One major consequence of diddling rates to the downside is that debt builds up...which will eventually cause a debt crisis and make it impossible to pay for the free stuff politicians promised.
Has the Good Ship America sailed beyond the point of no return?
All our presidents -- especially our current one -- are addicted to debt.
And our Congresses, which appropriate the funds, nurture this addiction.
More wealth creation will give more revenue for the Federal government to tax but, to my knowledge, no government official at any level is dedicated to this goal.
Spending appears to be the perquisite to stay in office; the nation's solvency be damned.
Bonner's Law still holds: when the money goes, everything goes. We can debate among ourselves just exactly when it was the money began to go, and Bill likes to use 1971's Nixon decision to let the dollar float, infamous "closing" of the gold "window", but no one can dispute the situation we have today ($38 trillion in acknowledged debt), government-spending shenanigans and chicanery, which have the "value" of our currency (what we have to spend to get value) at an all-time low. Might as well damn the nation's solvency. We've been doing it now for, what? 60 years? Best always. PM
We have the best companies and the most liquid financial markets in the world. The quality of our institutions will keep us going for generations. The debt issue is one that needs addressed, though. That won’t happen until the voting population stop wanting something for nothing.
What of our seed corn we haven't eaten we exported to China. With regard to the "voting population", you are familiar with Andrew Tytler (1747-1813) and his Cycle of Civilizations theory, aren't you? Best always. PM
Yes I agree with the notion democracies can’t live forever but the notion of the United States being on the precipitous of insolvency will prove false in time. Treasuries are still the safest asset in the world in terms of principal repayment. The currency devaluation is certainly a risk, though, to your point.
I guess my point is it’s not as bad as we are making it out to be.
Our institutions are failing us. The FBI can't tell the truth. Test scores drop every year in public schools. Medical schools teach DEI. The CIA is criminal. I truly wish I had your optimism.
Denis Healey was Chancellor of the Exchequer, never PM, thank goodness. A brilliant man, he squeezed and squeezed until the IMF had to come in, bail the country out and impose the sort of measures elected politicians can never seem to stomach: cuts to wasteful government spending. Sometime by some means this necessity will come to all the debt-fuelled countries
So while the ultra rich have attached themselves to the political class doing the reciprocity dance they have slowly cooked the goose of the American industrial engine, the middle class. Now what?
Unfortunately, that goose was cooked long ago. The mid-West is called the "rust belt" for a great reason - the wealthy and their corporations sent manufacturing overseas. What made America great was our ability to manufacturer for the world after WWII. Now that is gone. The "exorbitant privilege" is all that remains of those once gone days and it is rapidly swirling the drain. People want to believe America's reign will continue - especially the wealthy elites - but that isn't close to reality. America and the World has awaken to see reality through the mist - tariffs and fading military might leave but a hollow shell. Does anyone actually believe the U.S. can fight Russia in Ukraine, China over Taiwan, Venezuela with the aid of Russia/China, and all the lost causes in the Middle East supporting Israel and its horrific genocide. There are Super Powers pushing back.....it isn't a one-way street anymore. And, it is also seen (if one is paying attention) the U.S. is desperately stacking gold (and now, also silver). All the gold in Fort Knox was fool's gold. Why? Nixon closed the gold window for a reason - countries throughout the world in the 60s traded the US$ for gold until Nixon had no choice. The amount of gold the U.S. actually has isn't anywhere near the 8,100 metric tons that was there in 1953. And, nowhere close to the 30,000 metric tons China has - not counting the rest of the East. Going to be ugly for us middle classers. Wake-up and smell the coffee! Ol' Bill tries to nudge us Monday thru Friday - but as Yogi once said - "With some people, if they don't know, you can't tell them!" Just an ol' man's mumblings..
