Bill, you penned the perfect epitaph for the U.S. Government's tombstone: "George W. Bush did not have to squander $8 trillion on a silly ‘war against terror.’ Barack Obama and Ben Bernanke did not have to distort the whole economy, after the mortgage finance crisis of ’08, with bailouts for Wall Street and ultra-low interest rates for a decade. Donald Trump did not have to panic when the Covid virus appeared... and he and Joe Biden did not have to blow up the empire’s finances with another $15 trillion in pointless debt."
Yes, one of Bonner's best columns. No Trump Derangement Syndrome today where Trump is the only culprit. Instead, an even-handed analysis of the failed leadership we've had over the past 20 years or more. I would go back further, but the problems have definitely accelerated since the turn of the century. I wish these types of columns from Bill weren't so rare.
Mr. Whitfield, Exactly. From my reading, it appears that Pres. Obama ran an average deficit of about $1.2T over seven years (excluding 2009); Pres. Trump about $1.15 over three years (excluding 2020); and, so far, Pres. Biden about $1.6T over three years (excluding year 2021). And it's disgraceful how Pres. Biden has run up the deficit in 2023 & 2024, two-to-three years outside of the COVID con. There's no reason for such a large run-up outside of crisis years. The other presidents this century at least used some constraint in non-crisis years. With Pres. Bush, the deficit numbers are a bit misleading because his 2001 deficit was tiny because it followed Pres. Clinton's surplus. But in 2002 it skyrocketed, then jumped dramatically again in 2003. This was because of the ME conflicts in Afghanistan & Iraq. It leveled off after that until 2008 when it skyrocketed again because of another crisis. But his 2002 deficit began this large deficit nonsense, which has not abated. So a pox on all their houses because the deficits this century are disgraceful, even when one excludes crisis years. But they keep middle-class voters employed, so I don't see this terrible trend (debt for jobs) changing. And the Fed is also (and has been) a big problem. When unemployment starts going up rapidly, they will juice things once again to level off unemployment, causing much more inflation and debt until the inevitable collapse occurs.
“People come to think what they need to think when they need to think it”
Indeed, and this also happens to be the invisible engine of propaganda and population control. I will restate the thesis: People come to think what the government wants them to think when the government thinks they need to think it. This latter version was the great discovery of Edward Bernays, the father of modern day propaganda, which morphed into Public Relations(and its beating heart Advertising). Just make sure you add an education system that teaches young people what to think not how to think. A real classical education and the ability to think independently is the great enemy of tyranny.
Brilliant Bill... the paragraph that starts out "If empires must decline, they must find the leaders who can help them do it. In that regard, the 21st century has blessed the US with the jefes it needed....". It is straight forward, simple and impossible to misinterpret and I might add dammed accurate. Leave it to human nature. I consider myself relatively sophisticated in economic and financial matters, certainly as compared to the average, but there is no doubt that the impact of inflation and the real value of the dollar are constantly there obfuscating what is really happening. This lulls most into complacency which is maybe the point from the vantage point of DC. Thanks Bill, and to your entire team, for the wisdom.
The obfuscation is deliberate why else would the Fed have an inflation target of 2% (now almost double) when 0% or less would be preferable. We should follow Milei who threatened to burn down Argentina's central bank.
One needs look no further than the Federal Reserve in cahoots with a government addicted to deficit spending to explain the US's current woes
All governments and central banks are in a competitive devaluation of their respective currencies. Any who allow others to devalue more in comparison to their own, loses. (No nation wants to have a really strong currency.) At least that has been the case until recently. I suspect that a regime shift is coming in which, as all accelerate the rate of devaluation, comparative advantage may shift to those who are more stable. But most of all to those - national or individual - who hold gold and other real assets.
Neocon's proving once again that they're a world class terrorist organization. American's will rue the day they enabled these miscreants. Cluster bombing a beach and killing innocent children while they're swimming is a new low even for these perennial losers. Give these bastards a one way ticket to Quantanamo Bay.
I think I’ll go with Patrick bet David’s slogan “the future looks bright” what else can you possibly hope for. As a 12 yr old i was pretty excited about what my future would be like when inspired by JFK. looking back at history with perspective on what actually was going on ( Dulles, bay of pigs, civil rights, Cuban missle crisis, etc.). Optimism seems to be the best antidote to the 3 Jefes.
Bill this paragraph is perhaps the best summation of recent political financial events/policy that has been written forms the basis of why the American Empire has declined and fallen so quickly ..
