Now You See Me...

In its respectable form, elections, parliaments and a spirit of consensus make politics tolerable. But take away the threadbare cloak of civilization…and all you have is naked violence and hatred.

Thursday, March 20th, 2025

Bill Bonner, writing from Baltimore, Maryland

‘Do you believe, like I believe, in magic?’

—Lovin’ Spoonful

Poor Elon. He deserves some sort of prize. He is both the brightest…and the dimmest…person ever to sully his hands in national politics.

His SpaceX played a vital role in bringing astronauts back to earth. Millions of people rely on his Starlink system for their communications. Over six million people drive his automobiles. Over 600 million use his X. He is a genius and genuine wunderkind.

By most measures, he must be the most successful human who ever lived. He is Augustus after defeating Antony. Napoleon after crowning himself in Notre Dame. Hitler after his triumphal entry into Paris. On top of the world.

After such blinding victories in the commercial space…surely he would have the same stellar success in politics.

But in politics, he acts as if he were born yesterday. The Irish Star:

Appearing on Fox News… "It's come as a shock to me. This level of hatred and violence from the left… I thought the Democrats were supposed to be the party of empathy and caring, yet they're the ones firing bullets." "Tesla is a peaceful company, we've never done anything harmful. I've never done anything harmful, I've only done productive things. I think we have a deranged mental illness thing going on here because this doesn't make any sense."

Hello, Elon?

What do you think politics is all about? Who do you think the Democrats are?

Politics has nothing to do with peace. Or doing productive things. It is a dirty business, with confrontations, calumnies, lies, war…murder…prisons…taxes…fraud and bamboozles, including inflation and tariffs. It is not a way to increase wealth, but merely to redistribute it…from the public, to the insiders.

In its tame and respectable form, elections, parliaments and a spirit of consensus make it tolerable. But take away the threadbare cloak of civilization…and all you have is naked violence and hatred.

In its respectable form, too, federal finance is based on taxation and borrowing. But there’s a deeper, nastier aspect. Here’s another revelation from Elon. CoinTelegraph:

US government cost-cutting czar Elon Musk claims to have found at least 14 “magic money computers” in the federal government with the ability to send money from nothing. Musk said the computers, which exist in several federal departments, including the Treasury, Defense, Health and Human Services departments, can essentially issue payments and send money from nothing.

Where did he think the money comes from?

Elon is trying to cut ‘waste’ and introduce more efficiency to federal finances. Democrats scream about budget cuts in their favorite programs. You might think the magic money situation was finally improving. It is not.

In this regard February was a record setter. The month’s federal accounts showed total revenues of $296 billion. But expenses were twice as much, leaving a deficit of $307 billion. As far as we know, this is the first time that the feds have spent more than two times what they received. For every dollar of revenue, they spent two dollars and change.

Source: US Monthly Statement of the Treasury

The gap was filled, of course, with borrowed money. But without pixie dust the whole fandango would fall on its face. Magic money feeds the stock market…it enables trillion-dollar deficits…it juices the economy with debt and flatters corporate profits.

Were it not for the magic money the $37 trillion national debt couldn’t exist…the Dow wouldn’t be over 40,000…and the feds would have to abandon many of their extravagant boondoggles — including, perhaps, even the empire itself.

The problem with ‘magic money’ is the ‘magic’ part. It can appear…out of nowhere… ‘printed’ up by the feds on demand.

But it can go ‘poof’ too. Over the last five years, trillions of dollars’ worth of real value – in asset prices, and even in the national debt – vanished, thanks to inflation. And there’s a lot more where that came from.

Watch out.

Regards,

Bill Bonner