Saving is suspect. Scrooge saved his money. Jesus tells of a master, who berated his servant, for saving his money rather than investing it. And King Midas, turning everything into gold, starved.
Bill, enjoyed your cogent comments today. The printing of dollars kicks the can farther down the road and makes us all poorer in the long run, as well polluting other industrialized economies given the hegemony of the dollar. The result of this less than perseient behavior has been the rise of BRICS and the Chinese Belt and Road initiative. The Great Reset is in motion and it will not be good for Americans.
Tom, fully agree. Putin gets it as does those not in a trance. Weaponizing the US$ is the HUGE mistake. No one likes being bullied or forced to follow the wishes of another. No one! So what happens, others look for alternatives and in today's world that is happening at a rapid rate. America at the end of WWII was the manufacturing capital of the world but gave that away to Asia (primarily China) and today relies on the sweat of others. This is America's Achilles' heel. While many still believe America's military is the strongest in the world, others see its Achilles' heel - logistics that makes it unable to sustain itself. It can hit hard but has no standing power. How this all plays out is anybody's guess but it isn't going to be good for us peons.
“How this all plays out is anybody's guess but it isn't going to be good for us peons.”…on this, we agree, sir. IMO, you’re just off a year.
My prediction: Election year. 2026 will be a continuation of the bull run. Trump will strong-arm the new Fed guy, get another rate cut or three, print/spend like a drunk Democrat, and drive the melt-up (and the dollar down) further. Record Indexes and gold through November-December. The piper starts collecting payment in 2027.
Another "unprecdented Trump innovation" that turns out to have many precedents. A summary for the ahistorical:
The United States began to “weaponize” the financial payments system in a recognizable modern sense during the Second World War and early Cold War, then transformed it into a central instrument of power with post‑1970s sanctions law and, after 9/11, with dollar‑ and SWIFT‑centric financial controls that now reach the entire global banking network. What began as wartime asset freezes and trade embargoes has evolved into a dense, permanent machinery of primary and secondary sanctions that can cut states, firms, and individuals off from the dollar and from cross‑border payments altogether.
Early foundations (1917–1950s)
In 1917 Congress passed the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA), giving the president power to regulate or prohibit financial transactions with foreign enemies in wartime, laying the core legal basis for asset freezes and payment controls.
During the Great Depression and World War II, Franklin Roosevelt used TWEA’s section 5(b) to shut banks in 1933 and then to freeze European assets, creating a precedent for peacetime and pre‑war financial blocking as a tool of foreign policy.
Institutionalization of sanctions (Cold War era)
After 1945, the United States created specialized bureaucratic machinery, culminating in the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), to administer trade and financial sanctions as routine policy instruments rather than ad hoc wartime measures.
The Cold War saw long‑running sanctions regimes against countries like Cuba and Vietnam that combined trade restrictions with broad blocking of financial transactions and dollar payments, foreshadowing later, more targeted financial warfare.
From trade embargoes to financial leverage (1970s–1990s)
In the 1970s and 1980s, Congress embedded automatic sanctions triggers into laws such as amendments to the Foreign Assistance Act and Trade Act, mandating economic and financial penalties for human‑rights abuses, terrorism, and narcotics, thereby expanding the situations in which financial tools had to be used.
The Reagan administration’s attempts to apply “secondary sanctions” extraterritorially—such as restricting re‑exports of U.S. technology to the Soviet Union and pressuring European firms over the Soviet gas pipeline—marked an early effort to extend control beyond U.S. territory into allied financial and commercial decisions.
Post‑9/11 financial weaponization
After the attacks of 11 September 2001, the U.S. built a new model of financial warfare: instead of only blocking specific accounts or trade, it designated individuals, banks, and entities on Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) lists and threatened any bank that dealt with them, effectively turning the global banking system into an enforcement arm.
