Your Government Hates You

Posted on December 23, 2022 by MN Gordon

“Fate is nothing but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Capital Consuming Gluttony

Did you know that in fiscal year 2022, federal tax receipts as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) hit a near record high of 19.6 percent?

According to the U.S. Treasury, in FY 2022, total federal tax receipts and additional federal government revenue topped $4.90 trillion.  Yet, over this time, Congress spent $6.27 trillion.  The difference, the 2022 deficit, was $1.37 trillion.

The difference, of course, was made up with debt.  And year after year, decade after decade, these deficits have stacked up into a mega pile of debt.  Presently, the U.S. national debt is over $31.4 trillion.  As a reference point, in December 2000, the national debt was $5.6 trillion.

In other words, over the last 22 years the U.S. national debt has increased 460 percent.  U.S. GDP over this same time, however, has increased just 157 percent, from about $10 trillion to 25.7 trillion. Continue reading →

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The Do-Re-Mi of Treasury Notes

Posted on December 16, 2022 by MN Gordon

This week brought forth new data points for two of the world’s greatest economic contrivances.

These data points are important not so much because they provide a truthful depiction of reality.  But rather, because in today’s centrally planned economy they can be big movers and shakers for the stock and bond market.

On Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the latest inflation data.  According to the government’s aggregate data fabricators, consumer prices, as measured by the consumer price index (CPI), increased at an annual rate in November of 7.1 percent.

After peaking in June at 9.1 percent, the CPI has steadily declined.  Wall Street was initially delighted on the news.  The S&P 500 quickly jumped 155 points to an interim high of 4,145.  From there it slid over 122 points to close the day at 4,022.

Investors, for their part, thought they’d spotted a clue in the CPI report.  The whole herd of them knew just what the Federal Reserve would do on Wednesday at the conclusion of the December Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.  That is, the Fed would increase the federal funds rate by 50-basis points (i.e., 0.5 percent). Continue reading →

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Will Your State Reject the Fed’s Digital Dollar?

Posted on December 2, 2022 by MN Gordon

Personal and political freedoms are inseparable from economic freedom.  To this end, economic freedom is contingent upon an economy that transacts using honest money that’s free from coercion.

Volumes have been written on America’s experience with money of varying veracity.  Here we’ll touch on a few key events.

Article I, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution empowers Congress to coin money and regulate its value thereof.  Article I, Section 10, specifies that no state shall make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payments of debts.

The Federal Reserve Act of 1913, passed by the 63rd Congress and signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on December 23, 1913, established the Federal Reserve System, the central bank of the United States.  The Federal Reserve Act also delegated the right to issue money from Congress to the Federal Reserve.

In this regard, the current U.S. dollar, a Federal Reserve Note, is illegal money.  It is issued by the Federal Reserve – not Congress – in direct violation of the U.S. Constitution.  Moreover, when states collect tax dollars that are devoid of gold or silver coin, they violate the Constitution. Continue reading →

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