"If empires must decline, they must find the leaders who can help them do it. In that regard, the 21st century has blessed the US with the jaffes it needed. George W. Bush did not have to squander $8 trillion on a silly ‘war against terror.’ Barack Obama and Ben Bernanke did not have to distort the whole economy, after the mortgage finance crisis of ’08, with bailouts for Wall Street and ultra-low interest rates for a decade. Donald Trump did not have to panic when the Covid virus appeared... and he and Joe Biden did not have to blow up the empire’s finances with another $15 trillion in pointless debt. "
Thirty (30) more countries are set to join the BRICS including many in the Western Hemisphere including Argentina, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Cuba. Interesting Saudi Arabia will as well. So much for the good ol' PetroDollar. Gone the way of the Dodo Bird. The world is leaving the $ and heading for commodities. And the abundance of commodities does not lie in Europe or the U.S. It is getting uglier day by day. Be optimism is the way to live life as long as you keep your head out of the sand and prepare for rain. The rain cometh!
As Ken notes, the U.S. today looks better in a “compared to what” scenario. China and the EU also carry heavy debt. It feels like we are collectively living in a fool’s paradise. We can only speculate on what transpires when the charade ends. Me thinks the pigs at the top of the food chain will continue to gobble the best swill and trickle increasingly diluted swill into the trough for the rest of us. Hungry people are not happy people, so I am not sanguine. (Credit to P.J. O’Rourke for inspiring the swine analogy.)
Isn’t it ironic to be cheering for the decline of the American Empire? Cheering is probably the wrong word, expecting might be more appropriate. Standing on logical, moral, historical, philosophical principles, it would seem the current state of America is built on false hopes and false premises. Could a parallel be Pompeii? Those folks must have believed they stood on firm ground. Are foundations and fundamental principles, like beauty, in the eye of the beholder?
Thinking on this opening statement "US government debt has risen by $30 trillion, while the dollar — compared to gold — has lost nearly 90% of its value." I wonder (and I'll look shortly) - has any currency has done any better. If the answer is yes, then it points to a focused insular debasement of the dollar. If the answer is no, well, I wonder, what does that mean?
Bill, you penned the perfect epitaph for the U.S. Government's tombstone: "George W. Bush did not have to squander $8 trillion on a silly ‘war against terror.’ Barack Obama and Ben Bernanke did not have to distort the whole economy, after the mortgage finance crisis of ’08, with bailouts for Wall Street and ultra-low interest rates for a decade. Donald Trump did not have to panic when the Covid virus appeared... and he and Joe Biden did not have to blow up the empire’s finances with another $15 trillion in pointless debt."
Yes, one of Bonner's best columns. No Trump Derangement Syndrome today where Trump is the only culprit. Instead, an even-handed analysis of the failed leadership we've had over the past 20 years or more. I would go back further, but the problems have definitely accelerated since the turn of the century. I wish these types of columns from Bill weren't so rare.
Yes, when your only choice is the lesser of two evils we shouldn't be surprised that the evil just keeps accelerating.
Mr. Whitfield, Exactly. From my reading, it appears that Pres. Obama ran an average deficit of about $1.2T over seven years (excluding 2009); Pres. Trump about $1.15 over three years (excluding 2020); and, so far, Pres. Biden about $1.6T over three years (excluding year 2021). And it's disgraceful how Pres. Biden has run up the deficit in 2023 & 2024, two-to-three years outside of the COVID con. There's no reason for such a large run-up outside of crisis years. The other presidents this century at least used some constraint in non-crisis years. With Pres. Bush, the deficit numbers are a bit misleading because his 2001 deficit was tiny because it followed Pres. Clinton's surplus. But in 2002 it skyrocketed, then jumped dramatically again in 2003. This was because of the ME conflicts in Afghanistan & Iraq. It leveled off after that until 2008 when it skyrocketed again because of another crisis. But his 2002 deficit began this large deficit nonsense, which has not abated. So a pox on all their houses because the deficits this century are disgraceful, even when one excludes crisis years. But they keep middle-class voters employed, so I don't see this terrible trend (debt for jobs) changing. And the Fed is also (and has been) a big problem. When unemployment starts going up rapidly, they will juice things once again to level off unemployment, causing much more inflation and debt until the inevitable collapse occurs.
“People come to think what they need to think when they need to think it”
Indeed, and this also happens to be the invisible engine of propaganda and population control. I will restate the thesis: People come to think what the government wants them to think when the government thinks they need to think it. This latter version was the great discovery of Edward Bernays, the father of modern day propaganda, which morphed into Public Relations(and its beating heart Advertising). Just make sure you add an education system that teaches young people what to think not how to think. A real classical education and the ability to think independently is the great enemy of tyranny.