Because most global trade and finance is invoiced or cleared in dollars through U.S.‑linked banks, these measures allow Washington to make foreign banks and firms choose between access to the U.S. financial system and dealings with sanctioned parties, giving sanctions the character of a precision coercive tool with global reach.
SWIFT, secondary sanctions, and today’s system
The United States has leveraged both dollar clearing and the SWIFT messaging network—whose infrastructure and data flows are partially exposed to U.S. legal and regulatory authority—to amplify its ability to monitor and interrupt cross‑border payments, even when no U.S. party is directly involved.
Since at least the 2010s, Washington has repeatedly threatened or used sanctions that target foreign banks and infrastructures (e.g., over Iranian banking and later Russian banks), making access to the dollar payments system and SWIFT contingent on alignment with U.S. geopolitical aims and prompting widespread discussion of “weaponization of the dollar.”
Trump is the current occupant of the POTUS "hot seat" so in one sense it IS "all Trumps credit or fault" when circumstances go up or down. On the same basis it's "All the fault of a useless Congress" (worked for Truman in 1948), and the unelected Administrative State (our "4th" branch of government grown out of touch and control through the Great Wars of the 20th century (1st, 2nd. and Cold) That's the political reality. To assess what's going on overall, the context of history helps. Why is Congress "useless" now, and why is whoever occupies to Oval Office hot seat pressed to take increasingly extreme and desperate measures to hold the country together? Apparently, BB thinks his intended audience needs a greater dose of Trump deconstruction than other players in the Public Performative Pageant, though he does focus on Congress and the unelected Administrative State as well. Weighting these critiques is a matter of taste, and I'm still inclined to cut BB some slack because in the past I've found his framing of our collective and individual (family) circumstances and outlook so helpful.
And thus does Mr. Bonner expose the fraud of the "service" economy. There is no value-add, and therefore, no increase in capital. There can be, and sometimes is, velocity of money, but there is no wealth creation. $38 trillion and counting in deficits to "make up" the shortfall. All of it is pretense. Best always. PM
As you know you totally missed the message of the parable of the talent's, it had nothing to do with money... everything to do with faith. GIIC, God is in control. Noodle on that for a while Big Man.
Saving is highly recommended in both the Old and New Testimonies, with the proviso that one needs to be careful WHERE one saves. The Biblical framing is - - "seek FIRST the kingdom of God, and everything else will be added", and "store up your treasures in heaven", where the usual loss risks are completely filtered out (including the risk of forgetting where you buried it in the earth).
How that works out in practice is being "neighborly" not predatory< and making productive uses of whatever resources come into one's control. A lot of the Testimonies are gruesome summaries of what happens when "looking out for number one" spirit takes hold in an individual, family, extended family or community wide - - creating vulnerability to even more predatory neighbors when they see a great opportunity for plunder (Habakkuk the book, Hezekiah's short sighted experience showing off his wealth to the Babylonian visitors, and the events from the Divided Kingdom to the downfall of Israel (Ephfraim) and then Judah.
Note on SAVINGS in America. In the 1950's & early sixties the US tax system allowed citizens to earn $500 in interest and $500 in dividends tax free. It was done to encourage the citizens to save and invest in the stock market. Then the democrats in the sixties deleted that benefit. Major mistake! Why was that scrubbed from the tax code? Now we have most everyone deeply in credit card debt and highly overpriced homes (at least in CA).
OMG Bongo Bill! You actually wrote a decent column today. The only thing that is not only questionable but downright laughable is your random insertion of Donald Trump into your comments. TDS is eating away at your brain. But apparently, you've found a substitute hero - a bastion of individual rights and civility - Vladimir Putin!
Bill's teaser makes me wonder if there's a connection between the debasement of the dollar and the closing of 4800 businesses in NYC during the last quarter of 2026.
That and the new Mayor of NYC putting in rent control, free "stuff" for everyone that businesses will pick up the tab for. I don't know if the businesses went out of business or just moved out of NYC. Could be a combination of dollar debasement, probably number 1 reason, and the new kid in town.
