Apr 03

Today’s News 3rd April 2021

  • Stand Up To Tyranny: How To Respond To The Evils Of Our Age
    Stand Up To Tyranny: How To Respond To The Evils Of Our Age

    Authored by John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

    “The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.”

    – Martin Luther King Jr. (A Knock at Midnight, June 11, 1967)

    In every age, we find ourselves wrestling with the question of how Jesus Christ – the itinerant preacher and revolutionary activist who died challenging the police state of his time, namely, the Roman Empire – would respond to the moral questions of our day.

    For instance, would Jesus advocate, as so many evangelical Christian leaders have done in recent years, for congregants to “submit to your leaders and those in authority,” which in the American police state translates to complying, conforming, submitting, obeying orders, deferring to authority and generally doing whatever a government official tells you to do?

    What would Jesus do? 

    Study the life and teachings of Jesus, and you may be surprised at how relevant he is to our modern age.

    A radical nonconformist who challenged authority at every turn, Jesus spent his adult life speaking truth to power, challenging the status quo of his day, pushing back against the abuses of the Roman Empire, and providing a blueprint for standing up to tyranny that would be followed by those, religious and otherwise, who came after him.

    Those living through this present age of government lockdowns, immunity passports, militarized police, SWAT team raids, police shootings of unarmed citizens, roadside strip searches, invasive surveillance and the like might feel as if these events are unprecedented. However, the characteristics of a police state and its reasons for being are no different today than they were in Jesus’ lifetime: control, power and money.

    Much like the American Empire today, the Roman Empire of Jesus’ day was characterized by secrecy, surveillance, a widespread police presence, a citizenry treated like suspects with little recourse against the police state, perpetual wars, a military empire, martial law, and political retribution against those who dared to challenge the power of the state.

    A police state extends far beyond the actions of law enforcement.  In fact, a police state “is characterized by bureaucracy, secrecy, perpetual wars, a nation of suspects, militarization, surveillance, widespread police presence, and a citizenry with little recourse against police actions.”

    Indeed, the police state in which Jesus lived (and died) and its striking similarities to modern-day America are beyond troubling.

    Secrecy, surveillance and rule by the elite. As the chasm between the wealthy and poor grew wider in the Roman Empire, the ruling class and the wealthy class became synonymous, while the lower classes, increasingly deprived of their political freedoms, grew disinterested in the government and easily distracted by “bread and circuses.” Much like America today, with its lack of government transparency, overt domestic surveillance, and rule by the rich, the inner workings of the Roman Empire were shrouded in secrecy, while its leaders were constantly on the watch for any potential threats to its power. The resulting state-wide surveillance was primarily carried out by the military, which acted as investigators, enforcers, torturers, policemen, executioners and jailers. Today that role is fulfilled by the NSA, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the increasingly militarized police forces across the country.

    Widespread police presence. The Roman Empire used its military forces to maintain the “peace,” thereby establishing a police state that reached into all aspects of a citizen’s life. In this way, these military officers, used to address a broad range of routine problems and conflicts, enforced the will of the state. Today SWAT teams, comprised of local police and federal agents, are employed to carry out routine search warrants for minor crimes such as marijuana possession and credit card fraud.

    Citizenry with little recourse against the police state. As the Roman Empire expanded, personal freedom and independence nearly vanished, as did any real sense of local governance and national consciousness. Similarly, in America today, citizens largely feel powerless, voiceless and unrepresented in the face of a power-hungry federal government. As states and localities are brought under direct control by federal agencies and regulations, a sense of learned helplessness grips the nation.

    Perpetual wars and a military empire. Much like America today with its practice of policing the world, war and an over-arching militarist ethos provided the framework for the Roman Empire, which extended from the Italian peninsula to all over Southern, Western, and Eastern Europe, extending into North Africa and Western Asia as well. In addition to significant foreign threats, wars were waged against inchoate, unstructured and socially inferior foes.

    Martial law. Eventually, Rome established a permanent military dictatorship that left the citizens at the mercy of an unreachable and oppressive totalitarian regime. In the absence of resources to establish civic police forces, the Romans relied increasingly on the military to intervene in all matters of conflict or upheaval in provinces, from small-scale scuffles to large-scale revolts. Not unlike police forces today, with their martial law training drills on American soil, militarized weapons and “shoot first, ask questions later” mindset, the Roman soldier had “the exercise of lethal force at his fingertips” with the potential of wreaking havoc on normal citizens’ lives.

    A nation of suspects. Just as the American Empire looks upon its citizens as suspects to be tracked, surveilled and controlled, the Roman Empire looked upon all potential insubordinates, from the common thief to a full-fledged insurrectionist, as threats to its power. The insurrectionist was seen as directly challenging the Emperor.  A “bandit,” or revolutionist, was seen as capable of overturning the empire, was always considered guilty and deserving of the most savage penalties, including capital punishment. Bandits were usually punished publicly and cruelly as a means of deterring others from challenging the power of the state.  Jesus’ execution was one such public punishment.

    Acts of civil disobedience by insurrectionists. Starting with his act of civil disobedience at the Jewish temple, the site of the administrative headquarters of the Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish council, Jesus branded himself a political revolutionary. When Jesus “with the help of his disciples, blocks the entrance to the courtyard” and forbids “anyone carrying goods for sale or trade from entering the Temple,” he committed a blatantly criminal and seditious act, an act “that undoubtedly precipitated his arrest and execution.” Because the commercial events were sponsored by the religious hierarchy, which in turn was operated by consent of the Roman government, Jesus’ attack on the money chargers and traders can be seen as an attack on Rome itself, an unmistakable declaration of political and social independence from the Roman oppression.

    Military-style arrests in the dead of night. Jesus’ arrest account testifies to the fact that the Romans perceived Him as a revolutionary. Eerily similar to today’s SWAT team raids, Jesus was arrested in the middle of the night, in secret, by a large, heavily armed fleet of soldiers.  Rather than merely asking for Jesus when they came to arrest him, his pursuers collaborated beforehand with Judas. Acting as a government informant, Judas concocted a kiss as a secret identification marker, hinting that a level of deception and trickery must be used to obtain this seemingly “dangerous revolutionist’s” cooperation. 

    Torture and capital punishment. In Jesus’ day, religious preachers, self-proclaimed prophets and nonviolent protesters were not summarily arrested and executed. Indeed, the high priests and Roman governors normally allowed a protest, particularly a small-scale one, to run its course. However, government authorities were quick to dispose of leaders and movements that appeared to threaten the Roman Empire. The charges leveled against Jesus—that he was a threat to the stability of the nation, opposed paying Roman taxes and claimed to be the rightful King—were purely political, not religious. To the Romans, any one of these charges was enough to merit death by crucifixion, which was usually reserved for slaves, non-Romans, radicals, revolutionaries and the worst criminals.

    Jesus was presented to Pontius Pilate “as a disturber of the political peace,” a leader of a rebellion, a political threat, and most gravely—a claimant to kingship, a “king of the revolutionary type.” After Jesus is formally condemned by Pilate, he is sentenced to death by crucifixion, “the Roman means of executing criminals convicted of high treason.”  The purpose of crucifixion was not so much to kill the criminal, as it was an immensely public statement intended to visually warn all those who would challenge the power of the Roman Empire. Hence, it was reserved solely for the most extreme political crimes: treason, rebellion, sedition, and banditry. After being ruthlessly whipped and mocked, Jesus was nailed to a cross.

