More reckless spending for votes...this isn't a coincidence

There seems to be no limits that a politician will go to in order to ensure success at the ballot box. Such is the case with Joe Biden’s recent student debt relief proposal. The proposal offers ten thousand dollars (going as high as twenty thousand for some) of debt forgiveness on student loans for individuals who earn less than one hundred and twenty five thousand annually.  

On the surface this seems commendable. A little bit of digging reveals otherwise. For starters it introduces a further 300 billion dollars to the economy when inflation is running upwards of 8%. Moving money into the economy at a time when demand exceeds supply is economically irresponsible. Inflation after all is a tax on everyone’s savings. Essentially the population as a whole will be subsidising the portion that collect. This isn’t right.

Why should the non-college educated be forced to pay for those who make the life decision to follow the college track? What about those who have saved, worked and earned the financial rewards to pay off their college degrees? Why should they be excluded? The inequity here is obvious. One group is deliberately been favoured at the expense of others based on a handout that will add to the federal budget deficit,  negate a whole slew of current anti-inflation methods and further indebt the nation at a time when interest rates are on the rise.

And for what?  This is not a fix as Joe Biden alluded to. Not even close. The US post-secondary education system has been broken for some time. It is far more expensive than comparable systems elsewhere in the developed world. The cost of education for students has been growing at a rate that definitively exceeds wage increases. Subsidies are met with further increases by the college and universities that in real terms render these subsidies moot.A positive feedback loop in driving costs upward with each government spending initiative does not need further stimulation

Of course this would be somewhat reasonable if the quality of education was improving but the evidence in this regard indicates this is not necessarily so. Many students are graduating with degrees that have limited utility in the work world creating. The market is not responding to this supply. What is also true is that a vast amount of the money that finds its way into the Academic institutions goes to strengthening college sports and funding building initiatives on the campus which have questionable pedagogic worthiness (lazy rivers are the big thing now).

So why add fuel to the fire? 

The answer of course is that this has nothing to do with education. Nor is this an attempt at genuine education reform. That would involve the capping of university fees and the decoupling of the universities from the sports industrial complex. Neither will happen and politicians from both parties know this.

Now Congress can block the executive initiative (they ultimately control the purse strings) but in a midterm election year this could place a number of politicians on the hotspot. Student debt holders are vital to Democratic Party success especially in a year where the White House sits far to the south of the favourability line.  Handouts help. Nobody likes having freebies removed. Spend now and push the debt can further down the road. Remember stupid it is the election that matters. The greater problems will be dealt with later if that ever comes around. This is the rationale.

The Mar-a-lago raid

The FBI raid on the Trump resort at Mar-a-lago continues to dominate the news. So many questions remain and  as has been the case for most of the Trump era, it is not clear who can one trust to report the news accurately. Certainly not the Establishment voices.  The Legacy Media  (aided by Google search algorithms) is once again tripping over themselves to spin this as negatively as possible for Trump and while it is likely that he did act in a cavalier fashion it is still far from certain  as to what he did wrong here. The buzzwords are the 'National Archive'. Something that was completely played down when Hillary Clinton's e-mails disappeared into the ether during her controversial Servergate scandal several years ago (the FBI under Comey then declined to investigate further....rather helpful for her) but for some reason it has national security importance in the present. How times have changed? 

Trump has been out of office for a year and a half now but it is at this very moment that the FBI/DOJ have a sense of urgency. Why did it take so long if the documents were so critical? Is National Archive recovering protocol that important that they require this type of high profile intervention? Why was a warrant issued when Trump wasn't even at Mar-a-lago? Could this not all be accomplished by subpoena? How much did the Biden Administration know about this raid beforehand? and why does this all look so convenient?

From the outside it stinks to high heaven. The January 6th investigations are going nowhere, Biden's popularity remains in the doldrums, Trump looks to be the GOP candidate in 2024, the midterms are around the corner and the economy is teetering on a recession. If MAGA candidates do well in November the establishment will take a big hit.

None of this is helped by the fact that public trust in the FBI following the Russian collusion farce is at an all time low. The higher ups in the Federal police have politicized the organization in a way that cuts against any anti-establishment figure - a moniker that fits Trump - and even if they have a point right now why should the populace believe them? The same can be said for the hyper partisan Merrick Garland (the same guy who threatened to go after anti-CRT parents as Domestic terrorists while ignoring Hunter Biden's indiscretions). 

Trump is correct to sue the US Government.  As President he had the power to declassify whatever documents he saw fit. Others have done this before him. The raid looks to be a classic example of state push back on an oppositional candidate. Trump has shown that he is willing to cooperate and yet he is still been dragged through the earth like a common criminal. Now the onus must be on the state to prove their case with a whopping amount of evidence.

If they fail to do so the only gain from this will be the increasing polarization of the country. Media voices cheering on what looks like a 'give me the man I will show you the crime scenario' ought to be ashamed of themselves. 

The Need for Parallel Institutions

 It can be depressing working alone and maintain one’s sanity in a civilization that is in decline. However take solace in that a great deal of people feel the same way as you do. Cultivating friendships, forming groups of like minded individuals, building parallel institutions and widening a platform to share one’s ideas with others is vital.

