Delete 'A'

US democracy is not what it is cracked up to be. Democrats are fake liberals. Republicans are fake conservatives. Both parties are dominated by insiders looking out, primarily, for themselves.

Source: Getty Images

Thursday, August 1, 2024 

Bill Bonner, writing today from Poitou, France

We open fire with this barrage from the Wall Street Journal: 

Five years ago, Washington sanctioned Huawei, cutting off the Chinese company’s access to advanced U.S. technologies because it feared the telecommunications giant would spy on Americans and their allies. Many in the industry thought it would ring the death knell for one of China’s most vital tech players. 

[Instead]... Huawei has expanded into new businesses, boosted its profitability and found fresh ways to curb its dependence on U.S. suppliers. It has held on to its leading position in the global telecom-equipment market, despite American efforts to squeeze Huawei out of its allies’ networks. And it’s making a big comeback in high-end smartphones, using sophisticated new chips developed in-house to take buyers from Apple. Huawei struggled at first — but now it’s come roaring back. 

[It’s]... part of a broader campaign to eliminate U.S. technology in China, dubbed “Delete A,” for Delete America.  

Yesterday, we looked at how the BRICS and the Eurasian Heartland were organizing to ‘Delete A’ from their financial and political lives.    

We might have thought that our political and economic systems were invulnerable... and our military was unbeatable. But we have seen that US democracy is not what it is cracked up to be. Democrats are fake liberals. Republicans are fake conservatives. Both parties are dominated by insiders looking out, primarily, for themselves.   

And there is not so much difference between the way monarchies or oligarchies choose their leaders than the way Americans do. Kamala Harris got her start in politics (allegedly) by sleeping with California power broker Willie Brown.  In the Democratic primary in 2016, she had almost no support from the public.  

Now, after four years in the Vice President’s role, where she distinguished herself not one bit, there she is... with about a 50/50 chance of becoming our next president! Ultimately, in America as in every other country, power rests with elites — who control Washington, the press, universities, the military, and Wall Street.  

Wasted Wealth

We’ve seen too that the key to real economic performance is not the president, policy goals, or PhDs. ‘The People’ — when they are free to produce and trade — create real wealth, not the suits…or the pantsuits. But there are a lot of different ways to divert energy and waste wealth. Mao had the Chinese building backyard steel mills. The Soviets’ detailed planning — controlling every job, every price, and every industry — was such an abject failure that their own elites abandoned it.  

At one time or another, every nation seems determined to destroy its economy with crackpot policies. And now, the US is at it — with fake money, fake interest rates, inflation, sanctions, a War on Terror, the Inflation Recovery Act, Payroll Protection Plan... dozens of other initiatives…and $35 trillion of national debt. 

The US economy is supposed to be a ‘free market’ system, but as many as half of all transactions are largely determined by the government. Monetary policies, military policies, fiscal policies... regulations as well as direct budget items... subsidies as well as penalties... carrots as well as sticks — all influence economic decisions. 

Even the US military is not nearly as effective as people think. Corrupted by money, politics, and technology... its real goal is not to be lean, mean and ‘combat ready,’ but to rest unmolested in the plush seats of the empire. Responsible Statecraft drops this bomb: 

Federal regulations limit profit margins for weapon system contracts, but weapon system costs are not limited. Hence, with the DoD focused on trying to limit profit margins, the one sure way to grow overall profits is to charge more for the weapon systems. Earning a 10% profit margin on a $10 billion weapons system contract will generate as much profit as earning a 20% margin on a $5 billion contract for the same weapon system. 

And then, in today’s news, is this follow-up from The National Interest: 

The F-35 Fighter Will Cost In Total Around $2 Trillion  

The F-35 program’s complexity stems from its three variants (A, B, and C), each designed to meet the specific needs of the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, replacing multiple older aircraft. 

The F-35 Lightning II is the most advanced jet in the skies today. However, its journey to the skies hasn’t been easy. Indeed, the F-35 program had to overcome several challenges and setbacks to be where it is today. To a certain extent, these challenges continue to this day. 

Yes, the US may spend vastly more money on its military than any other country... but the high-tech weaponry ends up being twice as expensive and half as effective as it should be…. 

…making it easier for the challengers to hit the ‘Delete A’ key… 

More to come... 

Regards, 

Bill Bonner 

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Research Note, by Dan Denning

On September 11th of 2023, a new global defense stock exchange traded fund was launched. The Global X Defense Tech ETF (SHLD) is ‘a modified market cap weighted index of the top 50 pure play defense technology companies from around the world.’ Its top holdings include Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT), RTX Corporation (RTX), Northrop Grumman Corp (NRC), General Dynamics Corp (GD), BAE Systems (BAESY), Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR), and L3Harris Technologies Inc. (LHX).

SHLD is less than a year old. But as you can see on the performance chart below, it’s outperformed the iShares US Aerospace and Defense ETF (ITA). ITA is focused on US companies and began trading in 2006. In fact, it was a core holding in my newsletter when I lived and worked in Australia. Why is it underperforming SHLD?

Two of the top three holdings in ITA are GE Aerospace (GE) and Boeing (BA). GE makes up almost 20% of ITA’s holdings and Boeing almost 11%. No single holding in SHLD is larger than 10% of the fund. All that said, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) on SHLD is currently ‘overbought’ at 70.