How Inflation Got Away from Washington Screw Ups

Posted on June 10, 2022 by MN Gordon

Sometimes I think of all the places I don’t want to go
Then I think of all the things I never want to do
Think of all the people I never want to meet
I close my eyes and I go to sleep

– Green Corn, NOFX

Prayers for the ‘Big Guy’

Being a government hack has its advantages.  You get eleven paid holidays per year.  You get promoted for poor performance.  The benefits are superb.  Best of all, you can get remarkably rich…even if you’re a screw up.

President Joe Biden, for example, has worked for the federal government for nearly 50 years.  His net worth is about $9 million.

Yet Biden and his wife Jill really made the big bucks between 2017 and 2020, when Biden was out of office.  Together, they hauled in $17.3 million in book deals and speaking fees.  These are some of the fringe benefits of having been a government bigwig.

The Good Book says we should pray for our leaders. First Timothy 2:1-2 (KJV) offers the explicit spiritual instruction. Continue reading →

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How Quantitative Tightening Ends

Posted on June 3, 2022 by MN Gordon

The pursuit of decadence is always met with the painful reality that stopping the excess is much more difficult than starting.  This realization, like a killer in the night, lies in wait until just after the point of no return.  When the certain destruction cannot be undone.

John Maynard Keynes, Fabian socialist and the godfather of modern day economic planning, in his 1935 work, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, wrote:

“Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.”

In late November 2008, then Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke committed a fait accompli.  Though he may not have realized it at the time; he was blinded by his scholarly prejudices.

Bernanke, a smug Great Depression history buff of the highest academic pedigree, gazed back 80-years, observed several credit market parallels, and then made a preconceived diagnosis. Continue reading →

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Countdown To World Famine

Posted on May 27, 2022 by MN Gordon

The latest iteration of the Russia-Ukraine war recently surpassed the 90 day marker.  And there’s no foreseeable end in sight.

Henry Kissinger’s counsel at the World Economic Forum this week that Ukraine give up territory to Russia is a nonstarter for Volodymyr Zelenskyy.  This war has only just beginning.

Do you remember what the fighting is for?  If so, you’re one of few.

President Biden – the big guy – is entirely flummoxed.  This week, at the Quad summit in Japan, Biden remarked that the Russian war against Ukraine was “unprovoked.”  Once again, a firm grasp of the facts is not one of Biden’s strong suits.

Vladimir Putin, the invader, has over two decades of provocations he can point to.  According to declassified U.S., Soviet, German, British, and French documents posted on December 12, 2017, by the National Security Archive at George Washington University, the U.S. promised to not expand the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO): Continue reading →

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What’s Up With Gold?

Posted on May 20, 2022 by MN Gordon

Amidst a backdrop of raging consumer price inflation something strange and unexpected is going on.  The U.S. dollar has become more valuable.  Not against goods and services.  But against foreign currencies.

For example, the U.S. dollar index, which is a measure of the value of the dollar relative to a basket of foreign currencies, recently crossed the 105 level.  This marks its highest level since December 2002.  Not since tech stocks were in full meltdown in 2002 has the dollar been so strong.

Without questions, the dollar’s had quite a run.  The dollar index increased over 6 percent in 2021.  So far in 2022, it has already gained over 7 percent.  And, for the time being, and despite shortsighted dollar weaponization policies, the dollar is preserving its reserve currency status.

This week, the dollar index did retreat slightly…at market close Thursday (May 19) it stood at 102.91.  Maybe the dollar has peaked.  Or maybe this is just a period of consolidation before its springs upward. Continue reading →

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