 Destructive ideologies, dressed in pearls, have a way of expanding rapidly especially if it driven from above by institutions whose leadership has structured itself to deceive, obfuscate and conflate as it sees fit. Its internal workings are opaque to the public and it acts with a transcendence that is confident in its own lack of self reflection. Byzantine networks built on a maze of regulation have conspired to reframe the destiny of the people in many cases without our consent. Where we have agreed it is part of the Faustian bargain of trading comfort for individual agency. No more.

 

One should celebrate our individuality but work within a community. It is the community spirit that invigorates. Give support to groups, speakers, political forums, online and in person, that push back against the insanity we now face.

 

Resist coerced speech, oppose all aspects of the post-Truth culture, rejoice in your defiance and fight both actively and passively the overreach of decadent institutions and structural organizations. Hold them to their standards and work from the inside as well to transform these megaliths. This is how the madness ascended in the first place. Two can play the same game. Sanity can recapture the power structure if it works at it. One needn’t wait for a messiah an aggregated beach landing on many fronts is just as effective. Buttress a fight for the institutions with parallel systems as a safeguard.

 

Challenge these noxious ideologies and force them to trip over their ideals. Ridicule them and make a mockery of their lack of standards and never apologize for your own stance. Push them on the defence and don’t let them use the power of coercion or emotional black mail. Once they start weakening and collapse it will happen quickly. The parallel structures and communities that you have helped built will then augment the vacuum left.

 

Make it a priority that the authoritarian framework dies a necessary death and don’t give in an inch to their appeal to pseudo-intellectualism and politically motivated scientism. Our future can be reset to a brighter outcome if we take the initiative. Now is the time.

 

"The only way you can predict the future is to build it." -Alan Kay

Economic Overload

Economists often muddy the waters and like other social scientists have a tendency to overcomplicate their field with excessive use of terminology and imprecise definitions. For the lay person this can be overwhelming. What follows is a list of realities that will do wonders in removing the veil of confusion and allow you to sail past the various obfuscations.

 Increasing money supply will cause an inflationary spike if it is not met by subsequent supply of goods.

b.      Rent Control leads to housing shortages[1].

c.       Inflation is essentially equivalent to a tax on one’s life savings.

d.      Minimum wage increases are invariably passed on to the consumer which will have negative demand repercussions for non-elastic goods in particular. They can also lead to worker dismissals and a surge in unemployment numbers.

e.       Government payouts incentivize people to not work.

f.       High tax rates are the best driver for the underground economy and don’t necessarily translate into high tax revenues.

g.      Wage increases mean nothing if you ignore the rate of inflation. Only real Wages matter.

h.      Growth rates coming off bottomed out economies will initially be high. However the number is misleading as the base is so low.

i.        There is no such device as a government spending program that will reduce inflation no matter how much we wish to believe that such a program is possible.

j.        Popularly reported unemployment numbers are usually much lower than the real numbers as they often do not include the percentage of the population that has completely dropped out of the work force.

k.      High Inflation is best countered by sharp increases in interest rates but this radical therapy is very rarely carried out as the political consequence of such action are severe in the short run. The end result is that inflation persists for longer than it should.

l.        Governments will never truly control debt so long as the Federal Reserve is free to print money with limited constrains.

m.    Over time the interest on outstanding debt will take up a large proportion of the Federal budget.

n.      There are very few deficit hawks on either side of the political aisle as the inclination for either side to spend is so high. Short term thinking is a trade off of our political system.

o.      The tax code could be very much simplified however there are enough vested interests out there to ensure that it never really is.

p.      Excessive government meddling in the hope of shortening a recession invariably lengthens it.

q.      Student debt forgiveness merely passes on the debt to the entire economy as a whole so that non-students without a choice subsidise the education of others.

r.        Pumping money into an economy that is overregulated will result in stagflation (high inflation and a low growth case).

s.       Economic statistics are out of date as soon as they are published. Using them to plan is a poor substitute for the dynamics of the instant feedback market.

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[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/06/15/comeback-rent-control-just-time-make-housing-shortages-worse/

On the Corporate Media

Distilled to its essence the corporate media’s principal function is to reinforce a narrative. Education is a mere after thought.  Through repetition the media entities inundates the milieu with a message that reinforces a broader consensus that aligns with the vision of its ownership.  The cultivation of an echo chamber is its raison d‘etre and in this regard it is unapologetic

If internationalism,  and by extension interventionism, is the critical focal point then one can be sure that the necessary drums touting such action will be heralded.  Positions to the contrary will be marginalized. Today these same drums reverberate to the tune of policies that seek looser border restrictions, the off shoring of wealth and a Post-Westphalian order that does away with the pesky stumbling block of the nation state. The new citizen must be global and by necessity eschew all nationalism.

A radical transformation of the ethos and value system of the culture sits front and center. It is of prime importance. Media outlets advance the methodology by highlighting identity politics, outrage culture and various hysteria/crises that together take aim at the institutions of the country and its foundational bedrock. Nothing happens without purpose

In doing so it seeks to change the perception of the voting population thereby sweeping clean a pathway for the emerging paradigm. Ideas deemed to be of worth are selected, stressed and reinforced while others are tossed aside or damned. Within time the views of the Übermensch will be parroted by those that are too punch-drunk to think otherwise. The role of the media is to make sure that this happens sooner than later