    As Professor Mark Lewis Taylor observed:

    The cross within Roman politics and culture was a marker of shame, of being a criminal. If you were put to the cross, you were marked as shameful, as criminal, but especially as subversive. And there were thousands of people put to the cross. The cross was actually positioned at many crossroads, and, as New Testament scholar Paula Fredricksen has reminded us, it served as kind of a public service announcement that said, “Act like this person did, and this is how you will end up.”

    Jesus – the revolutionary, the political dissident, and the nonviolent activist – lived and died in a police state. Any reflection on Jesus’ life and death within a police state must take into account several factors: Jesus spoke out strongly against such things as empires, controlling people, state violence and power politics. Jesus challenged the political and religious belief systems of his day. And worldly powers feared Jesus, not because he challenged them for control of thrones or government but because he undercut their claims of supremacy, and he dared to speak truth to power in a time when doing so could—and often did—cost a person his life.

    Unfortunately, the radical Jesus, the political dissident who took aim at injustice and oppression, has been largely forgotten today, replaced by a congenial, smiling Jesus trotted out for religious holidays but otherwise rendered mute when it comes to matters of war, power and politics.

    Yet for those who truly study the life and teachings of Jesus, the resounding theme is one of outright resistance to war, materialism and empire.

    Ultimately, as I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, this is the contradiction that must be resolved if the radical Jesus—the one who stood up to the Roman Empire and was crucified as a warning to others not to challenge the powers-that-be—is to be an example for our modern age.

    After all, there is so much suffering and injustice in the world, and so much good that can be done by those who truly aspire to follow Jesus Christ’s example.

    We must decide whether we will follow the path of least resistance—willing to turn a blind eye to what Martin Luther King Jr. referred to as the “evils of segregation and the crippling effects of discrimination, to the moral degeneracy of religious bigotry and the corroding effects of narrow sectarianism, to economic conditions that deprive men of work and food, and to the insanities of militarism and the self-defeating effects of physical violence”—or whether we will be transformed nonconformists “dedicated to justice, peace, and brotherhood.”

    As King explained in a powerful sermon delivered in 1954, “This command not to conform comes … [from] Jesus Christ, the world’s most dedicated nonconformist, whose ethical nonconformity still challenges the conscience of mankind.”

    Furthermore:

    We need to recapture the gospel glow of the early Christians, who were nonconformists in the truest sense of the word and refused to shape their witness according to the mundane patterns of the world.  Willingly they sacrificed fame, fortune, and life itself in behalf of a cause they knew to be right.  Quantitatively small, they were qualitatively giants.  Their powerful gospel put an end to such barbaric evils as infanticide and bloody gladiatorial contests.  Finally, they captured the Roman Empire for Jesus Christ… The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists, who are dedicated to justice, peace, and brotherhood.  The trailblazers in human, academic, scientific, and religious freedom have always been nonconformists.  In any cause that concerns the progress of mankind, put your faith in the nonconformist!

    …Honesty impels me to admit that transformed nonconformity, which is always costly and never altogether comfortable, may mean walking through the valley of the shadow of suffering, losing a job, or having a six-year-old daughter ask, “Daddy, why do you have to go to jail so much?”  But we are gravely mistaken to think that Christianity protects us from the pain and agony of mortal existence.  Christianity has always insisted that the cross we bear precedes the crown we wear.  To be a Christian, one must take up his cross, with all of its difficulties and agonizing and tragedy-packed content, and carry it until that very cross leaves its marks upon us and redeems us to that more excellent way that comes only through suffering.

    In these days of worldwide confusion, there is a dire need for men and women who will courageously do battle for truth.  We must make a choice. Will we continue to march to the drumbeat of conformity and respectability, or will we, listening to the beat of a more distant drum, move to its echoing sounds?  Will we march only to the music of time, or will we, risking criticism and abuse, march to the soul saving music of eternity?

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/02/2021 – 23:30

  • Visualizing The Richest Families In America
    Visualizing The Richest Families In America

    When we think about the richest people in America, individual names often come to mind like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates. But often, as Visual Capitalist’s Avery Koop details below, it’s the the richest families in America that hold a deeper legacy, and sometimes, even deeper pockets.

    The country’s 50 richest families hold a collective wealth of $1.2 trillion. This ranking goes beyond nuclear family units and self-made fortunes, and it instead measures the wealth of multi-generational or extended families.

    Our visualization, which leverages the latest data from Forbes, reveals the wealthiest families in America and the enterprises that helped them earn their billions.

    Editor’s note on methodology: in this ranking, Forbes leaves out self-made entrepreneurs that appear with their nuclear families on the billionaires list. For example, Jeff Bezos founded Amazon and Rupert Murdoch founded News Corp, but these successes did not come from family wealth that was passed down to them.

    Family Matters

    Say the name Rockefeller or Vanderbilt, and everyone knows who you’re talking about—but how do these household names hold up in the modern rankings?

    Below are the 10 richest families in America, based on net worth:

    The richest family in the U.S. is the Waltons, founders of Walmart. Their net worth adds to an approximate $247 billion, making them also the richest family in the world. Over the last year, they’ve grown their family fortune by $25 billion, equal to nearly $3 million per hour.

    Interestingly, the Vanderbilts—the railroad tycoons that were once the richest family in the country in the late 19th century—have been ousted from the rankings entirely. Other notable American families, like Ford and Astor, have lost their place on the list as well.

    On the other hand, the Rockefellers still hold their status today, ranked at number 43 with a net worth of $8.4 billion. John D. Rockefeller became America’s first billionaire back in 1916, despite the breaking up of Standard Oil for antitrust reasons.

    Building Wealth

    Over the last five years, nearly every family on this list has seen wealth increase. Many of the behemoth companies on which these families built their fortunes are staples in America, like Campbell’s Soup, Cargill, Dixie Cups, Estee Lauder, and M&Ms and Snickers.

    For example, the South’s beloved fast food chain, Chick-fil-A, was founded by the Cathy family and generated $12.67 billion in sales as of the latest annual data, making it the third most popular chain restaurant in the country.

    Some of the newer families to make the list also owe it to the success of their enterprises:

    • The Kohler family: Kohler Co. (manufacturers of kitchenware, plumbing products, furniture, etc.)

    • The Taylor family: Enterprise Rent-A-Car (car rental services)

    However, a few families have experienced significant losses since the last Forbes ranking. Here’s a look at some notable net worth decreases:

    Purdue Pharma recently filed for bankruptcy. The Sackler family’s plan is to reformulate the company into a new venture whose profits would go towards the opioid crisis, for which they are largely blamed. It would also cost the family around $4.3 billion directly.

    Keeping it in the Family

    While some families may have experienced decreases in their wealth, for many this is just a small bump in the road.

    Overall, the richest families in America are the keepers of immense wealth that has accumulated over generations. For some, their names are now cultural landmarks across the U.S. and their brands have become synonymous with life in America.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/02/2021 – 23:00

  • US Army Seeks Long-Range Missiles In Pacific To Face China
    US Army Seeks Long-Range Missiles In Pacific To Face China

    Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

    As part of its modernization efforts, the US Army is developing medium and long-range missiles, which the service sees as a vital weapon in a potential conflict with China in the Pacific.

    While the Army is traditionally a land-based service, it is developing fast-moving island-hopping forces that can sink ships in the western Pacific, similar to what the Marine Corps has traditionally done.

    Image: US Air Force

    On Tuesday, US Army leaders discussed the service’s future in the Indo-Pacific and said the Army is not trying to compete for funding with the Marine Corps or other branches as military leaders fear resources will be limited.