Saving is suspect? yeah I take the point about 'Jesus tells of a master, who berated his servant, for saving his money rather than investing it.' Back in Jesus day they didn't have fractional reserve banks, so I guess saving was stashing a few silver coins under a rock somewhere.
In spite of that I still disagree with what seems to be a commonly held misconception in society that saving somehow damages the economy. It is an illiquidity preference in current inflationary times as Bill suggests, but still necessary for liquidity management in the now. Optionality, dry powder, however you call it. Now days, most of what is saved is still being invested, by the banks. From the perspective of the economy I don't see why it matters, it is a really just an individual expression of time preference for consumption. One person saves today to defer consumption to the future. The person who saved in the past is spending today. As 'n' gets big it has to average out.
Thanks Bill, A great collection of thoughts. I wonder how long this took you to write? Did this come all at once, or accumulate slowly? I'm with you so far.
Here is a general theme I would love to hear some of your thoughts on. What if the central theme of economic activity or even man's evolution. What if we got paid according to how well (percent of mental & physical & spiritual assets) we used of our human facility we have? Would that equalize income? Would it be a better or worse result for society Advance mankind faster or slower?
Since your headquarters are in the Baltimore area where I am now living I am looking for a reputable coin exchange in the environs. Can you recommend anyone? I would appreciate any help. Thank you. Joyce WILKS
I am certain this expose of economic change from 1971 resonates with millions of citizens in India, China, Africa, South America and those living scratching their countries soils for agriculture, resources and drinkable water.
The arrogance of the 1% of the world as the ‘WE know it all and have ALL the solutions’ is so laughable it’s repulsive.
Guess AI ultimately will replace the 1% and the world and its civilisation will be a better place for the 99%.
Bill, enjoyed your cogent comments today. The printing of dollars kicks the can farther down the road and makes us all poorer in the long run, as well polluting other industrialized economies given the hegemony of the dollar. The result of this less than perseient behavior has been the rise of BRICS and the Chinese Belt and Road initiative. The Great Reset is in motion and it will not be good for Americans.
Tom, fully agree. Putin gets it as does those not in a trance. Weaponizing the US$ is the HUGE mistake. No one likes being bullied or forced to follow the wishes of another. No one! So what happens, others look for alternatives and in today's world that is happening at a rapid rate. America at the end of WWII was the manufacturing capital of the world but gave that away to Asia (primarily China) and today relies on the sweat of others. This is America's Achilles' heel. While many still believe America's military is the strongest in the world, others see its Achilles' heel - logistics that makes it unable to sustain itself. It can hit hard but has no standing power. How this all plays out is anybody's guess but it isn't going to be good for us peons.
“How this all plays out is anybody's guess but it isn't going to be good for us peons.”…on this, we agree, sir. IMO, you’re just off a year.
My prediction: Election year. 2026 will be a continuation of the bull run. Trump will strong-arm the new Fed guy, get another rate cut or three, print/spend like a drunk Democrat, and drive the melt-up (and the dollar down) further. Record Indexes and gold through November-December. The piper starts collecting payment in 2027.
Yup and yup, very good and insightful comment.
Another "unprecdented Trump innovation" that turns out to have many precedents. A summary for the ahistorical:
The United States began to “weaponize” the financial payments system in a recognizable modern sense during the Second World War and early Cold War, then transformed it into a central instrument of power with post‑1970s sanctions law and, after 9/11, with dollar‑ and SWIFT‑centric financial controls that now reach the entire global banking network. What began as wartime asset freezes and trade embargoes has evolved into a dense, permanent machinery of primary and secondary sanctions that can cut states, firms, and individuals off from the dollar and from cross‑border payments altogether.
Early foundations (1917–1950s)
In 1917 Congress passed the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA), giving the president power to regulate or prohibit financial transactions with foreign enemies in wartime, laying the core legal basis for asset freezes and payment controls.
