A New Gold Standard?

Prices shaped by markets, instead of bureaucrats... and pigs flying high in the sky.

(Source: Getty Images)

Bill Bonner, reckoning today from Baltimore, Maryland...

A press release from Congressman Alex X. Mooney:

Today, Congressman Alex X. Mooney introduced H.R. 9157, the “Gold Standard Restoration Act.” 

The legislation calls for the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve to publicly disclose all gold holdings and gold transactions within 30 months, after which time the Federal Reserve note “dollar” would be pegged to a fixed weight of gold at its then-market price. Federal Reserve notes would become fully redeemable for and exchangeable with gold at the new fixed price, with the U.S. Treasury and its gold reserves backstopping Federal Reserve Banks as guarantor.

“The gold standard would protect against Washington’s irresponsible spending habits and the creation of money out of thin air,” said Congressman Alex X. Mooney. ”Prices would be shaped by economics rather than the instincts of bureaucrats. No longer would our economy be at the mercy of the Federal Reserve and reckless Washington spenders.”

Our favorite causes are lost causes. Our favorite dogs are underdogs. And our dead guys are guys who die hard. We’re not sure where, but Representative Mooney must fit into that group somewhere.  

Ex Nihilo

Without the discipline of real money, wickedness and fraud are impossible to control. And here comes more fake money:

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget released the news yesterday: 

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) today released its final monthly budget review of Fiscal Year (FY) 2022, which shows that the budget deficit totaled $1.4 trillion in FY 2022 and $431 billion in September. 

Together the legislative policies and executive orders that have been adopted under the Biden Administration will cause a significant worsening in the nation’s fiscal imbalances.  

Every dollar of deficit is an invitation to corruption. It comes ‘out of nowhere’ and can be pocketed with no angry taxpayer on the other side.

More wickedness appeared in the Wall Street Journal.  It was “almost too depressing to read,” says colleague Dan Denning.

Thousands of officials across the government’s executive branch reported owning or trading stocks that stood to rise or fall with decisions their agencies made, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.

More than 2,600 officials at agencies from the Commerce Department to the Treasury Department, during both Republican and Democratic administrations, disclosed stock investments in companies while those same companies were lobbying their agencies for favorable policies. That amounts to more than one in five senior federal employees across 50 federal agencies reviewed by the Journal.

These officials had what the SEC calls ‘inside information.’ Because of their privileged positions in regulatory agencies, they had a better chance than the rest of us mortals of guessing which way the stocks would go. It is supposed to be illegal to trade on ‘inside information.’ But there are gray areas. The regulators make the rules; and they’re careful to stay in the shade.

Grand(er) Larceny

One of the insights that we rely on here at Bonner Private Research is that the government is made up of people just like us. Neither saints nor sinners. They are neither always good nor always bad, but always subject to influence.

Which is to say, they git when the gittin’s good.

As the feds regulate more… and spend more… the gittin’ gits better. There are more opportunities for corruption. One company has a promising drug; why not buy a few shares? One company seems likely to get a big government contract; maybe it would be a good investment? Another is going to get the ‘all clear’ to sell its technology to China; perhaps they’ll offer us a job?

It is one thing to bend the law. It’s another to break it. But the biggest crimes are committed by those who make the laws. A petty thief may steal only enough to buy his drugs. Even grand larceny may only net a few million. But the lawmakers go for billions or even trillions. 

So far this century, the Fed has ‘printed up’ more than $8.5 trillion. Where did that money go? It had to go somewhere. Federal deficits, too, added $25 trillion to the national debt since 1999; somebody got it.

Rotten to the Teeth

But the opportunities for double dealing are many. Here’s an article by Andrew Lautz. It shows us how the jackals feed on the corpse of the National Defense Authorization Act, even before it is dead.   

Before they left town, senators filed over 900 amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the Senate’s version of the annual defense policy bill. 

Many of these amendments could significantly increase U.S. military spending beyond even currently unsustainable levels, either later this year or in coming years.

The NDAA attracts so many amendment proposals in part because it is one of the few bills left that Congress reliably passes. In recent years legislators have been compensating for their failure to pass laws by making proposals for the NDAA. Many seem to have nothing to do with national defense — like Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) energy permit reform and Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s (D-MN) Electoral Count Act reform. The House’s version of the NDAA attracted an astounding 1,230 amendment proposals, dozens of which were adopted by the House when they passed it in July.

Each ‘amendment’ is a pot of honey… and every insider is a fly. $6.5 billion for “Taiwan Foreign Military Finance grant assistance”… $15 billion for ‘defense services’ to the Ukraine… and here’s one that will rot your teeth:

$50.5 billion for loans, grants, and loan guarantees to U.S. businesses, universities, and non-profits for the “development … improvement … or expansion” of supply chains and domestic manufacturing.

Mr. Mooney’s proposal would put a lid on the honey pots. Too bad it will never pass. 

Regards,

Bill Bonner