Brilliant Bill... the paragraph that starts out "If empires must decline, they must find the leaders who can help them do it. In that regard, the 21st century has blessed the US with the jefes it needed....". It is straight forward, simple and impossible to misinterpret and I might add dammed accurate. Leave it to human nature. I consider myself relatively sophisticated in economic and financial matters, certainly as compared to the average, but there is no doubt that the impact of inflation and the real value of the dollar are constantly there obfuscating what is really happening. This lulls most into complacency which is maybe the point from the vantage point of DC. Thanks Bill, and to your entire team, for the wisdom.
The obfuscation is deliberate why else would the Fed have an inflation target of 2% (now almost double) when 0% or less would be preferable. We should follow Milei who threatened to burn down Argentina's central bank.
One needs look no further than the Federal Reserve in cahoots with a government addicted to deficit spending to explain the US's current woes
If the dollar has lost 20% of value in 4 years what has happened to the value of the Euro, Rmb, sterling and yen in the same time frame
All governments and central banks are in a competitive devaluation of their respective currencies. Any who allow others to devalue more in comparison to their own, loses. (No nation wants to have a really strong currency.) At least that has been the case until recently. I suspect that a regime shift is coming in which, as all accelerate the rate of devaluation, comparative advantage may shift to those who are more stable. But most of all to those - national or individual - who hold gold and other real assets.
Neocon's proving once again that they're a world class terrorist organization. American's will rue the day they enabled these miscreants. Cluster bombing a beach and killing innocent children while they're swimming is a new low even for these perennial losers. Give these bastards a one way ticket to Quantanamo Bay.
https://x.com/Archer83Able/status/1805581567491760388?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1805581567491760388%7Ctwgr%5E2d8598475813f40ea4738c893ab14d0b8fbef539%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fshocking-new-video-shows-atacms-bomblets-raining-down-russian-beachgoers
I think I’ll go with Patrick bet David’s slogan “the future looks bright” what else can you possibly hope for. As a 12 yr old i was pretty excited about what my future would be like when inspired by JFK. looking back at history with perspective on what actually was going on ( Dulles, bay of pigs, civil rights, Cuban missle crisis, etc.). Optimism seems to be the best antidote to the 3 Jefes.
Also, what has happened to euro, yen, rmb and sterling versus gold since 1999?
It doesn't take more than a couple of minutes with a search engine to find out that all are in the same boat, I.e., competitive devaluation.
Bill this paragraph is perhaps the best summation of recent political financial events/policy that has been written forms the basis of why the American Empire has declined and fallen so quickly ..
"If empires must decline, they must find the leaders who can help them do it. In that regard, the 21st century has blessed the US with the jaffes it needed. George W. Bush did not have to squander $8 trillion on a silly ‘war against terror.’ Barack Obama and Ben Bernanke did not have to distort the whole economy, after the mortgage finance crisis of ’08, with bailouts for Wall Street and ultra-low interest rates for a decade. Donald Trump did not have to panic when the Covid virus appeared... and he and Joe Biden did not have to blow up the empire’s finances with another $15 trillion in pointless debt. "
Thirty (30) more countries are set to join the BRICS including many in the Western Hemisphere including Argentina, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Cuba. Interesting Saudi Arabia will as well. So much for the good ol' PetroDollar. Gone the way of the Dodo Bird. The world is leaving the $ and heading for commodities. And the abundance of commodities does not lie in Europe or the U.S. It is getting uglier day by day. Be optimism is the way to live life as long as you keep your head out of the sand and prepare for rain. The rain cometh!
As Ken notes, the U.S. today looks better in a “compared to what” scenario. China and the EU also carry heavy debt. It feels like we are collectively living in a fool’s paradise. We can only speculate on what transpires when the charade ends. Me thinks the pigs at the top of the food chain will continue to gobble the best swill and trickle increasingly diluted swill into the trough for the rest of us. Hungry people are not happy people, so I am not sanguine. (Credit to P.J. O’Rourke for inspiring the swine analogy.)
Isn’t it ironic to be cheering for the decline of the American Empire? Cheering is probably the wrong word, expecting might be more appropriate. Standing on logical, moral, historical, philosophical principles, it would seem the current state of America is built on false hopes and false premises. Could a parallel be Pompeii? Those folks must have believed they stood on firm ground. Are foundations and fundamental principles, like beauty, in the eye of the beholder?
Thinking on this opening statement "US government debt has risen by $30 trillion, while the dollar — compared to gold — has lost nearly 90% of its value." I wonder (and I'll look shortly) - has any currency has done any better. If the answer is yes, then it points to a focused insular debasement of the dollar. If the answer is no, well, I wonder, what does that mean?
Excellent insight into the successions of the current problems. WOW.
J Blair