Red Menace
Real interest rates — the cost of servicing so much debt — are rising. Voters grow restless, looking to blame someone...and eager for a bewitching politician to lay on his hands...to heal the economy.
Wednesday, July 8th, 2026
Bill Bonner, from Youghal, Ireland
“We’re not going to let communists get in our way. We’re not going to let anyone get in our way. Not the communists. They’re not doing anything, those people, what they’re doing. It’s so stupid.”
--Donald Trump
Who is POTUS talking about? The idea of the communist menace seems so out-of-date. It is as if the president came out of the White House wearing bell bottoms with his hair teased into a ‘fro.’
But the Red Menace is back in the news, the bogeyman for at least a few hours. The Washington Post:
Democrats are electing socialists. Republicans are labeling them communist.
But this is not Cold War communism they are talking about. Collectivized farms? Dictatorship of the proletariat? Marx? Lenin? Finally, a workers’ paradise? Not very likely.
America’s ‘communists’ are not really communists. They are various stripes of activists with a social disease to which both Republicans and Democrats are susceptible. They, like Trump himself, simply want to bend more of America’s output to their own fantasies and pet projects.
Trump is already seizing the means of production. The New York Times:
$10 Billion and Counting: Trump Administration Snaps Up Stakes in Private Firms
The Trump administration is spending billions of dollars on deals with ownership stakes in companies. The unusual practice shows no sign of slowing.
And they’re planning to take a lot more. Technology.org:
U.S. Officials Quietly Discuss Taking Ownership Stakes in Top AI Firms
Senior officials in the Trump administration have quietly talked with major artificial intelligence companies about a striking possibility: the federal government buying a slice of those firms.
In 1917, the Bolsheviks seized the factories. In America, 2026, the Empire of Debt has switched from brute force to chicanery and fraud. It borrows its way to war and collectivism.
Some politicians are more forthright about it than others. From Bernie Sanders last week:
Sanders Introduces Legislation to Create $7 Trillion AI Sovereign Wealth Fund
This Bill Would Give the American People, Not Oligarchs, Control Over the Future of AI
Like central planners everywhere they aim to control every aspect of the economy. Wages. Tariffs. Working hours. Housing. Interest rates. All are already subject to the feds’ meddles — imposed from the ‘left’ as well as the ‘right.’
And now...in large measure thanks to so much waste, debt, and regulation...real wages are as stagnant as a summer pond. Real interest rates — the cost of servicing so much debt — are rising. Voters grow restless, looking to blame someone...and eager for a bewitching politician to lay on his hands...to heal the economy and bless the people in it.
Is it any wonder they vote for more manipulations...more control...more ‘dirigisme?’ Trump’s brand of ‘Big Man’ national socialism? Sanders’ version of debt-funded socialism? A Trump account? A golden share? A government-run grocery store? Cronies on AI boards? DEI hires in charge of the food supply?
Hey, with free money almost anything is possible...for awhile.
But let’s look at it with a little wider-angle lens. “Never interrupt an enemy when he is making an error,” said Napoleon. With their claptrap creed, the Chinese and the Russians were shooting themselves in the foot. And yet, American politicians spent nearly half a century trying to knock the gun out of their hands. The Bolshevik BS kept their economies from competing with us and limited their military technology.
It was after China ditched communism that it became powerful enough to pose a threat. And thanks to its economic success, China may now have military technology that is actually superior to ours.
At home, communism is a big dud. Trump is right about that. Just as it wrecks foreign economies, so can it wreck our own. But if that’s what the voters want, why not?
According to the sacred texts of democracy, ultimately, there is no higher authority than the Will of The People. They decide for themselves how they will be misgoverned. They have the right to do something really stupid, and exercise it regularly. The sheep select the good shepherds they want...
And get the wolves they deserve.
Regards,
Bill Bonner
The biggest act of socialism is socialising the debt after the various financial crises.
I have met the commies and they are us!