    “The systems we’re developing are more along the lines of a campaign rather than quickly expeditionary-type systems. And so I don’t see us in competition with the Marine Corps.” Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. James McConville told the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

    Gen. Paul LaCamera, the head of US Army Pacific, said the Army could complement the Marines in the region. “So, I think whether they [the Marines] are there first [and] we come in behind them, that allows them to continue to move on,” he said.

    The US Marines are also in the process of revamping their forces to prepare for a future conflict in the Pacific. US-Indo Pacific Command has its hand out to Congress for an additional $27 billion in funding.

    Part of the command’s wishlist includes a network of long-range missiles near China’s coast, although it’s not clear what countries would be willing to host the missiles.

    The Army officers were asked on Tuesday how the US could get allies in the region to host such missiles. “That’s a political decision,” McConville said. “The [Biden] administration will, I believe, lead with a policy, and that will be shaped by diplomacy between our countries.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/02/2021 – 22:30

  • "Find Of The Century" –  Rare 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder Found In Shipping Container 
    “Find Of The Century” –  Rare 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder Found In Shipping Container 

    Bobby Green of Old Crow Speed Shop uncovered a rare 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder in an old shipping container in a remote area of Orange County, California. The Old Crow Speed Shop owner describes the rare Porsche as the “find of the century.” 

    On Mar. 26, Old Crow Speed Shop’s Facebook page posted a picture of a weathered green shipping container. The post read: 

    “You won’t believe what @large_hands_grant and I found in this shipping container! Stay tuned, I will reveal it later today. Anyone care to take a guess? 

    About two hours later, on that Friday, Old Crow Speed Shop revealed they found what appears to be a pristine 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder. Baby boomers may remember the sportscar is the same one that American actor James Dean died in. Only 90 of the 1200-pound aluminum-bodied cars were ever built, making it an extremely rare car. About three years ago, only of these cars sold for $4.5 million at Pebble Beach. 

    In what usually turns out to be a barn find, Old Crow Speed Shop posted a lengthy Facebook post on uncovering the rare Porsche from a shipping container: 

    The find of the century!…. At least for me anyway. And to think it all started by chasing old motorcycles.

    A fellow named Les Gunnerson passed away and left a large British motorcycle collection at the top of a remote hill in Orange California which @large_hands_grant and @mikedavis70 got wind of and thankfully called me to come take a look. As it turns out, Les was big into Porsche’s back in the 60’s/70’s and acquired a 550 Spyder in ’63 from Loretta Turnbull who raced it in Hawaii for a mere 2k. Les restored the 550 in the early 80’s but soon got into motorcycles and just put the Porsche in a shipping container where it’s lived for 35 years. …….Until now.

    To say the 550’s are rare and valuable is an understatement, and to find one that’s been lost to time in a container, … Well, that’s like finding a unicorn with bigfoot riding it… it just doesn’t happen! Or does it?

    It’s been a surreal experience indeed! I’m not only honored to say I was part of the discovery, but equally so that I could help find a new home for such a priceless vehicle. I immediately called my friend and filmmaker Blue Nelson because I knew he grew up with these cars in the family and knew the top Porsche collectors in the world. Porsche 550 Spyder serial #0069 with its original 4 cam motor #0075 is off to a very good home where it will be preserved and enjoyed by many.

    Here are pictures of the iconic car:

    Car enthusiasts on Facebook responded to the find by saying, “Keeping Automotive History Alive!.” 

    Another person said, “So nuts! Awesome awesome awesome. I’m pretty sure This just landed you a visit from Jerry Seinfeld, the Porsche nut.” 

    Old Crow Speed Shop also posted a video on the find. Watch here:

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/02/2021 – 22:00

  • The Pending Collapse Of The "Rules-Based International Order" Is An Existential Threat To The US
    The Pending Collapse Of The “Rules-Based International Order” Is An Existential Threat To The US

    Authored by Scott Ritter via GlobalResearch.ca,

    For decades, America styled itself the ‘indispensable nation’ that led the world & it’s now seeking to sustain that role by emphasizing a new Cold War-style battle against ‘authoritarianism’. But it’s a dangerous fantasy.

    It seems a week cannot go by without US Secretary of State Antony Blinken bringing up the specter of the ‘rules-based international order’ as an excuse for meddling in the affairs of another state or region.

    The most recent crisis revolves around allegations that China has dispatched a fleet of more than 200 ships, part of a so-called ‘maritime militia’, into waters of the South China Sea claimed by the Philippines. China says that these vessels are simply fishing boats seeking shelter from a storm. The Philippines has responded by dispatching military ships and aircraft to investigate. Enter Antony Blinken, stage right:

    “The United States stands with our ally, the Philippines, in the face of the PRC’s maritime militia amassing at Whitsun Reef,” Blinken tweeted. “We will always stand by our allies and stand up for the rules-based international order.”

    Blinken’s message came a mere 18 hours after he tweeted about his meeting in Brussels with NATO.

    “Our alliances were created to defend shared values,” he wrote. “Renewing our commitment requires reaffirming those values and the foundation of international relations we vow to protect: a free and open rules-based order.”

    Our rules, our order

    What this actually means, of course, is that the order is rules-based so long as it is the nation called America that sets these rules and is accepted as the world’s undisputed leader.

    Blinken’s fervent embrace of the ‘rules-based international order’ puts action behind the words set forth in the recently published ‘Interim National Security Strategy Guidance’, a White House document which outlines President Joe Biden’s vision “for how America will engage with the world.” 

    While the specific term ‘rules-based international order’ does not appear in the body of the document, the precepts it represents are spelled out in considerable detail, and conform with the five pillars of the “liberal international order” as set forth by the noted international relations scholars, Daniel Duedney and G. John Ikenberry, in their ground-breaking essay, ‘The nature and sources of liberal international order’, published by the Review of International Studies in 1999.

    The origins of this “liberal international order” can be traced back to the end of the Second World War and the onset of a Cold War between Western liberal democracies, helmed by the United States, and the communist bloc nations, led by the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China. The purpose of this order was simple – to maintain a balance of power between the US-led liberal democracies and their communist adversaries, and to maintain and sustain US hegemony over its liberal democratic allies.  This was accomplished through five basic policy ‘pillars’: Security co-binding; the embrace of US hegemony; self-limitation on the part of US allies; the politicization of global economic institutions for the gain of liberal democracies; and Western “civil identity.”

    All five are emphasized in Biden’s interim guidance, in which the president openly advocates for “a stable and open international system.” It notes that “the alliances, institutions, agreements, and norms underwriting the international order the United States helped to establish are being tested.” 

    The faltering empire’s flaws and inequities

    Biden also observed that the restoration of this international order “rests on a core strategic proposition: The United States must renew its enduring advantages so that we can meet today’s challenges from a position of strength. We will build back better our economic foundations; reclaim our place in international institutions; lift up our values at home and speak out to defend them around the world; modernize our military capabilities, while leading first with diplomacy; and revitalize America’s unmatched network of alliances and partnerships.”

    All five of Duedney’s and Ikenberry’s policy ‘pillars’ can be found embedded in these – and other – statements contained in the guidance.

    There is a defensive tone to Biden’s guidance, which notes that “rapid change and mounting crisis” have exposed “flaws and inequities” in the US-dominated international system which “have caused many around the world – including many Americans – to question its continued relevance.” 