LSO, I have never heard what I consider to be a legitimate reason that we can't audit/verify/assay our gold reserves. Maybe somebody here among our august body of commenters can tell me/us. It seems we can't go forward without that knowledge, which is a sine qua non, so far as I'm concerned. Now a question: why is the claim about the amount of our gold reserves not believable but China's claim is? Best always. PM
I agree. There has been NO "physical" audit of U.S. gold reserves since the early 50s and it is known during the 60s many countries traded US$s for gold and caused Nixon to closed the gold window. But, there has never been an audit after the closing of the gold window. As to China's gold, it officially doesn't claim anywhere near 30,000 metric tons. China's gold reserve remains the same quantity from long ago although China is the No. 1 gold producer in the world and does not allow gold to be exported. The World Gold Council ("WGC") says China produced over 534 metric tons in 2024. The People's Bank of China official gold reserve in mid-2025 stands at 2,292 metric tons. Neither China nor the U.S. have made any "official" statement of gold reserves. However, given China has been the No. 1 gold producer for numerous decades, does it make any sense that China's reserve is the same as back in the 50s? And, we know Trump/Musk went to Fort Knox and we heard nothing - not even a pin drop. But, of course, one can only assumes the U.S. still has 4 times the amount of gold than China! Really - if you live under a rock. And, why would China along with the BRICS, ASEAN, and Global South being developing an alternate trading currency backed by gold? Anyone can belief whatever they want..........if their eyes are closed tightly.
Mister LSO. In spite of all that there are some people in this thread that sound very optimistic. You and I sir are not 1 of them. Eyes wide open. May god bless us all.
Mamdani has a particular mission thrust upon him by the Democratic Socialists according to leaked documents! His job is to limit/break ties between New York and Israel. Will he accomplish it?
There are all kinds of articles out there about it so you can pick one that irritates or pleases you more or less than this one!
That's not all he's been set up to break. This is the biggest single breakthrough for Islamic Jihad ever in the history of the civilized world. They now have their beachhead. Best always. PM
Paul, didn't you get the message. We don't have to worry about the jihads anymore. Trump is buddy-buddy with Ahmed al-Sharaa the former Al-Queda leader and current president if Syria who recently the White House. From headchopper to head of state, quite a career move. But even Carter's National Security Advisor, Brzezinski, said the problems stemming from the CIA's Operation Cyclone in which the original jihads like Osama were organized to draw the Russians into their "own Vietnam" in Afghanistan were worth it. The Jihads are only the bad guys when the Feds tell us they're the enemy.
Just curious, Paul. You don't get Brzezinski's plan to draw the USSR into a war in Afghanistan or you don't get that he and the CIA organized the original Al-Queda to do it? Or you don't get that the idiot was satisfied that he contributed to the downfall of the USSR and didn't care about the blowback caused by the jihads after the war ended?
LBJ forged the alliance between the Warfare and Welfare branches of the Administrative State, followed his "guns and butter' spending policy relentlessly, and Nixon responded to the French move to surge its exchange of USD for gold by abrogating the Bretton Woods currency treaty. Between 1971 and, ever since, the logic of MMT has been at work destroying trust in USD as a reserve currency.
Question: In one of your videos you mentioned in passing that you suspect Trump’s tariffs imposed on most countries are really about China. Could you expand on that?
Response: While I think that Trump’s basic imperative is to reduce American exposure to international military and economic forces, I think his primary economic and military concern is China. The tariffs he placed on China were designed to harm it and to tell the Chinese that they cannot be economically dependent on access to U.S. markets while maintaining a hostile military posture toward the U.S., as the U.S. cannot be dependent on a country it might be at war with someday. There are now two channels of negotiation underway. The more public one is economic; the more important one, the military, is less noticed. In the process of trying to restructure U.S.-China relations, he chose to impose tariffs on other countries. This served to revise relations with the world. But given that China is the major issue, I tend toward the opinion that he both wants to change America’s global economic relationship and does not want to single out China, as that would make it much more difficult for China to shift its relationship with the United States. I do not know this for a fact, and I can see the need to redefine economic relations throughout the world. But I have a hunch, for what little it’s worth, that he wants to avoid singling out China.
related:
Trump, Xi, and Managing Rivalry
Washington’s challenge is to exploit its window of relative advantage without drifting into complacency or escalation.
