess of $30 trillion today.  But try telling these plutocrats - many of them far-right libertarians - that they didn’t earn it.  But instead, happened to be at the right place and time, by accident of birth, and are - for the most part - products of exceptionally lousy monetary policy (fiscal, regulatory, & tax policies, as well) gone horribly, horribly wrong.  And now, these individuals own the U.S. government and our elected representatives. 

 

Thank you, Federal Reserve.  But it would be unfair to blame the FED entirely for these problems… the central bank certainly had a lot of encouragement from America’s elites. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be sure the FED is not all bad and remarkably, shows great potential. 

 

Overreliance upon the FED to solve the nation’s problems… from cleaning up after billionaire and Wall St excess to tackling consumer price gouging… has really drilled home just how corrupt and incompetent the U.S. congress has become.  The fact that congress consistently abdicates to the Federal Reserve on more serious matters drives the point home. 

 

Clearly, major structural reforms and personnel changes are needed & required. 

 

And my personal favorite, all the above merely shows that MMT works.  After all, if FED chairs can conjure trillions out of thin air for billionaires, markets, and Wall St…. just imagine what honest actors at the FED and within the congress could do for the American people and the nation.  Particularly, if the national debt was in whole, or in part, wiped clean.    

 

The FED reminds us that finance is the art of doing the impossible and making the impossible a reality; the FED reminds us that the creation of debt also requires great ethics and moral responsibility.  Ideally, that power should be shared with the American people, and not remain the exclusive domain of unaccountable and unelected central bankers. 

 

The greatest tragedy of it all -- the era of monetary trickle-down -- was that trillions were printed, and wealth transferred, to some of the worst people and in support of truly malign endeavors.  That is to say, monetary policy wrongly used in the creation of billionaires, cartels, monopolies, and wars. 

 

Let’s hope central banks have learned their lesson and free money is over, at least for nefarious actors and business interests.  It’s going to take a lot of effort and work on the part of central banks, in concert with governments and legislative bodies, to unwind the crises free money has created.  And that process is likely to see even more crises arise.

 

Is free money truly over?  Once inflation is subdued, the pressure to return ultra-accommodative monetary policies will be tremendous and per the usual, for all the wrong reasons.  Congress has a key role to play in protecting consumers, labor, and Americans from a higher rate regime and predatory lending.

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2022

Doom Loop of Despair…?

Doom Loop of Despair…?

 

If you’re expecting to notice any material improvement in costs or living standards before November, well, that ain’t gonna happen.

 

-       How the Inflation Reduction Act will (or won’t) affect the midterms, Washington Post.

 

By Gregg Wall (8-20-2022)

 

It was classic bait and switch. 

 

It was classic Washington… run out the legislative clock, hand Americans a poor substitute for Build Back Better -- something called the badly misnamed, Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) -- declare victory, and campaign until the November midterms. 

 

Amidst all the back slapping by Dems in Washington this week, there was very little mention that the IRA fell exceedingly short of the President’s and Dem party’s commitments to the American people: especially long-suffering children, families, and women.  As described by some honest reporters and one or two politicos of the progressive mindset, the IRA was more notable for what it didn’t deliver: child tax credit, childcare, no Medicare for All option, long-term healthcare, family medical leave, affordable housing, tuition free college, student debt write-down, universal pre-K, and cannabis legalization are all still MIA. 

 

That is to say, nearly everything that President and the Dems had promised on the campaign trail, especially that which is immediately beneficial to the American people, was absent from the newly passed bill.  Even the widely touted green initiatives of the IRA … some $369 billion … are to be spent over ten years and are a mere fraction of the trillions in subsidies Big Oil receives, annually, globally.  It tells you everything you need to know about this so-called centerpiece green legislation, when Exxon and Shell are said to love the spending measure. 

 

This legislation comes at a time when the American people are in a state of crisis, with 60 to 70% living hand to mouth, paycheck to paycheck; when 33% of Americans, and climbing, are working in the Gig economy; and another 33% make less than what is referred to as a living wage ($15 per hour, that no member of congress could survive on).  Consumers and labor are being gouged at the checkout line and at the gas pumps.  The economy is teetering on recession, and for the bottom half, recession has undoubtedly arrived.  Child poverty is ascendant, as is malnutrition.  And lest we forget, Americans and some homeowners are being hammered by rising interest rates from the FED… perhaps a necessary evil to tame inflation, but only because congress has failed to enforce antitrust and fund a robust regulatory regime (against billionaires, big oil, monopolists, multinationals, and Wall St).  The IRA is so wretched that robber barons, like Bill Gates, are said to have talked the archnemesis of the American people, Senator Manchin, into signing on. 