    Here Biden runs into the fundamental problem of trying to justify and sustain a model of economic-based global hegemony which was founded at a time when the existence of a Western liberal democratic “order” could be justified as a counter to the Soviet-led communist bloc. The Cold War ended in 1990. The ‘international rules-based order’ that was created at the behest of the US to prevail in this conflict continued, however. It seems that the US wasn’t simply satisfied with preventing the spread of communism; its raison d’être instead transitioned from being the leader of an alliance of liberal democracies, to being the global hegemon, using the very system devised to confront communism to instead install and sustain the US as the undisputed dominant power in the world.

    This trend began in the immediate aftermath of the end of the Cold War, where the US had the opportunity to pass the baton of global leadership to the United Nations, an act that would have given legitimacy to the notion of an ‘international order’.

    This, however, proved a bridge too far for the neo-liberal tendencies of the administration of President Bill Clinton, who continued the Cold War-era practice of using the UN as a vehicle to promote US policy prerogatives at the expense of the international ‘order’. Clinton’s Secretary of State Madeleine Albright helped coin the term “indispensable nation” when defining America’s post-Cold War role in the world (it is notable that Blinken recently praised Albright in a tweet, noting that “her tenacity & effectiveness left the US stronger & more respected globally,” and adding “she’s a role model for me & so many of our diplomats.”)

    The arrogance and hubris contained in any notion of a single nation being “indispensable” to the global order is mind-boggling and is reflective of a disconnect with both reality and history on the part of those embracing it.

    The myth of indispensability

    The unsustainability of the premise of American ‘indispensability’ was demonstrated by both the events of September 11, 2001, and the inability of the US to deal with its aftermath. Had the US embraced and acted on President George H. W. Bush’s notion of a “new world order” in the aftermath of the Cold War, it would have found itself as a vital world leader working in concert with a global community of nations to confront the scourge of Islamic fundamentalist-based terrorism. But this was not to be.

    Instead, the ‘indispensable nation’ was exposed as a fraud, with many in the world recognizing the US not as a power worthy of emulation, but rather as the source of global angst. This rejection of America’s self-anointed role as global savior extended to many Americans too, who were tired of the costs associated with serving as the world’s police force.

    Indeed, this exhaustion with global intervention, and the costs accrued, helped create the foundation of electoral support for Donald Trump’s rejection of the “rules-based international order” in favor of a more distinct “America first” approach to global governance. What gave Trump’s policy so much “punch” was the fact that not only did many American citizens reject the “rules-based international order,” but so did much of the rest of the world.

    Repairing the damage done by four years of Trump has become the number one priority of the Biden administration. To do this, both Biden and Blinken recognize that they simply cannot return to the policy formulations that existed before Trump took office; that ship has sailed, and trying to sell the American people and the rest of the world on what many viewed as a failed policy construct (i.e., unilateral, uncontested American hegemony) was seen as an impossible task.

    Instead, the Biden administration is seeking to reinvent the original premise of the ‘rules-based international order’ by substituting Russian and Chinese ‘authoritarianism’ in place of Soviet-led communism as a threat which liberal democracies around the world willingly and enthusiastically rally around the US to confront.

    “Authoritarianism is on the global march,” Biden’s guidance observed, “and we must join with like minded allies and partners to revitalize democracy the world over. We will work alongside fellow democracies across the globe to deter and defend against aggression from hostile adversaries. We will stand with our allies and partners to combat new threats aimed at our democracies” and which “undermine the rules and values at the heart of an open and stable international system.”

    Biden concluded his essay in dramatic fashion. “This moment is an inflection point,” he noted. “We are in the midst of a fundamental debate about the future direction of our world. No nation is better positioned to navigate this future than America. Doing so requires us to embrace and reclaim our enduring advantages, and to approach the world from a position of confidence and strength. If we do this, working with our democratic partners, we will meet every challenge and outpace every challenger. Together, we can and will build back better.”

    No longer the world’s undisputed No.1

    While postulated as a statement of American strength, Biden’s concluding remarks actually project not only the inherent insecurity of the US today, but also its root causes. The fact that the US needs to “reclaim our enduring advantages”implies that we lost them, and illustrates that these so-called advantages are not nearly as enduring as Biden would like to think. “Building back better” is an admission of weakness, a recognition that the notion of an ‘indispensable nation’ is an artificial construct; most nations no longer accept America as the world leader.

    The reality is that the US is one of the most powerful nations in the world. That position, however, is no longer uncontested; China has emerged as the equal of the US in many metrics used to measure global power and influence, and superior in some. Moreover, China operates effectively in a multi-polar global reality, recognizing that the era of the American singularity is over. Russia, India, Brazil, and the European collective all represent polar realities whose existence and influence exists independent of the US.

    The US, however, cannot function in such a world. While there is a growing recognition among American politicians that the post-Cold War notion of the US being the sole-remaining superpower has run its course, the only alternative these politicians can offer is the attempt to return to a bi-polar world which has the US at the head of its liberal democratic ‘partners’, facing off against the forces of ‘authoritarianism’. This vision, however, is unrealistic, if for no other reason that the world no longer views Western liberal democracy as ‘good’, and authoritarianism as ‘evil’.

    This reality is evident to much of the rest of the world. Why, then, would US policy makers embrace a formulation doomed to fail? The answer is simple – the US, as it exists today, needs the ‘rules-based international order’ to remain relevant. Relevant, as used here, means globally dominant.

    US politicians who operate on the national level cannot get elected on platforms that reject the ‘indispensable’ role of the country, even if many Americans and most of the world have. US economic dominance is in large part sustained by the very systems that underpin the ‘rules-based international order’ – the World Trade Organization and the World Bank. US geopolitical relevance is sustained by Cold War-era military alliances.

    An unviable, unsustainable future

    An American retreat from being the ‘indispensable’ power, and a corresponding embrace of a leadership role based upon a more collegial notion of shared authorities, would not mean the physical demise of the US – the nation would continue to exist as a sovereign entity. But it would mean an end to the psychological reality of America as we know it today – a quasi-imperial power whose relevance is founded on compelled global hegemony. This model is no longer viable. The fact that the Biden administration has chosen to define its administration through an ardent embrace of this failed system is proof positive that the survival of post-Cold War American is existentially connected to its ability to function as the world’s ‘indispensable nation’.

    American exceptionalism is a narcotic that fuels the country’s domestic politics more than global geo-political reality. The ‘rules-based international order’ that underpins this fantasy is unsustainable in the modern era and makes the collapse of the “exceptional” United States inevitable.

    Watching the Biden administration throw its weight behind a US-dominated ‘rules-based international order’ is like watching the Titanic set sail; it is big, bold, and beautiful, and its fate pre-ordained.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/02/2021 – 21:30

  • Viagra May Also Lengthen A Man's Lifespan, Swedish Study Finds
    Viagra May Also Lengthen A Man’s Lifespan, Swedish Study Finds

    Popping a Viagra pill isn’t just for the tens of millions of baby boomer men trying to maintain a healthy sex life – it may be connected to extending their lifespan. 

    Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published a new report that finds the erectile dysfunction pill can help cardiovascular disease patients.

    The study, titled “Association of Phosphodiesterase-5 Inhibitors Versus Alprostadil With Survival in Men With Coronary Artery Disease,” was recently published in the American College journal Cardiology. The results show men with coronary artery disease who have been prescribed Viagra due to impotence seem to have a healthier life and lower risk of experiencing a heart attack. 

    When men enter their golden years, at least 70% of them experience impotence: blood flow problems affect the legs, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. The disorder is treated with alprostadil, which dilates the blood vessels and helps stimulate the penis, or with PDE5 inhibitors such as Viagra. The pills are taken before sex to increase blood flow before the mood is right. 

