Debbie Does D.C.

The prevailing Primary Political Trend is down — towards more debt, inflation, and corruption. It is the product of the two leading political parties, both of them sharing the same drive for more.

Debbie Wasserman Schulltz (D-FL), Source Getty Images

Wednesday, January 15^th, 2025

Bill Bonner, writing from Baltimore, Maryland

Mr. Trump, with all his ‘yes men,’ geniuses and jackasses, won’t change course.

Look for more war, debt, and corruption. MSN:

Dozens of Congress members outperformed the stock market in 2024

The stock market had a record-breaking run last year, but members of Congress still managed to outperform it with their portfolios making staggering gains in industries where they wield legislative power and influence, such as tech and energy.

More than 20 members made almost double the S&P 500 average gain of 24.9 percent last year. The top five performers — Rep. David Rouzer (R-NC), Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Roger Williams (R-TX), Morgan McGarvey (D-KY) — increased the value of their portfolio value by more than 100 percent, according to a new report.

Arriving at Dulles airport on Saturday, we drove up towards the beltway. If you want to understand what has happened to the nation just look out the window. Companies put their corporate headquarters close to Washington…because, that’s where the money is. You’ll be impressed and appalled by the development all along the ‘access corridor’ that leads to the capitol city. Big. new office buildings... huge parking lots... housing developments stretching out onto the horizon... all the way to the Blue Ridge mountains.

When we were growing up, a few people we knew made the long drive in the capitol to work for the Feds. The pay wasn’t very good, they reported, but the work was secure. People gladly traded income for job security.

But as time went by, Washington gained money and power. Federal workers don’t worry about getting fired…and earn the highest wages in the nation. Today, the average hourly wage in the capitol is 35% more than the rest of the nation... with an average income per family over $100,000.

Many of those families live out in the Maryland or Virginia suburbs. In Virginia, they have substantially shifted the cultural and political gravity of the state from rural south... to urban north with Dixiecrat voters evolving into modern Republicans or Democrats. In Maryland, neighboring counties also became reliably pro-government. And even to the shores of the Chesapeake, many families owe their daily bread to the Pentagon or the FDA, not from producing goods or services for their neighbors.

As we laid out yesterday, the prevailing Primary Political Trend is down — towards more debt, inflation, and corruption. It is the product of the two leading political parties, both of them sharing the same drive for a bigger, more powerful central government.

Washington, DC is, in rough measure, a way to understand it. As the reach of the government expands, the city does too. And the real economy — relatively — contracts. A society only produces so much surplus. If it is well invested — in new businesses and new capacity — wealth grows. If it sinks into a federal swamp, on the other hand, the nation is poorer.

But even if the average citizen loses ground, the ‘casta politica’ as Argentine president Javier Milei calls it, does well. Take Debbie Wasserman Schultz. As the crumbs drop off of the gluttons’ table in Washington, the Florida Democrat has shown a remarkable ability to catch them.

In 2022, for example, Ms. Schultz was on the House Natural Resources Committee and focused her trading on energy stocks. Her portfolio went up 50% that year... while the S&P lost 19%.

Another big win came this past year. The S&P was hard to beat, with a 25% gain. But Ms. Schultz pulled off the kind of performance that defies the odds... and probably the law. Her portfolio gained an incredible 142% — nearly six times the S&P.

How did she do it? The Hill reports:

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), whose portfolio posted the second-biggest gain after Rouzer, purchased shares of the satellite operator Viasat in October while ranking member of the House Appropriations subcommittee on military construction. Viasat has received more than $2.7 billion in government contracts since fiscal 2020, primarily from the Department of Defense, according to federal contract data.

Way to go, Debbie.

Regards,

Bill Bonner