Thursday, July 8, 2021

We Are Entering The Age Of "Full John Galt"

We are entering the age of "Full John Galt." This is a time where society and politicians are rapidly dismantling the rights of ownership. This transfer of rights constitutes a transfer of wealth whether we wish to call it by that name or not. This is a time when people can just walk into a small privately-owned convenience store, then, without paying walk out with an arm full of merchandise with little or no ramifications. This is a time when government deficits have lost all meaning and people are being paid not to work. This is a time when saying what you feel can garner you massive negative attention and ruin your life.

The idea the economy can be planned by a central force has yet to succeed anywhere. The failings and ills of such programs are rooted in the fact that central planning tends to produce enormous unintended malign effects owing to erroneous incentives and price signals. The new mechanisms of socialist control often created to guide the economy are generally not up to the task of maintaining control. In the old Soviet Union, for instance, nail factory managers got measured and rewarded by the tonnage produced. The story goes that one enterprising factory started massively exceeding its quota by producing only ten-ton nails.

Social Unrest May Be Unavoidable
A slew of news headlines give the impression we as a society are on the verge of becoming unhinged and totally dysfunctional. We, as a population have become polarized and poisoned by the decisive messages flowing from those with self-serving agendas. With governments and various agencies busy issuing mandates and ordering things like a halt on evictions while they lock down cities, it is difficult to argue this is business as usual. Big tech seems to be guiding much of what we see and even the government appears under its spell. Add to this the constant flow of propaganda from mainstream media and the drumbeats of war that are growing louder and it is easy to claim, we do indeed live in interesting times. 

Recent headlines such as the condo collapse in Florida and hints that many other towers may also be in a precarious condition sends shivers down the spine of those living there. Signs of poor construction or architectural incompetence does little to comfort those that have invested their savings in these buildings. The financial ramifications that could flow from this event are enormous. It may reshape or massively increase the cost of getting a mortgage or insurance on many buildings.

Another concern is the lack of concern about political corruption. Even the recent headlines about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) disclosing that her investor husband made several now-profitable trades in various securities brought hardly a stir or screams of insider trading. Her husband bought Amazon calls on May 21 when it closed at $3,259.05. This was just six weeks before the Pentagon suddenly pulled the rug out from under Microsoft's $10 billion JEDI cloud computing deal. This has caused Amazon's stock price to soar by giving Amazon and Bezos a good chance of landing this very lucrative contract. 

Debt Is Now Above 28
Like so many people linked to Washington decision-makers, it seems Paul Pelosi has done very well in the markets, according to Fox Business, "The speaker has no involvement or prior knowledge of these transactions," and "The speaker does not own any stock." Yes, this is a time when such thinking is not only common but acceptable, and yes, this is a time when many of the hard-working people and savers that made America famous are being thrown under the bus. 

The Government-Financial complex, a combination of the Fed, the too big to fail, and the government has become a great threat to our freedom. Following the 2008 global crisis, the authorities acting primarily to prop up governments and the economy took actions to save the financial system by bringing big banks deeper into the fold. Over the years, as the Government-Financial complex and big tech came together the mix of concentrated power they now yield has become toxic. All this has resulted in a false economy and a soaring national debt that is now over 28 trillion dollars.

Their argument that it is better to intervene heavily in markets rather than do nothing repeats the mistakes that created the Great Depression. Lawyers and politicians historically garner rather low marks when it comes to ethics. Ironically, we allowed these same people to pound out the 2,300 plus pages we call the Dodd-Frank Act. This is said to be our new shield from abuse. With this in mind, we should not be surprised the steps taken over recent years to save the financial system have resulted in destroying true price discovery and led to the creeping nationalization of markets.

9 comments:

  1. I was but a young lad when I was sitting in class at high school when 9/11 happened. I did not fully understand the ramifications of that day. When I graduated in 2005 I decided not to go to college and enjoy working around my passion, automobiles, by working at automotive dealerships. I had a lot of fun and learned a lot about myself. Then 2008-2009 happened. The entire world took a hard left down a path that would lead us racing towards a cliff like Wyle Coyote. When 2020 happened we pressed the gas even harder thinking we were able to defy physics by making the jump over the Grand Canyon like Thelma and Louise. Just like those heroic feminist icons the world economy died not with a loud bang but a soft whimper. Now they try to get the old horse to move again like in Animal Farm but alas, this horse is DED.

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  2. A reader of AdvancingTime just shared an E-mail with me from Rand Paul. He writes that, as many of us expected, it is the intent of the "lockdown Mafia" to take full advantage of the new "Delta variant" as a way to cling to power. This means seizing this threat as a way to send America back into a state of fear.
    Paul goes on to say, "Standing idly by is how government grows, and liberty dies." He then added, "Reckless leaders take advantage of a crisis to con the American people into giving them more authority." Having witnessed the events that have occurred since the spring of 2020, it is hard to argue with his logic.

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  3. Just like our Federal Reserve has changed its inflation target to more than 2%, now the European Central Bank has done the same thing, allowing 2% "with overshoots". We all know that the 2% figure is bogus. The Plutocrats and Oligarchs who rule over us know that they must keep printing money to buy govt. bonds, otherwise interest rates would increase dramatically. Too bad for the average person who will have to live with prices going up 3-5% a year forever. They have dug a huge hole and dumped all of us in it with no easy way out.

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  4. Excellent article but lets cut to the chase and sum up what the author is trying to express. The United States has become a Banana Republic. The lesson to be learned is that every Empire has its day and every Empire throughout history meets their day.

    It’s happened throughout history and the United States is no exemption. We will unfortunately will be faced with civil unrest and possibly a breakup of the Union sometime in the future. The problem with a Republic form of government is that eventually it fails due to corruption. That’s what we are seeing today and it is in your face. The Media plays its part by covering for the government and conditions the citizens to tell them what the government wants them to hear. It is almost as if we are living in the movie “The Truman Show”.

    The other problem that will incite civil unrest is the wealth gap and the media again is doing its part by glorifying “our rich billionaire friends” who have the lives of the average Americans that much poorer. This is how the French Revolution got started. It became an us vs them society.

    Gerald Celente the founder of the Trends Journal has the best line: “When people lose everything and have nothing else to lose, THEY LOSE IT”.

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  5. "Atlas Shrugged" is coming true!

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  6. see Russia 1917 -- pure class warfare largely unrelated to nationalism
    this is where we are headed

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  7. Excellent comparison to some very old history.
    https://www.theburningplatform.com/2021/07/11/the-constitution-of-athens/#more-243375

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    1. That is some "very old history." Thanks for both the comment and link to a great article.

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