    “Potency problems are common in older men, and now our study also shows that PDE5 inhibitors may protect against heart attack and prolong life,” stated lead author Martin Holzmann of the Karolinska Institute. “The protection was dose-dependent, so that the more frequent the dose of PDE5 inhibitor, the lower the risk.”

    Holzmann and his research team suggest men who have already sustained a heart attack and take Viagra or Cialis in tablet form showed signs of prolonged life expectancy and a decrease against new infarctions and heart failure.

    The study included 16,548 Swedish men who had both erectile dysfunction and heart disease. About 2,000 of the test subjects received alprostadil and the remaining Viagra.

    Holzmann said, “PDE5 inhibitor may protect against heart attack and prolong life.” 

    So erectile dysfunction could be an early sign of cardiovascular disease, and the possible treatment to promote longer lifespans in older men could be with Viagra or Cialis. Who would have ever thought?

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/02/2021 – 21:00

  • FBI Gun Background Checks Soar To Record High In March Amid Gun Control Push
    FBI Gun Background Checks Soar To Record High In March Amid Gun Control Push

    Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Background checks for firearms conducted by the FBI reached a new record high in March.

    Firearms are seen at a gun shop in Richmond, Va., on Jan. 13, 2020. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

    Nearly 4.7 million checks were done across the month, smashing the previous record of 4.3 million set in January.

    Chart: ZeroHedge

    The FBI numbers include background checks for firearms, permits, and other purposes related to guns.

    Adjusted numbers from the National Shooting Sports Foundation provided to The Epoch Times shows the gun checks alone in March were 2 million. That is the second highest number on record, after the 2.3 million checks completed in March 2020.

    The COVID-19 pandemic conditions and the push for gun ownership restrictions are propelling Americans to buy more guns, Mark Olivia with the foundation told The Epoch Times.

    “I think as long as you continue to see these misguided calls for gun control to chip away the rights of law abiding citizens and not look at legislation that’s going to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals, firearms on the hands of those who are adjudicated mentally defective, you’re going to continue to see Americans go out and exercise their right before that right is seized from them by their government,” Olivia said.

    A man leaves a bouquet on a police cruiser parked outside the Boulder Police Department after an officer was one of the victims of a mass shooting at a King Soopers grocery store, in Boulder, Colo., on March 23, 2021. (David Zalubowski/AP Photo)

    The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence promoted a different view.

    “The latest data released by the FBI shows that Americans continue to react to uncertainty by seeking self protection with a firearm. This reaction follows decades of public posturing by the gun industry and the NRA, who have fueled a year of panic purchasing by promulgating fear and paranoia,” Kris Brown, president of the group, said in a statement. NRA stands for the National Rifle Association.

    “These new statistics similarly do not reflect the many firearms that are sold without a background check in private transfers, potentially dangerous sales that are currently legal. Those sales are not regulated and therefore not accounted for in NICS data. We need comprehensive gun safety laws, such as universal background checks, to ensure that firearm sales are conducted safely and that individuals prohibited from buying a firearm do not obtain one,” Brown added.

    Along with surging gun sales, NRA memberships have jumped in recent months.

    President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats, in the wake of mass shootings last month in Georgia and Colorado, are pushing for both new gun control laws and executive action that would curtail gun ownership.

    Few mass shootings took place in 2020 as many Americans spent most of their time at home after governors imposed harsh restrictions amid the pandemic.

    But crime rose in a number of cities, with a sharp increase in murders. That, combined with the movement to cut police funding, compelled Americans to buy guns in record numbers.

    People purchasing guns are “buying guns for defense,” Jerry Koch, owner of Guntraders in Redmond, Oregon, told The Epoch Times in February.

    “They’re doing it because they’re afraid,” he added.

    Follow Zachary on Twitter: @zackstieber
    Follow Zachary on Parler: @zackstieber

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/02/2021 – 20:30

  • Americans' Vaccination Cards May Be Only Record Of COVID Immunity – So Keep Them Safe
    Americans’ Vaccination Cards May Be Only Record Of COVID Immunity – So Keep Them Safe

    If you have a tendency to misplace your smartphone or wallet, beware: losing your COVID vaccine card could create serious headaches for people, since the physical cards are in many case the only record that an individual was vaccinated – meaning it might soon double as a de facto passport for anybody who wants to leave their home.

    As Forbes pointed out in a piece published over the weekend, some destinations, cruise lines and major sports venues are already requiring travelers to provide proof that they have been fully vaccinated against the virus. And if you’re among the ~48MM Americans who have been “fully vaccinated” (ie received either two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna jabs, or 1 dose of the JNJ jab, with at least two weeks passing since the final dose).

    Anybody who loses their card is asked to return to the site where they were vaccinated, and ask for another one.

    “If you do not receive a Covid-19 vaccination card at your appointment, contact the vaccination provider site where you got vaccinated or your state health department to find out how you can get a card,” according to the CDC website.

    Of course, that’s easy enough if you were vaccinated at a pharmacy chain but more difficult if you had to travel cross-state or inter-state to be vaccinated at a drive-through or pop-up event.

    All Covid-19 vaccination providers are required to report data within 72 hours in their state’s immunization system, so there should be a back-up record of your vaccination status there. The CDC has a list of the Immunization Information System (IIS) in each state, which is where to start if you need a replacement card and either can’t remember where you were vaccinated or have difficulty contacting the facility.

    While digital vaccine passports may become a reality in the future (they’re certainly closer to reality in Europe than in the US, despite the fact that the US is further ahead in its vaccination campaign). That’s because EU members like Greece and Spain badly need to salvage this year’s tourism season, or risk serious economic blowback as the critical tourism season remains shuttered for a second year.

    But for now, at least, the only record for Americans is their paper card. Here are a few recommendations for keeping it safe (text courtesy of Forbes):

    Make a photocopy of your vaccination card.

    First and foremost, make a duplicate of your card. Keep a hard copy on file in a safe place.

    Get your CDC vaccination record card laminated

    Laminating your vaccination card will make it more durable and protect it from wear and tear. Do this after you are fully vaccinated, so you can carry your card in your wallet or purse without damaging it.

    You can laminate your card yourself with self-adhesive laminating sheets available at most office supply stores.

    But an even easier, cheaper option is to have a professional laminate your vaccination card for you. Staples is providing free lamination of vaccination cards to customers who use the coupon code 81450. The promotion currently has no end date. Office Depot, which also owns Office Max, will laminate vaccination cards for free for all fully-vaccinated people through July 25.

    Take a photo of your CDC vaccination record card

    “Keep your vaccination card in case you need it for future use,” says the CDC website. “Consider taking a picture of your vaccination card as a backup copy.”

    You should store an image of your Covid-19 vaccination record card in your photo library or a digital wallet on your smartphone, where it can be easily retrieved.

    In addition, email yourself a copy of the image and download it to your computer or laptop. That way, you’ll have one copy on your phone and another on a second device. This will come in handy if you plan to book travel or other activities that require attaching documents that prove you have been vaccinated.

    Ask for a digital backup of your vaccination card

    Many digital-identification apps allow you to store digital versions of health records, including a vaccination record card, on your phone, but choosing one with tight privacy controls is paramount. One reputable option is Airside’s Digital Identity & Health Passport App, which stores data only on the user’s encrypted device and allows users to control not only with whom they want to share their information but for how long.