During the Great Depression and World War II, Franklin Roosevelt used TWEA’s section 5(b) to shut banks in 1933 and then to freeze European assets, creating a precedent for peacetime and pre‑war financial blocking as a tool of foreign policy.
Institutionalization of sanctions (Cold War era)
After 1945, the United States created specialized bureaucratic machinery, culminating in the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), to administer trade and financial sanctions as routine policy instruments rather than ad hoc wartime measures.
The Cold War saw long‑running sanctions regimes against countries like Cuba and Vietnam that combined trade restrictions with broad blocking of financial transactions and dollar payments, foreshadowing later, more targeted financial warfare.
From trade embargoes to financial leverage (1970s–1990s)
In the 1970s and 1980s, Congress embedded automatic sanctions triggers into laws such as amendments to the Foreign Assistance Act and Trade Act, mandating economic and financial penalties for human‑rights abuses, terrorism, and narcotics, thereby expanding the situations in which financial tools had to be used.
The Reagan administration’s attempts to apply “secondary sanctions” extraterritorially—such as restricting re‑exports of U.S. technology to the Soviet Union and pressuring European firms over the Soviet gas pipeline—marked an early effort to extend control beyond U.S. territory into allied financial and commercial decisions.
Post‑9/11 financial weaponization
After the attacks of 11 September 2001, the U.S. built a new model of financial warfare: instead of only blocking specific accounts or trade, it designated individuals, banks, and entities on Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) lists and threatened any bank that dealt with them, effectively turning the global banking system into an enforcement arm.
Because most global trade and finance is invoiced or cleared in dollars through U.S.‑linked banks, these measures allow Washington to make foreign banks and firms choose between access to the U.S. financial system and dealings with sanctioned parties, giving sanctions the character of a precision coercive tool with global reach.
SWIFT, secondary sanctions, and today’s system
The United States has leveraged both dollar clearing and the SWIFT messaging network—whose infrastructure and data flows are partially exposed to U.S. legal and regulatory authority—to amplify its ability to monitor and interrupt cross‑border payments, even when no U.S. party is directly involved.
Since at least the 2010s, Washington has repeatedly threatened or used sanctions that target foreign banks and infrastructures (e.g., over Iranian banking and later Russian banks), making access to the dollar payments system and SWIFT contingent on alignment with U.S. geopolitical aims and prompting widespread discussion of “weaponization of the dollar.”
I already know Bill's response....It's all Trumps fault!
Trump is the current occupant of the POTUS "hot seat" so in one sense it IS "all Trumps credit or fault" when circumstances go up or down. On the same basis it's "All the fault of a useless Congress" (worked for Truman in 1948), and the unelected Administrative State (our "4th" branch of government grown out of touch and control through the Great Wars of the 20th century (1st, 2nd. and Cold) That's the political reality. To assess what's going on overall, the context of history helps. Why is Congress "useless" now, and why is whoever occupies to Oval Office hot seat pressed to take increasingly extreme and desperate measures to hold the country together? Apparently, BB thinks his intended audience needs a greater dose of Trump deconstruction than other players in the Public Performative Pageant, though he does focus on Congress and the unelected Administrative State as well. Weighting these critiques is a matter of taste, and I'm still inclined to cut BB some slack because in the past I've found his framing of our collective and individual (family) circumstances and outlook so helpful.
Damn!
And thus does Mr. Bonner expose the fraud of the "service" economy. There is no value-add, and therefore, no increase in capital. There can be, and sometimes is, velocity of money, but there is no wealth creation. $38 trillion and counting in deficits to "make up" the shortfall. All of it is pretense. Best always. PM
As you know you totally missed the message of the parable of the talent's, it had nothing to do with money... everything to do with faith. GIIC, God is in control. Noodle on that for a while Big Man.
Oh, go back to France where you belong.
"So, what is it that he absolutely, positively cannot do?" uh...... put up with being heckled?
