The Fed's Asylum

$40 billion for the Ukraine, Powell's reappointment and more from the Incompetents Hall of Fame...

(Source: Getty Images)

Bill Bonner, reckoning today from Youghal, Ireland...

Congress did two amazingly idiotic things last week.

First, the House passed a $40 billion aid package for the Ukraine. (The Senate is on the case today.)

Second, the Senate approved Jerome Powell for another stint at the Fed.

How the two are related… and what it means for the Fed’s promise to stop inflation… are the dots we’re trying to connect.

It was only a few months ago that Americans didn’t give two figs about the Ukrainians. But now, every red-blooded heart beats with them… every sturdy pair of legs stands with them… and every dollar of federal spending includes a few centimes for the Zelensky government.  

And why not? Ukrainians are minted in the likeness of Washington and Jefferson… defenders of democracy and freedom, one and all. But wait… all  Great Causes, like sewer systems, look good in diagrams; they get messy and malodorous when you get into the details.

After all, the people of the Donbass and Lubansk regions – Russian speakers – voted to leave the Ukraine. Shouldn’t democracy lovers support them, rather than the strong-arm centralizers of Kyev? And if Zelensky is such a democracy and freedom lover, how come opposition parties have been banned? 

Who’s right? Who’s wrong? We don’t know. Neither does the Biden Administration.  

But as to $40 billion, we know this: it is money the feds don’t have… and, if they had it, they shouldn’t give it away. The US is most likely on the threshold of a huge crash and a recession; this is no time to be squandering money on foreign policy malarkey.  

Of course, $40 billion won’t bankrupt the nation and the Russians won’t sink it.  Which is why the second thing Congress did is even more important… and more foolish.  

Another Stab

We’re ready to forgive almost anything. Lincoln forgave the rebels for trying to assert their independence, after killing a quarter of them. And Isaac forgave Abraham, after the latter nearly carved him up.

But forgiving is one thing… asking him to take another stab at it is another.

In the news recently was the story of a member of Congress who was caught watching porn during a House session. 

Our sympathies were with the politician. Anyone who has spent any time in Washington knows that Congress is one of the dullest, emptiest, most puerile places on the planet. Everything said is either a lie or a buffoonery. No honest man lasts very long – unless he can find something to distract himself. Maybe dirty pictures are just a way to keep things in perspective.

The man denied the charge, but was condemned nevertheless and would have been taken behind the toolshed if there were one.

There are some things you can do in public office. And some things you can’t. Use the ‘n’ word… and your career is over. Pinch your secretary’s derriere and you will be handed a loaded pistol.  

But fumble, rob, cheat, lie… cause millions of deaths – and you get reappointed!

The make-believe battle between the two wings of the ruling class –  ‘conservative’ and ‘liberal’… Republican and Democrat – occupies the press and satisfies the public. But when push comes to shove, both wings of the Deep, Deep State flap together. They carry the elite aloft… and leave ‘the people’ behind.  

In both acts of Congress last week, Republicans and Democrats acted in unison… and solemnly voted to rip off the public.  

In the first instance, the American public has no real interest in the country where Hunter Biden earned $50,000 per month. Surely it is a coincidence that this very same country is now getting more in US aid than any other country in the world.  Indeed, the Ukraine is now getting twice as much as the next biggest rathole – Israel.

But much of the money ends up in good hands – the US ‘defense’ industry. And keeping the war going is also a priority because it helps distract the public from inflation, which was caused by Congress and the Fed.

The Fed’s Asylum

Which brings us to the second and more destructive of last week’s blunders – the confirmation of Jerome Powell’s reappointment as capo di tutti capi at the Fed. We now suffer the highest inflation rate in 40 years. And the public despises it. It is a ‘tax,’ but a particularly painful and insidious one. It falls like an unmoored window unit on the heads of the poorest among us. As we showed yesterday, higher food prices will likely condemn millions of the poorest people on the planet to starvation.

So, why leave the man most responsible for causing it at his post?

You could set up a roadblock outside a Kentucky Fried Chicken joint and find dozens of people who would make better Fed chiefs. That is no salute to the genius of those ensnared, but to the fact that their minds are unpolluted by the Fed’s economic claptrap. No greasy talk of ideal 2% inflation… no hallucinations about the ‘wealth effect.’ And no orgasmic thrill at the thought of providing more ‘stimulus.’

Which is to say, most people have not spent their whole careers in the luxury wards of the Fed’s asylum; instead, they’ve had a chance to see the real world in action.  

Markets correct mistakes. Politics, rarely. In the Incompetents Hall of Fame are the generals who led America’s 20-year losing war in Afghanistan; they are treated with the respect normally reserved for successful people. There are the retired presidents, too – Bush, Obama, Trump. Despite their failures, they are rarely threatened by lynch mobs. Former Fed chiefs are there too. Greenspan, Bernanke, Yellen, Powell – together they helped cut the US growth rate in half… and multiplied US debt 5 times. And yet, they are still invited to give speeches; some – such as Janet Yellen – get to do even more damage as Secretary of the Treasury.

And Powell? In Washington, he has street cred. With a $30 trillion debt, the feds are going to need a lot more inflation in the years ahead; Powell may be a cretinous counterfeit, but he’s proven he can do the job.  

More to come…

Bill Bonner

Joel’s Note: Have the lunatics finally taken over the asylum? Hmm…

We received plenty of nominations for the Incompetents Hall of Fame in yesterday’s comments section. There were the usual suspects, of course, members of both major political parties (Dumb and Dumber), plus a smattering of international nominees… with special mentions to Canada’s Justin Trudeau and New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern.

We’ll get to all these folks and more in due course. Meanwhile, here’s another one for the pile…

John Cooper @thejcoop

Watch what happens when Peter Doocy asks the new White House press secretary how raising taxes on the rich brings down inflation, as Biden tweeted last week. Big yikes.

Lordy! Talk about a buzzword salad! “Umm… becoz, like… climate-change-greedy-capitalist-price-gouge-Putin-rich-evil-did-I-say-climate-change-taxes-equity?”

Are these really the same people charged with bringing down inflation? With reigning in government spending? Getting tough on crime? Setting energy policy? Dealing with complex geopolitical issues?

Would you trust these people to watch your pet goldfish for an hour?

Truth is, none of the so-called “leaders” are looking out for your best interests anyway. They’ve got their own behinds to cover!

If you’ve had enough of “transitory” inflation… of “two-weeks to flatten the curve”… of “taxing the rich to bring down high prices”… maybe it’s time to abandon the status quo altogether… and join Bonner Private Research instead. Get started protecting what’s yours, right here…

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