Liberty Yields

Exploding deficits, the trouble with tariffs, deciding deciders and more affronts to freedom...

(Source: Getty Images)

Bill Bonner, reckoning today from Poitou, France...
     

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

One of the most profound preferences in human nature is for satisfying one’s needs and desires with the least possible exertion; for appropriating wealth produced by the labor of others, rather than producing it by one’s own labor…the stronger and more centralized the government, the safer would be the guarantee of such monopolies; in other words, the stronger the government, the weaker the producer, the less consideration need be given him and the more might be taken away from him.

~ Thomas Jefferson

This just in…from Bloomberg:

US Budget Deficits Are Exploding Like Never Before

The outlook for the federal budget right now is essentially unprecedented—crisis-size deficits as far as the eye can see, even though the economy appears to be in good health. That prospect is making investors uneasy, as demonstrated by yields on benchmark 10-year Treasuries climbing above 4.3% this week, their highest levels since 2007. Other borrowing costs are rising in tandem: The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage has surged above 7% for the first time in more than two decades

Woe to the Little People

Yes, the deep currents of megapolitics are carrying us along…towards a more and more powerful government…and a weaker and weaker private sector. More win-lose deals; fewer win-win deals. More slaves to the ruling class…fewer free men and women.

It doesn’t seem to matter what we say or think…the trend appears unstoppable. Little by little…and then by huge leaps…the ‘The People’ lose their liberty, their money, and their power. Just this week, we saw two political cartoons mocking Trump supporters as silly bumpkins. One showed a country-western singer blaming his misfortunes on Joe Biden (as if the idea were absurd).  Another shows a group of ‘magats’ reminding each other to yell out “Hunter Biden” in defense of their leader.  You can’t make fun of women, blacks, gays, trans folks, immigrants, Asians, cripples, Indians, or dozens of other protected species. But it’s open season, 12 months of the year, on America’s ‘little people;’ they are always deplorable. 

One of the biggest disappointments in the GOP presidential debate this week was that not one of the candidates wanted to tell them. For if they came clean, they’d have to admit that their latest and greatest president, Donald J. Trump, was a rascal, a fool, and a useful stooge for the elites. No president ever spread so much red ink…did so much damage to US finances…or so thoroughly discredited his supporters, and the conservative opposition to Big Government.

And now, the latest from Mr. Trump shows us again what a Big Government man he is.  Yahoo Finance:

Even economists in Donald Trump’s circle were cringing Tuesday at the former president’s suggestion of a 10% tariff on all goods entering the United States.

Kyle Pomerleau, a tax expert at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, told Semafor the proposed levy could raise about $300 billion in new revenue from US firms and consumers. “Ultimately, both Americans and our trading partners are going to be poorer due to this policy,” he said.

Money of Doubtful Value

There are only two choices. Either the “The People” spend their money as they want and get what they deserve…or the deciders do it for them. Tariffs are another way liberty yields and government power grows.  

That’s why tariffs…along with all forms of government control of the economy…are so popular among the ruling classes. Here’s Clyde Prestowitz, justifying more political control of the economy: 

America needs…to manufacture more, transfer less technology and production to China, enhance and expand industrial policies at home, and build close ties to developing countries that are democracies with values closer to our own. America must aim to be the workshop of the world in as many advanced technologies as possible while limiting its dependence on China and other hostile nations to the minimum extent possible.

‘America’ has no ‘needs.’  And if it were a free country, its citizens would decide for themselves what they needed. Mr. Prestowitz claims to know what you need…better than you know yourself!

The US is not at war with China. China presents no clear and present danger to Americans. Instead, as one of our main trading partners, she provides goods and services to American households…in exchange for ‘money’ of doubtful value.

But a military/industrial complex seeks hostility. And a corrupt elite – the rich men north of Richmond – crave power. And so it was that Mr. Biden, on his own say so, decreed a new ‘thou shalt not’ to American investors.

Geopolitical Shadowboxing

This came in last week; The New York Times:

President Biden escalated his confrontation with China on Wednesday by signing an executive order banning American investments in key technology industries that could be used to enhance Beijing’s military capabilities, the latest in a series of moves putting further distance between the world’s two largest economies. 

The order will prohibit venture capital and private equity firms from pumping money into Chinese efforts to develop semiconductors and other microelectronics, quantum computers and certain artificial intelligence applications. Administration officials stressed that the move was tailored to guard national security, but China is likely to see it as part of a wider campaign to contain its rise.

A series of expanding export controls on key technologies to China has already triggered retaliation from Beijing, which recently announced the cutoff of metals like gallium that are critical for the Pentagon’s own supply chain.

If you buy bread from the baker you increase his wherewithal to buy a gun…and to shoot you with it. 

Normally, you judge the likelihood of his gunning down his best customer to be less of a bad thing than the obvious good thing you get from his donuts.  

In a free society, we each use our own judgment and take our chances. But as the power of the elite grows, the deciders decide for us.   

They say they are protecting our freedom.

Regards,

Bill Bonner