    To be sure, it looks like at least one US state is pushing back against the vaccine passport trend, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis promising that there won’t be strict requirements asking people to prove their vaccination status in the Sunshine State, unlike in New York, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo is relying on vaccine passports to help accelerate the state’s reopening.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/02/2021 – 20:00

  • Biden Infrastructure Bill Includes $20 Billion To Destroy Highways For Being Racist
    Biden Infrastructure Bill Includes $20 Billion To Destroy Highways For Being Racist

    Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

    Joe Biden’s $2.5 trillion infrastructure spending spree will include $20 billion earmarked for actually destroying highways because they have been deemed to be racist.

    The administration pointed to the Claiborne Expressway in New Orleans and Interstate 81 in Syracuse, New York as two examples of “long-standing and persistent racial injustice,” in infrastructure.

    The plan set forth by Biden would see billions spent on an effort to “reconnect neighborhoods” by destroying current highways and making sure that new projects “advance racial equity and environmental justice.”

    A whopping $621 billion has been touted for ‘transportation infrastructure and resilience,’ with the administration promising it will address “historic inequities.”

    “Structural racism and persistent economic inequities have undermined opportunity for millions of workers,” the administration has also claimed.

    Last year, Biden’s Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg proclaimed that “Black and brown neighborhoods have been disproportionately divided by highway projects or left isolated by the lack of adequate transit and transportation resources.”

    During a Senate confirmation hearing in January, Buttigeg declared “At their worst, misguided policies and missed opportunities in transportation can reinforce racial and economic inequality by dividing or isolating neighborhoods and undermining government’s basic role of empowering Americans to thrive.”

    The Infrastructure plan has been widely criticised for including non-infrastructure related components:

    Tucker Carlson warned Thursday that the Biden Administration is “looting America” and that the infrastructure outline is as much about tearing down highways than it is building them.

    “Expect a lot more highways to meet this fate. People who believe highways are racist will get tens of billions of dollars as part of this plan, as long as they’re in what the Biden administration calls ‘underserved communities,’” Carlson noted.

    “Is this really about infrastructure? Bridges? Roads? Airports? Things we could actually use? Or is it yet another weird climate scheme/power grab/race-based redistribution plan?” the host asked, going on to cite multiple examples of non-infrastructure wokeness in the bill.

    Watch the latest video at foxnews.com

    Despite the vast investment plan, the woke ‘Green Deal’ crowd is all not happy with it, saying it isn’t enough.

    *  *  *

    Brand new merch now available! Get it at https://www.pjwshop.com/

    *  *  *

    In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. We need you to sign up for our free newsletter here. Support our sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown.  Also, we urgently need your financial support here.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/02/2021 – 19:30

  • Manhattan Office Supply Skyrockets To Three Decade High 
    Manhattan Office Supply Skyrockets To Three Decade High 

    Whether “working from home” is a temporary fad or a permanent “new normal” remains to be seen; what becomes more evident is the mounting supply glut of corporate space in Manhattan, according to Bloomberg, citing a new report from real estate firm Savills.

    Savills said the amount of office space available in Manhattan is at a three-decade high. The report, released on Thursday, said the availability rate soared to 17.2% in the first quarter. The rise in the rate was primarily due to a massive surge in sublease space, which now stands at 22 million square feet, or 62% higher than 2019 levels. 

    “Abundant short- and long-term options are driving price reductions,” Savills noted. “Many owners are proposing historically aggressive rates, concessions, and flexibility to secure tenants amid so much competition.”

    Savills said rents fell for the fifth consecutive quarter to around $76.27 a square foot, down 9% from a year earlier. These cheaper rents are creating a massive opportunity for companies who want to enter the city. 

    Desperate landlords were offering generous concessions for long-term leases at newly constructed buildings: “Average tenant improvement allowances jumped 16% and free rent surged 17% to an average of 13.5 months. The tenant-friendly market is expected to last for at least the next 12 to 18 months,” Savills said.

    The Manhattan office market continues to struggle more than one year after the pandemic hit, which has emptied Manhattan’s skyscrapers. And since most employees are still working from home, just around 24.21% of workers in the New York metropolitan area were back at their desks as of this week. 

    Even with the vaccine rollout now reaching 100 million Americans, companies are still opting for “hybrid” work as remote working dominates. 

    In a past report, Jim Wenk, a vice chairman at Savills North America, said commercial real estate in the borough will have a “very choppy period for the foreseeable future.”

    A recent survey from the Partnership for New York City found 66% of Manhattan’s most prominent employers would allow employees to work under hybrid work arrangements, meaning they would Manhattan’s most prominent employers. 

    As more proof the work environment is rapidly changing, major magazine publisher Conde Nast (who owns brands such as ARS Technica, GQ, Teen Vogue, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Wired, among other popular magazines) is a major anchor tenant in the new World Trade Center, recently skipped out on rent as it asked for rent discounts and a reduction in square footage.

    Last month, JP Morgan was reportedly looking to sublet hundreds of thousands of square feet at 4 New York Plaza in the financial district and 5 Manhattan West in the Hudson Yards area. 

    To make matters worse, Hudson Yards, a massive complex on Manhattan’s Far West Side with condos, office space, and retailers built over an enormous railroad yard had investors panic because the company refused to open its books. The combination of work-at-home and folks moving to suburbs has left Hudson Yards and other places across the borough a ‘ghost town.’ 

    This all suggests that the virus pandemic has brought years of technological change to the work model that has possibly made companies more productive and cut costs as employees work from home or adopt a hybrid work model. Without office workers returning to the borough, there can’t be a robust recovery in the near term. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/02/2021 – 19:00

  • India's Experiments With COVID-19
    India’s Experiments With COVID-19

    Authored by Jayant Bhandari via Acting-Man.com,

    Shooting from the Hip

    [ed. note: the tweets linked below mainly show videos from various lockdown phases]

    Reminiscent of his demonetization effort in 2016, on 24th March 2020, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, appeared on TV and declared an immediate nationwide curfew. No one was to be allowed to leave wherever he or she happened to be. All flights, trains (after 167 years of continual operation) and road transportation came to a complete, shrieking halt.

    Stranded in India… [PT]

    Tens of millions of people – myself included – got stuck wherever they were.

    People were not allowed to leave their homes, not even for grocery shopping, the latter of which was amended after a few days when the government realized that people needed to eat. In a country of 1.38 billion people, the initial policy was a shot from the hip, without any consultation or planning, as if prepared by primary school kids.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Those, particularly the poor, who ventured out to get food, were ruthlessly beaten by police.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    In a country where 300 million people go to bed hungry on a typical day, many more were immediately sent to starvation. Tens of millions of migrant workers—perhaps as much as 100 million or more—living from hand to mouth got stuck where they could no longer afford to stay without a regular job.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    If your teenage daughter had gone to another city for a night, she was to be stuck for at least two months without any recourse — if she had no money or safe place to stay, that was not Modi’s problem. I was stuck for four months before I could finally get on a repatriation flight to North America.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Hungry and thirsty, in sauna-like summer, hundreds of thousands of homeless people walked hundreds of kilometers, in many cases more than a thousand kilometers, to get to their rural homes. Hundreds of those who took a walk died.

    Modi comes across a singing bowl….[PT]

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    No country enforced a lockdown as draconian as that imposed in India.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Crumbling Infrastructure & Teflon Modi

    Indians consider it unmanly to do a proper job of anything, so nothing works properly. India lacks quality. Electrical cables hang around everywhere. Work is done flimsily. No wonder you typically lose electricity at least once a day, even in posh areas.

