Jerome Powell - Midas touch or out of touch?
We kick off today with a less than restrained analysis of Kamala Harris from the POTUS:
FACT: America no longer deserves the title 'United States'. There has never been more fundamental cultural division in the First World. Hold that thought.
Do you ever get the feeling you've been taken back in time - or something has been carried forward from that past - so that you are (whether you like it or not) a steerage passenger on an ocean liner called the US Titanic....and the man at the wheel is none other than Jerome Powell, the captain of the Federal Reserve?
The other characters and crew include First Officer 'Aye Aye, sir' Donald Trump, but also feature Benny Netanyahu, Ursula von de Leyen and Vlodomore Zelensky as the Blue Riband Goforit Ensemble, Elon Musk as the Secret Service FiremanintheCoalHole, and a cameo role for ageing Thespian Langley Virginia as the Iceberg.
Imagine if you will the drama in the last scene of this movie nightmare as the waters rise up to the Captain's nose, and he is heard to yell
"Glish Shlip ish unshlinkablool, we shlall inshflate the debtblubbles awaygurgleargleogglegloppgarglegulp"
Continuing the theme of the last Slogpost 'what we've lost since 1975', given the current global debt issue there are two obvious losses glaring at us:
- An ability to grasp empirical reality. The debt is unrepayable without the ill-advised use of further erosion of fiat money to inflate that debt away. What's needed here is a Jubilee - global cancellation of debt whereby all sovereigns, blocs, banks and households wind the mileometer back to zero.
- A lack of courage, creativity and honesty in asking a simple question: why did we allow the creation of currencies devoid of guarantees in the first place?
Now we see China hoovering up as much gold as it can to enable Beijing to bring an obvious ploy into play: a return to the gold standard for all its Remnimbi and allied Bric blocs. Yes, this would make those currencies more 'expensive'; but demand for Russo-Asian pipeline goods is such that the West can no longer do without them....regardless of what the TinBot jezebel Von der Leyen claims.
Far from giving First World exporters 'an edge', the US, UK, EU and Australia will (a) have to pay more for hitech/energy necessities (b) that will be exacerbated by its own collapsing fiat currency values and (c) such consumer goods inflation at home on top of being asked to foot the bill for banker and Sovereign incontinence would cause near-revolutionary unrest among the citizenry.
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If there was still a discernible consensus in the politics of the soi-disant First World "democracies", this would not necessarily be an insoluble problem: patriots might decide to tough it out and see who blinked first.
But yet another thing we've lost in the last half century is respect for our leaders, trust in their intentions, and politicians with the power to bring banks, investment houses and corporacratic interests to heel.
The politics of progressive liberal control v conservative libertarian v Islamic caliphatists v Zionism - and the near civil-war in most nation States now on the question of uncontrolled and poorly policed migration - have created a perfect storm storm of violent division.
I have the feeling that one day soon, Captain Powell of the Fed will organise some kind of photo-op, wherein he's seen to use the Washington DC Metrobus public transport system in a bid to suggest we Are All In This Together. The op will then go horribly wrong when Jerome the insouciant asks the driver to drop him "outside the Eccles Building at 2051 Constitution Avenue, please".
Jerome Powell is cut off from the average American thanks to his hermetically sealed existence of assumed superiority miles above any of them. He has no real idea, I suspect, of just how bad things are now. I doubt if Trump does either. And I'm cast-iron certain that almost nobody at the DNC from the BLM bigots to Killary Clinton has a grip on real life.
The same would be true of New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern, Britain's Keir Starmer, France's Emmanuel Macron, Turkie's Recep Erdogan, Germany's Joachim-Friedrich Merz or Canada's Mark Carney.
And no, it wasn't always like that.
During World War II, War leader Winston Churchill took regular trips on the London Underground in order to keep abreast of morale. He did this without security goons or image consultants being present.
Post-war Labour PM Clement Attlee regularly campaigned in his constituency without minders. He lived as he was quoted: 'No culture will ever endure on the bases of hatred and materialism'.
William Ewart Gladstone, a distinguished ultra-conservative UK Prime Minister in the 19th century, personally engaged in rescue work for prostitutes while at 10 Downing Street, offering them protection and a chance at a new life through a private programme he funded and maintained, including a hostel.
And finally, a brief sermon on Greed as the Fast Road to Hell....
Earlier this week, I had Aircon fitted to my guest bedroom here. The installation team I use have only a motor bike to get around on [I really wouldn't give a monkey's if they used a donkey, because they are honest, efficient and thorough - a rare combo here] and so the kit dealer had to dispatch the hardware using a taxi.
When the taxi turned up about twenty minutes before the team, the driver swore blind on his mother's grave and as Allah was his witness that he hadn't been paid, so I gave him the fare....making a mental note to get my money back from the dealership, with whom I'd already agreed and paid an all-in price for kit + fitting....and who I have always found to be straight blokes.
When my regular driver Mohammed and I next went to the dealership [I wanted to buy a battery light + mini solar panel because both neither electricity supply nor failsafe generators can be relied upon in Africa] I asked pointedly why I'd had to pay for the Aircon taxi. The dealership boss glared at me and insisted the taxi guy had been paid in full.
"Watch," he said, and rang the taxi liar - showing me the number as proof - and told the guy "You just cheated one of our valued customers, and so we will not be using you again".
Moral of the story: dishonest greed today kills trust and destroys loyal repeat purchase tomorrow.
Pay heed, Jerome Powell....you may own the silver bullets, but you will lose everything if said bullets are fired at your own feet.
Honest, entrepreurial and socially mutualist capitalism is a far, far better protection of Liberty than Globalist neoliberal monopolism and its Satanic twin, mendacious neocon warrior diplomacy.
Enjoy your weekend, your neighbours, your family and your freedoms. But please, People - do remember that freedoms are fragile goods that need to be Handled With Care.