By Kamran Bokhari -October 31, 2025
excerpt:
It is striking that Xi is simultaneously reshaping the PLA leadership and projecting military power across the Western Pacific. The two moves are fundamentally at odds, as an aspiring global military cannot credibly advance while purging its senior commanders in large numbers. Xi knows that repeated naval and air wargames cannot substitute for real combat experience, and the PLA is far from being able to seriously challenge U.S. forces. Chinese military assertiveness, therefore, appears aimed less at building true battlefield capability than at maximizing leverage over Washington in negotiations over trade, investment and technology access.
We should all be plaintiffs in an extortion class action lawsuit against the Trump Administration. It would, therefore, be illegal to accept extorted funds knowingly, either by stimmy checks, or otherwise.
In my understanding, all governments are guilty of extortion. In fact that is probably the modern definition of governments, an organization founded on extortion.
Dennis Healey was Chancellor not PM (the PM at the time was Jim Callaghan). Healey later said when you are in a hole stop digging which may acknowledge the mess the Labour Government has got the public finances in which is being repeated 50 years later!
I am starting to have trouble receiving emails on my computer from Bonner Private Research yesterday and today.
Yesterday when I received Dan’s email titled “The Hollow Class” I couldn’t print/save the .htm file. Today, the email shows up with many lines missing (i.e. with blank lines in stead of the original text).
I am wondering if there has been format changes or if there are software changes in sending the original documents?
Other people’s money for sure is running out. Debt is an illusion when you don’t acknowledge it for sure. Reality is hard earned in this world, but ignoring it robs innovation, respect of productivity and individual accountability.
Has the Good Ship America sailed beyond the point of no return?
All our presidents -- especially our current one -- are addicted to debt.
And our Congresses, which appropriate the funds, nurture this addiction.
More wealth creation will give more revenue for the Federal government to tax but, to my knowledge, no government official at any level is dedicated to this goal.
Spending appears to be the perquisite to stay in office; the nation's solvency be damned.
Bonner's Law still holds: when the money goes, everything goes. We can debate among ourselves just exactly when it was the money began to go, and Bill likes to use 1971's Nixon decision to let the dollar float, infamous "closing" of the gold "window", but no one can dispute the situation we have today ($38 trillion in acknowledged debt), government-spending shenanigans and chicanery, which have the "value" of our currency (what we have to spend to get value) at an all-time low. Might as well damn the nation's solvency. We've been doing it now for, what? 60 years? Best always. PM
We have the best companies and the most liquid financial markets in the world. The quality of our institutions will keep us going for generations. The debt issue is one that needs addressed, though. That won’t happen until the voting population stop wanting something for nothing.
What of our seed corn we haven't eaten we exported to China. With regard to the "voting population", you are familiar with Andrew Tytler (1747-1813) and his Cycle of Civilizations theory, aren't you? Best always. PM
Maybe but Americans are more plump than ever.
Yes I agree with the notion democracies can’t live forever but the notion of the United States being on the precipitous of insolvency will prove false in time. Treasuries are still the safest asset in the world in terms of principal repayment. The currency devaluation is certainly a risk, though, to your point.
I guess my point is it’s not as bad as we are making it out to be.
All the best
RR
Our institutions are failing us. The FBI can't tell the truth. Test scores drop every year in public schools. Medical schools teach DEI. The CIA is criminal. I truly wish I had your optimism.
Yes
Central banks have done lots of easing,
Lending cash to the rich whilst just squeezing
The ordinary folk
Who`ll end stony broke
And leave the economy wheezing.
A limerick! Lost art! Many thanks. Best always. PM
Denis Healey was Chancellor of the Exchequer, never PM, thank goodness. A brilliant man, he squeezed and squeezed until the IMF had to come in, bail the country out and impose the sort of measures elected politicians can never seem to stomach: cuts to wasteful government spending. Sometime by some means this necessity will come to all the debt-fuelled countries
So while the ultra rich have attached themselves to the political class doing the reciprocity dance they have slowly cooked the goose of the American industrial engine, the middle class. Now what?