Saving is highly recommended in both the Old and New Testimonies, with the proviso that one needs to be careful WHERE one saves. The Biblical framing is - - "seek FIRST the kingdom of God, and everything else will be added", and "store up your treasures in heaven", where the usual loss risks are completely filtered out (including the risk of forgetting where you buried it in the earth).
How that works out in practice is being "neighborly" not predatory< and making productive uses of whatever resources come into one's control. A lot of the Testimonies are gruesome summaries of what happens when "looking out for number one" spirit takes hold in an individual, family, extended family or community wide - - creating vulnerability to even more predatory neighbors when they see a great opportunity for plunder (Habakkuk the book, Hezekiah's short sighted experience showing off his wealth to the Babylonian visitors, and the events from the Divided Kingdom to the downfall of Israel (Ephfraim) and then Judah.
Note on SAVINGS in America. In the 1950's & early sixties the US tax system allowed citizens to earn $500 in interest and $500 in dividends tax free. It was done to encourage the citizens to save and invest in the stock market. Then the democrats in the sixties deleted that benefit. Major mistake! Why was that scrubbed from the tax code? Now we have most everyone deeply in credit card debt and highly overpriced homes (at least in CA).
OMG Bongo Bill! You actually wrote a decent column today. The only thing that is not only questionable but downright laughable is your random insertion of Donald Trump into your comments. TDS is eating away at your brain. But apparently, you've found a substitute hero - a bastion of individual rights and civility - Vladimir Putin!
Bill's teaser makes me wonder if there's a connection between the debasement of the dollar and the closing of 4800 businesses in NYC during the last quarter of 2026.
That and the new Mayor of NYC putting in rent control, free "stuff" for everyone that businesses will pick up the tab for. I don't know if the businesses went out of business or just moved out of NYC. Could be a combination of dollar debasement, probably number 1 reason, and the new kid in town.
Or it could be that tariffs, effectively a substantial tax on all imports, destroyed their profit margins.
Probably crime rent and taxes. NYC isn't exactly bastion of manufacturing or local retail. Heck, they gave amazon the boot.
Saving is suspect? yeah I take the point about 'Jesus tells of a master, who berated his servant, for saving his money rather than investing it.' Back in Jesus day they didn't have fractional reserve banks, so I guess saving was stashing a few silver coins under a rock somewhere.
In spite of that I still disagree with what seems to be a commonly held misconception in society that saving somehow damages the economy. It is an illiquidity preference in current inflationary times as Bill suggests, but still necessary for liquidity management in the now. Optionality, dry powder, however you call it. Now days, most of what is saved is still being invested, by the banks. From the perspective of the economy I don't see why it matters, it is a really just an individual expression of time preference for consumption. One person saves today to defer consumption to the future. The person who saved in the past is spending today. As 'n' gets big it has to average out.
Another great one, Bill. thanks again. Can't wait to see what the republinuts have to say about it. PHN
Thanks Bill, A great collection of thoughts. I wonder how long this took you to write? Did this come all at once, or accumulate slowly? I'm with you so far.
Here is a general theme I would love to hear some of your thoughts on. What if the central theme of economic activity or even man's evolution. What if we got paid according to how well (percent of mental & physical & spiritual assets) we used of our human facility we have? Would that equalize income? Would it be a better or worse result for society Advance mankind faster or slower?
Since your headquarters are in the Baltimore area where I am now living I am looking for a reputable coin exchange in the environs. Can you recommend anyone? I would appreciate any help. Thank you. Joyce WILKS
I am certain this expose of economic change from 1971 resonates with millions of citizens in India, China, Africa, South America and those living scratching their countries soils for agriculture, resources and drinkable water.
The arrogance of the 1% of the world as the ‘WE know it all and have ALL the solutions’ is so laughable it’s repulsive.
Guess AI ultimately will replace the 1% and the world and its civilisation will be a better place for the 99%.