 

For many Americans it was highly reminiscent of the Obama administration … when congress messed around for the better part of two years, burned up the legislative clock, and instead of delivering universal care, delivered the misnomer of all misnomers for legislation: The Affordable Care Act.  Which Dems propped up/bailed out, under the IRA again this week, with more subsidies, corporate welfare for insurance companies and Big Pharma.  In short, the IRA, the CHIPS ACT, and the bipartisan infrastructure bill are all reminiscent of ‘porkapalooza’ itself, Obama’s Affordable Care Act.  Affordable the ACA is not, as it, combined with for-profit health care, is the most expensive health care system among the G7 nations. 

 

The Dems haven’t learned a thing.  If the IRA was such a great deal for Americans, his approval rating would be off the charts, but instead, POTUS Biden received a modest point or two bump.  And virtually undiscussed in the MSM is how the Dems managed to land America in two new - money sucking - Cold Wars, in the Ukraine and Taiwan.  To add insult to injury, and despite controlling both houses of congress, Dems have failed to codify abortion rights and expand & protect voter rights.  Instead, choosing to raise money and campaign on their failure to act.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What will it really take for the POTUS to turn things around?  A blizzard of executive orders that shows the President does care about the American people, democracy, and the fate of the nation.  

 

The NY Times mentioned that the president may further strengthen the IRA - particularly the green elements - with executive orders.  Why not go all the way and declare a national climate emergency and do exactly what the GOP has accused Dems of doing, but up until now have failed to do... and wage war against Big Oil & Gas with a retroactive windfall profits tax (to fund a Green New Deal).

 

That would be a really good start.  If the POTUS wants to secure the house and senate, and perhaps make gains in November, Biden should eliminate student debt in its entirety.  Dems would also do well to recognize that throwing money at a problem, like price gouging -- whether it be Chip manufacturers or Health Care utilities, et al. – does absolutely little to solve the problem.  But rather, emboldens cartels, monopolies, and Wall St.  

 

Subsidies just mean the monopolistic crime spree continues (see health care insurers and forever rising premiums); subsidies end up on multinational income statements; subsidies often end up as dividends and stock buybacks for a predatory few; subsidies do not address the cartel & monopoly problem.  Forgive me for asking, but why do Americans tolerate this doom loop of despair: where congress feeds Americans subsidies, that further fuel monopolistic profits, profits that in turn are used to buy congress?  Taking bold, consistent action on antitrust and strengthening America’s regulatory agencies would be another initiative Biden could deliver upon. 

 

Calling congress out for its endless series of failures… particularly its inexplicable and relentless inability to address America’s laissez-faire, neoliberal industrial policy… would also let American voters know that Biden is serious about addressing real problems, that have a real impact upon the American people.  

 

And the political pièce de resistance… now that congress is in campaign mode and busy raising money… call the bastards back into session, on an emergency basis, and demand that they pass BBB and address predatory price gouging.  Given the reckless arrogance and self-regard with which the majority of congress persons hold themselves, such an act would surely raise Biden’s approval rating by as much as five points.  Just by enraging members of congress. 

 

The American people would love it. 

 

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2022

Thanks for the Memories…

Thanks for the Memories… 

 

My fellow Americans, on Saturday, at my direction, the United States successfully concluded an airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan, that killed the emir of al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri. 

-       Remarks by President Biden

 

By Gregg Wall (8-5-2022)

 

It was a strange week, particularly for U.S. foreign policy, but across the board.  There was something in the air… and not just death dealing heat and smoke as America burns.  Perhaps it was that last glimmer, the fading twilight of the American Century, and how we threw it all away on endless wars, greed, hubris, and abject stupidity.  I’m reluctant to use that last word, but what else would you call it?  The malaise… our failed leadership, the sense that nobody is minding the store over the last four decades.  

 

You know, it’s the free market.

 

What triggered it, a mourning for what might have been?  For me anyway, it was the announcement by POTUS Biden that America had, two decades later, used a drone to eliminate OBL’s right hand man, Ayman al-Zawahiri.  There was some ready comparisons between Obama striking down OBL, over ten years ago; but it all fell flat and short. 

 

Unlike Obama, who saw his public approval rating soar, after killing OBL, Biden will, likely, receive no similar bump.  So Biden got the bad guy.  Or rather, the US military - our trillion dollar, plus, per annum, military & national security state  - our military & national security state that receives more funding than the next ten nations combined – more than two decades later – finally, got the bad man.  What, some twenty trillion later?  And how much went to private contractors to fight our endless wars… $7 trillion?  Does anyone really know …  given black budgets, the fact that the Pentagon – the Deep State – can’t be audited, and the ability of the Federal Reserve to print money on a whim? 