Unfortunately, that goose was cooked long ago. The mid-West is called the "rust belt" for a great reason - the wealthy and their corporations sent manufacturing overseas. What made America great was our ability to manufacturer for the world after WWII. Now that is gone. The "exorbitant privilege" is all that remains of those once gone days and it is rapidly swirling the drain. People want to believe America's reign will continue - especially the wealthy elites - but that isn't close to reality. America and the World has awaken to see reality through the mist - tariffs and fading military might leave but a hollow shell. Does anyone actually believe the U.S. can fight Russia in Ukraine, China over Taiwan, Venezuela with the aid of Russia/China, and all the lost causes in the Middle East supporting Israel and its horrific genocide. There are Super Powers pushing back.....it isn't a one-way street anymore. And, it is also seen (if one is paying attention) the U.S. is desperately stacking gold (and now, also silver). All the gold in Fort Knox was fool's gold. Why? Nixon closed the gold window for a reason - countries throughout the world in the 60s traded the US$ for gold until Nixon had no choice. The amount of gold the U.S. actually has isn't anywhere near the 8,100 metric tons that was there in 1953. And, nowhere close to the 30,000 metric tons China has - not counting the rest of the East. Going to be ugly for us middle classers. Wake-up and smell the coffee! Ol' Bill tries to nudge us Monday thru Friday - but as Yogi once said - "With some people, if they don't know, you can't tell them!" Just an ol' man's mumblings..
LSO, I have never heard what I consider to be a legitimate reason that we can't audit/verify/assay our gold reserves. Maybe somebody here among our august body of commenters can tell me/us. It seems we can't go forward without that knowledge, which is a sine qua non, so far as I'm concerned. Now a question: why is the claim about the amount of our gold reserves not believable but China's claim is? Best always. PM
I agree. There has been NO "physical" audit of U.S. gold reserves since the early 50s and it is known during the 60s many countries traded US$s for gold and caused Nixon to closed the gold window. But, there has never been an audit after the closing of the gold window. As to China's gold, it officially doesn't claim anywhere near 30,000 metric tons. China's gold reserve remains the same quantity from long ago although China is the No. 1 gold producer in the world and does not allow gold to be exported. The World Gold Council ("WGC") says China produced over 534 metric tons in 2024. The People's Bank of China official gold reserve in mid-2025 stands at 2,292 metric tons. Neither China nor the U.S. have made any "official" statement of gold reserves. However, given China has been the No. 1 gold producer for numerous decades, does it make any sense that China's reserve is the same as back in the 50s? And, we know Trump/Musk went to Fort Knox and we heard nothing - not even a pin drop. But, of course, one can only assumes the U.S. still has 4 times the amount of gold than China! Really - if you live under a rock. And, why would China along with the BRICS, ASEAN, and Global South being developing an alternate trading currency backed by gold? Anyone can belief whatever they want..........if their eyes are closed tightly.
China has been buying gold for 20 years.
I believe china employs long-term strategic thinking. Here, not so much.
Mister LSO. In spite of all that there are some people in this thread that sound very optimistic. You and I sir are not 1 of them. Eyes wide open. May god bless us all.
Mamdani has a particular mission thrust upon him by the Democratic Socialists according to leaked documents! His job is to limit/break ties between New York and Israel. Will he accomplish it?
There are all kinds of articles out there about it so you can pick one that irritates or pleases you more or less than this one!
https://thepostmillennial.com/leaked-documents-reveal-dsas-blueprint-for-zohran-mamdanis-radical-administration
That's not all he's been set up to break. This is the biggest single breakthrough for Islamic Jihad ever in the history of the civilized world. They now have their beachhead. Best always. PM
Paul, didn't you get the message. We don't have to worry about the jihads anymore. Trump is buddy-buddy with Ahmed al-Sharaa the former Al-Queda leader and current president if Syria who recently the White House. From headchopper to head of state, quite a career move. But even Carter's National Security Advisor, Brzezinski, said the problems stemming from the CIA's Operation Cyclone in which the original jihads like Osama were organized to draw the Russians into their "own Vietnam" in Afghanistan were worth it. The Jihads are only the bad guys when the Feds tell us they're the enemy.
Um, OK. Whatever you say. Some like to think Jihad applies only to Jews. I never did "get" Brzezinski, either. Thanks for the comfort. Best always. PM
Just curious, Paul. You don't get Brzezinski's plan to draw the USSR into a war in Afghanistan or you don't get that he and the CIA organized the original Al-Queda to do it? Or you don't get that the idiot was satisfied that he contributed to the downfall of the USSR and didn't care about the blowback caused by the jihads after the war ended?