    A complete curfew over the last 68 days had to send India’s infrastructure crumbling down.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Soon after a slight relaxation, one chemical plant in the southern city of Vishakhapatnam had a significant gas leak. Over a thousand people collapsed. Scores died. The same day, a coal-fired boiler burst, something unusual given the high safety standards associated with boilers these days. But it did in India. This had to happen where people lack an understanding of safety, and everything is left to be completed tomorrow.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    After the 68 days of nation-wide curfew, restrictions were relaxed a little in parts of the country. People after that needed “internal visas” to move around within the allowed areas, albeit trains and flights were still not functioning. If you got stuck a thousand kilometers from where you were supposed to be, you still had to walk to your destination or take a costly taxi if you could get one. And taxi-drivers knew that they could get beaten up—or even killed—by the police before any questions were asked.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    My squabble is not with Modi. He is a naïve, simplistic bully, characteristic of what tribal, amoral, irrational Indians would vote into power.

    In an irrational society, it is impossible to know who is responsible and to untangle causes from effects. The rulers elected by irrational masses cannot take decisions or then explain those to citizens, who cannot understand or follow anyway. If a rare case ends up in court, the judge cannot decide.

    In a recent case, the Supreme Court asked a rapist of a minor girl if he would marry her. In such a society, brutality and savagery are the only media for communication. Those beaten up look for another weak person—not their oppressor to avenge—to perpetuate savagery. But they will still vote for Modi. That is the karmic cycle of India, in which Modi is merely a full participant.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Economic Slump

    The economy is organic. You must keep it in motion. If you stop it, there will be unknown, unseen, and unthought-of problems, particularly in India, where the leadership does not engage in complex thinking and cannot plan for the future.

    India, contrary to what the World Bank and the IMF assert, was already economically stagnant before the corona-virus hit. It had to find it extremely difficult to kickstart the economy if it could be done at all.

    India’s economy before and after the outbreak of COVID-19 – now there is an excuse… [PT]

    The international media, mesmerized by India’s democracy and in thrall to political correctness, claimed that India brought COVID-19 under control through faithfully following mask-wearing. In reality, hardly anyone wears a mask—the rare person that wears one takes it off when talking to people.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Fast forward to today, a year later, widespread starvation and poverty have meant that the government can no longer keep people from going out. Massive desperation has set in. Beggars remind one of the 1980s. People are desperate for jobs. India has relegated at least 75 million new people to poverty. The Indian economy contracted by 10.3% in 2020 – making it one of the worst-performing in the world.

    In its supreme wisdom, the government runs a minimal number of trains and buses and restricts opening hours for shops. They fail to understand that this creates horrible congestion, massive chaos, and over-crowding.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    For a few months, COVID-19 did come under control, but this had nothing to do with the Indian government. Then COVID-19 started up again. The corona-virus is currently spreading exponentially in India, contesting the top slot for the most daily cases globally.

    The virus ban by midnight didn’t really work out as envisaged… [PT]

    While the government talks proudly of India having developed a vaccine and supplying it across the globe, it does not even have the infrastructure to vaccinate its own people who demand it.  A mere 4% of Indians have so far received their first shot. It will take many years before India can be thoroughly vaccinated. One must be thankful that COVID-19 is hopefully not a tool for Malthusian designs, but that day is destined to come.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/02/2021 – 18:30

  • Biden Is Looking For Legal Excuse To Bailout Upper Middle Class With Student Debt Cancelation
    Biden Is Looking For Legal Excuse To Bailout Upper Middle Class With Student Debt Cancelation

    White House is exploring whether it has the legal authority to unilaterally cancel up to $50K of student debt per borrower as Biden comes under mounting pressure from progressive Dems to act in the name of combating “economic inequality”.

    White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said in an interview with Politico that Biden had tasked his education secretary, Miguel Cardona, to prepare a memo about the president’s legal authority to cancel student debt. NBC News described the measures as an effort to combat “the student loan crisis crippling millions of Americans”.

    Nevermind that the vast majority of student debt is held by middle-class, and upper-class borrowers. But since most progressive voters are white millennials from wealthy backgrounds, progressives like AOC are simply engaging in the same blatant pandering to their base that they accuse other politicians of doing, as we have pointed out before. 

    While the infrastructure plan described by President Joe Biden in Pittsburgh earlier this week would take some time to impact the general economy, Goldman Sachs analysts pointed out that forgiving $50K in loans per borrower would create an immediate economic boost. However, the benefit wouldn’t be as large, or as widespread, as some might expect. Goldman said that while a more generous loan-forgiveness program of $50K per borrower would provide a slightly bigger boost to GDP than the $10K/borrower plan, the impact per dollar spent would be smaller.

    Goldman gamed out how these gains would be distributed across society, and it might come as a surprise to some progressives to see that the wealthy would enjoy the biggest boost, as the government would essentially be upping its subsidies to expensive private colleges.

    Biden will reportedly decide how to proceed once he receives and reviews the memo. The president has reportedly been leaning toward an executive action that would forgive up to $10K in debt per borrower, but progressives have been pushing him to do more (part of a progressive agenda that’s centered around ending the filibuster, forgiving student debt, packing SCOTUS and passing M4A). The Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren-approved plan for forgiving up to $50K in loans  got a boost after the election from Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has also endorsed the plan, and insisted that Biden could erase the debt “with the stroke of a pen”, and that including Congress in the decisionmaking simply isn’t necessary.

    “He’ll look at that legal authority, he’ll look at the policy issues around that, and then he’ll make a decision,” Klain said. “He hasn’t made a decision on that either way. In fact, he hasn’t yet gotten the memos that he needs to start to focus on that decision.”

    Biden has said he doesn’t believe he has the legal authority to forgive $50K per borrower. This has been his primary excuse for endorsing $10K in forgiveness, instead of $50K. But by tasking one of his most progressive cabinet members to come up with a legal rationale, it looks like Biden is seriously considering even more unilateral debt forgiveness.

    “I understand the impact of debt, and it can be debilitating,” Biden said at a town hall event in February. “I am prepared to write off the $10,000 debt, but not $50,000 because I don’t think I have the authority to do it.”

    Proponents of canceling student debt have argued that the president does have the authority to cancel student debt, and that this authority stems from the Higher Education Act of 1965, which gives the education secretary the authority to use federal authority and credit to back – and, therefore, cancel – student loans.

    Readers can watch the full Politico interview with Klain below:

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/02/2021 – 18:00

  • Naomi Wolf: Vaccine Passports Are The "End Of Human Liberty In The West"
    Naomi Wolf: Vaccine Passports Are The “End Of Human Liberty In The West”

    Authored by Victoria Taft via PJMedia.com,

    The Left would like to dismiss Naomi Wolf as a heretic and conspiracy theorist now that she disagrees with their anti-liberty responses to coronavirus, but her warning about President Biden’s threatened “vaccine passports” should be heeded.

    Wolf, who started a tech site that she says is meant to bring the right and left together, says the passport would divide people between haves and have nots: those who have had the COVID shot and those who have not. In her words, it “is literally the end of human liberty in the West if this plan unfolds as planned.”

    Here’s what she means, in case you haven’t figure it out yourself.

    Vaccine passports sound like a fine thing if you don’t know what those platforms can do. I’m CEO of a tech company, I understand what this platform does. It’s not about the vaccine, it’s not about the virus, it’s about data. And once this rolls out you don’t have a choice about being part of the system. What people have to understand is that any other functionality can be loaded onto that platform with no problem at all.