 

Of course, it was all gross overkill.  As I have written before, trillions and trillions of American taxpayer money wasted, for want of two well placed sniper’s bullets.  And what did the American people get in return?  Certainly not greater national security, but catastrophic national debt and endless austerity.  No first-rate health care for you, American children, no free college for you… we had to waste trillions on a lie, that POTUS Bush and Dick Cheney propagated at the U.N., via Colin Powell.  And for what again?  Oil profits, greed, stock market returns, congressional kickbacks, to protect Middle East oil assets, and by the looks of things, presently… so we can torch the planet.  Nice. 

 

Thousands of U.S. troops dead for a lie and so generals, congress, MIC contractors, Private Equity, and Wall St could become rich on war profits.  Absolutely deplorable and disgusting.  And of course, there’s the hundreds of thousands of dead civilians and the Middle East dictators we propped up.  The galling callousness with which Senators and psychopaths in congress send these troops into harm’s way… not to protect America, but to enrich commercial interests and themselves, again and again.  While Americans live in poverty in our failed globalized, neoliberal economy.  The more you know, the more you realize Americans are systematically preyed upon, by a vampire elite (from every conceivable angle imaginable). 

 

We are all covered in blood now… every single American.  We keep voting these two failed parties into office, the same hacks into office, again and again.  It’s revolting.  Every other November the two parties give us that Faustian bargain: platitudes, hope, the possibility of real change… and every November we fall for it.  The same pack of lies, the political minuet, and as soon as they are in, it rapidly devolves into that same tired Washington soap opera.  Endless welfare for billionaires, multinationals, Wall St, and War contractors.  And the political elites - and their billionaire donors - show absolutely nothing but contempt and disdain for the American people.  The public, the rubber stamp has served its purpose and now, it’s time for the oligarchy to reign.  The exception, the Christian Taliban get their guns & theocracy; progressives get zero. 

 

And America’s enemies are emboldened… Putin… since attacking the Ukraine, has only grown more powerful, the Ruble stronger, the war shows no signs of ebbing, Europe is on its knees thanks to Russian gas, and Putin’s people aren’t suffering.  But the Ukraine already looks like the same haunted landscape from every other war America has had a hand in, since the end of the Cold War:  Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which brings up to the Speaker’s well-timed visit to Taiwan.  Why now?  With all that America has on its plate, from COVID and monkey pox to the Ukraine, a failing democracy, catastrophic national debt, systemic racism, and widespread child poverty.  Dare we bring up our lousy health care system, soaring inflation, and pending recession?  Why now? 

 

And of course, the obvious… Taiwan is the center of the universe for chip manufacturing.  That’s why the speaker went.  You know, chip & semiconductor manufacturing (that goes into nearly every product and service support known to humanity).  Which thanks to our failed globalization & neoliberal paradigm – and the greatness that is greed and ‘market rule’ – America’s eminentos wisely offshored to the hottest spot on the globe.  An island nation that is America’s new front in our fantastic, shiny, sparkly Cold War.  

 

(Because Russia & the Ukraine simply was not enough… we had to pick a fight with China, that lays claim to Taiwan.  Nancy would see to it.)

 

Chip manufacturing...  that Congress spent tens of billions on just this week, under the Chips Act, to bribe the same pack of twisted billionaires and Silicon Valley elite to return manufacturing - of said chips - to U.S. shores.  No, you really can’t make this stuff up.  Absolutely, insane. 

 

What are the odds?  Hazard a guess… there’s no accountability in the Chips Act?  Zero.  No conditions, no caveats?  Spend the money on yourself chip billionaires, get that fourth yacht, pick up that third wife, purchase that island nation you’ve always dreamed of… just be sure and kick a little back to team, Chucky, Joe, and Nancy?  If past is prologue that has certainly been true of nearly every other corporate welfare package that has sailed through congress, within recent memory.  No restraints, no guardrails, all love.

 

And to think… America had it all with the collapse of the Soviet Union.  And in thirty years’ time, we’ve become just another banana republic, a debtor nation, with only one idea governing our gerontocracy & kleptocracy, that is greed.   Greed, oceans of blood, and a complete lack of accountability. 

 

What an epic disaster. 

 

(In fairness, this doesn’t all fall on President Biden… he’s just the last one to fall into a deck chair, as the music stopped, and the iceberg hit.  To his credit, Biden did pull the U.S. out of Afghanistan and that has to be the bravest thing I’ve seen from any U.S. president, since the planes flew into the World Trade Center.  For America, going to war is easy; it’s getting out that’s the hard part.  Kudos to POTUS Biden for getting that right.)

 

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2022