I find it hard to believe that genuine US citizens voted for this clown. If they did then the media has a lot to answer for this future debacle.
You'd be surprised to learn lot of things about genuine US citizens. I know I am. Best always. PM
LBJ forged the alliance between the Warfare and Welfare branches of the Administrative State, followed his "guns and butter' spending policy relentlessly, and Nixon responded to the French move to surge its exchange of USD for gold by abrogating the Bretton Woods currency treaty. Between 1971 and, ever since, the logic of MMT has been at work destroying trust in USD as a reserve currency.
George Answers Your Questions: US-China Trade War
By George Friedman -November 1, 2025
Question: In one of your videos you mentioned in passing that you suspect Trump’s tariffs imposed on most countries are really about China. Could you expand on that?
Response: While I think that Trump’s basic imperative is to reduce American exposure to international military and economic forces, I think his primary economic and military concern is China. The tariffs he placed on China were designed to harm it and to tell the Chinese that they cannot be economically dependent on access to U.S. markets while maintaining a hostile military posture toward the U.S., as the U.S. cannot be dependent on a country it might be at war with someday. There are now two channels of negotiation underway. The more public one is economic; the more important one, the military, is less noticed. In the process of trying to restructure U.S.-China relations, he chose to impose tariffs on other countries. This served to revise relations with the world. But given that China is the major issue, I tend toward the opinion that he both wants to change America’s global economic relationship and does not want to single out China, as that would make it much more difficult for China to shift its relationship with the United States. I do not know this for a fact, and I can see the need to redefine economic relations throughout the world. But I have a hunch, for what little it’s worth, that he wants to avoid singling out China.
related:
Trump, Xi, and Managing Rivalry
Washington’s challenge is to exploit its window of relative advantage without drifting into complacency or escalation.
By Kamran Bokhari -October 31, 2025
excerpt:
It is striking that Xi is simultaneously reshaping the PLA leadership and projecting military power across the Western Pacific. The two moves are fundamentally at odds, as an aspiring global military cannot credibly advance while purging its senior commanders in large numbers. Xi knows that repeated naval and air wargames cannot substitute for real combat experience, and the PLA is far from being able to seriously challenge U.S. forces. Chinese military assertiveness, therefore, appears aimed less at building true battlefield capability than at maximizing leverage over Washington in negotiations over trade, investment and technology access.
Excellent commentary, spot on. We are F…..ed!
We should be comfortable, then, because we've been in that condition now for a LONG time. Best always. PM
Unlimited money (aka credit) always leads to unlimited problems. Which will be resolved, like all problems… by natural law in due course.
Bill,
My 2 cents are: This administration is guilty of the following, yet not one news media mentions it:
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/legal/criminal-defense/extortion/
We should all be plaintiffs in an extortion class action lawsuit against the Trump Administration. It would, therefore, be illegal to accept extorted funds knowingly, either by stimmy checks, or otherwise.
In my understanding, all governments are guilty of extortion. In fact that is probably the modern definition of governments, an organization founded on extortion.
We Americans are hung up on exceptionalism; therefore, it is an imperative that WE extort better than anyone else. Best always. PM
😂😂😂😂😂
Dennis Healey was Chancellor not PM (the PM at the time was Jim Callaghan). Healey later said when you are in a hole stop digging which may acknowledge the mess the Labour Government has got the public finances in which is being repeated 50 years later!
It is really hard to fix stupid. The idiot in New York is going to make real estate in Florida more expensive.
I am starting to have trouble receiving emails on my computer from Bonner Private Research yesterday and today.
Yesterday when I received Dan’s email titled “The Hollow Class” I couldn’t print/save the .htm file. Today, the email shows up with many lines missing (i.e. with blank lines in stead of the original text).
I am wondering if there has been format changes or if there are software changes in sending the original documents?
Denis Healey was never UK Prime Minister.
Other people’s money for sure is running out. Debt is an illusion when you don’t acknowledge it for sure. Reality is hard earned in this world, but ignoring it robs innovation, respect of productivity and individual accountability.