    Wolf told Fox News host Steve Hilton that Big Tech companies will oversee all of your personal information and intermingle it with information that government will use to determine if you’re eligible to be able to travel and do anything else in polite society. President Biden signed an executive order in January to coordinate with other countries to track people to stop the spread of COVID.

    Wolf says the move is nothing short of “catastrophic.”

    They’re trying to roll it out around the world. It is so much more than a vaccine pass. I can’t stress this enough. It has the power to turn off your life. Or turn on your life. To let you engage in civil society or be marginalized. It’s catastrophic. It cannot be allowed to continue.

    Wolf predicts that the vaccine passport would eventually track every aspect of your life.

    And what that means is it can be merged with your PayPal account, with your digital currency. Microsoft is already talking about merging it with payment plans. Your networks can be sucked up. It geo locates you everywhere you go. Your credit history can be included. All of your medical history can be included.

    In short, it’s not hard to imagine this passport turning into a version of China’s social credit scoring.

    In China, if you do what the regime wants you to do, you are accorded points to allow more freedom of movement and other perks. In 2018 Vox reported on the expected rollout of the social credit system in 2020.

    Under the system, both financial behaviors like “frivolous spending” and bad behaviors like lighting up in smoke-free zones can result in stiff consequences. Penalties include loss of employment and educational opportunities, as well as transportation restrictions. Those with high scores get perks, like discounts on utility bills and faster application processes to travel abroad.

    Mask scolds and Karens in charge of the country’s COVID response wouldn’t dare cut you off from something you love … or would they?

    Such a passport would seem to finish the job that ObamaCare started.

    Wolf says it would violate the U.S. Constitution, the Americans With Disabilities Act, and HIPAA.

    She says opponents need to fund a phalanx of lawyers to litigate every aspect of such a thing because if we don’t it would be the “end of civil society” in the west – unless you like a caste system, that is.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/02/2021 – 17:30

  • Mexico, South Korea Have Longest Work Week Of World's Economies
    Mexico, South Korea Have Longest Work Week Of World’s Economies

    As the plight of Goldman Sachs junior bankers has sparked a national conversation about work-life balance, and reports about Spain experimenting with a 4-day work week have prompted millions of office drones to dream about a world where 3-day weekends might arrive 4 times per month.

    But which countries, if any, are best positioned for a transition from a 5-day to 4-day work week? Well, Matthew Keogh with the blog “Compare the Market” crunched some numbers from members of the OECD, and put together a ranking.

    While Americans probably expect the US, Japan or Germany to take the top spot in terms of hours worked, the No.1 is actually went to Mexico, where workers put in, on average, 41 hours per week, while taking home a paltry $8.25 for the average hourly rate.

    That’s compared with $21.51 for South Korea, the No. 2 in terms of average weekly hours worked (37.8 vs. 41).

    On the other hand, the countries working the fewest average weekly hours were all from Continental Europe: Denmark, Norway, Germany.

    Here are a few factoids from the report.

    The highest-earning countries are all European, too. This makes sense, since high average wages allow workers to put in fewer hours to make ends meet.

    Iceland took the No. 1 spot in terms of highest average hourly wage ($46.87). Luxembourg came in second ($45.70), with Switzerland taking spot no. 3 ($42.81).

    The lowest-earning countries are Mexico (No. 1 – $8.25), Chile (No. 2 – $14.06) and Greece (No. 3 $14.11).

    Now, which countries enjoy the best work-life balance? According to the OECD’s better life index, work-life balance is based on time devoted to leisure and personal care, in relation to employees working very long hours.

    • Netherlands
    • Italy
    • Denmark
    • Spain
    • France
    • Lithuania
    • Norway
    • Belgium
    • Germany
    • Sweden

    Notice how every single one of those countries is in Europe?

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/02/2021 – 17:00

  • IMF Joins The Choir Singing The Holistic Praises Of Higher Taxes
    IMF Joins The Choir Singing The Holistic Praises Of Higher Taxes

    Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk,

    The IMF wants predistributive and redistributive policies. The center of the alleged holistic approach is of course higher taxes…

    Giving Everyone a Fair Shot

    The IMF wants to Give Everyone a Fair Shot. 

    The COVID-19 pandemic is intensifying the vicious circle of inequality. To break this pattern and give everyone a fair shot at prosperity, governments need to improve access to basic public services—such as health care (including vaccination) and education—and strengthen redistributive policies.

    For most countries, this would require raising additional revenue and improving the efficiency of spending. 

    Holistic Approach 

    Enhancing access to basic public services will require additional resources, which can be mobilized, depending on country circumstances, by strengthening overall tax capacity. Many countries could rely more on property and inheritance taxes. Countries could also raise tax progressivity as some governments have room to increase top marginal personal income tax rates, whereas others could focus on eliminating loopholes in capital income taxation. Moreover, governments could consider levying temporary COVID-19 recovery contributions as supplements to personal income taxes for high-income households and modernizing corporate income taxation. In emerging market economies and low-income countries in particular, additional revenues could also be raised through consumption taxes to finance social spending. Further, low-income countries will need support from the international community to help with financing and implementing home-grown taxation and spending reforms.

    In some countries, public support for better access to basic services, financed through higher taxes, has been strong and is likely increasing with the pandemic. A recent survey in the United States shows that those who had personally experienced the impact of COVID-19, either through illness or unemployment, have developed a stronger preference for more progressive taxation.

    Robinhood Politics

    These schemes always start out by promising to “tax the rich”. In practice, it never stops there.

    To support socialist redistribution schemes, taxation inevitably dives further and further into the middle class. 

    You can see it coming with more “guaranteed income” proposals. 

    And the ideas get crazier and crazier like AOCs and Al Gore’s plan to spend $90 trillion to save the earth from oceans rising three inches over the next 50 years. 

    I assure you $90 trillion will not come from the wealthy or corporations. 

    The ultimate goal is to fund environmental nonsense and ensure that Jeff Bezos does not make more than the bottom 200 workers at Amazon. 

    Massive Tax Hikes

    Yesterday, I commented Prepare for 3 Things: Big Government, Huge Boondoggles, Massive Taxes

    Several readers wanted me do define massive taxes in the erroneous belief the proposals will only impact millionaires. 

    It won’t stop there because it never does. And look at the gigantic basket: Wealth taxes, corporate taxes, capital gains taxes, death taxes, consumption taxes, value added taxes (VAT), property taxes. 

    Spotlight Illinois

    Illinois has 6,963 Taxing Bodies yet the state is broke with pension plans that are bankrupt. 

    Nothing is ever fixed in Illinois. But guess what the alleged fix is. 

    The governor wants higher taxes. Yet high taxes are the reason people escape Illinois. 

    On Oct 5, 2019, I wrote Escape Illinois: Get The Hell Out Now, We Are.

    I am pleased to say that I am out of Illinois. 

    Exit Taxes

    California progressives have their eyes on an exit tax, They want to go after anyone who lived in California and moved.

    For discussion, please see California Seeks Wealth Tax to Soak the Rich, Even Those Leaving.

    Don’t tell me these tax hikes will just be on the rich because they won’t.

    It will never stop because politicians will dream up an endless parade of projects that can be funded by higher taxes. 

    To give everyone a “fair shot”, the IMF wants government to be Robinhood deciding who is rich, who is poor, and who needs to be made more equal. Inevitably the middle class suffers. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/02/2021 – 16:35

  • "Noah X": Capitol Stabber Identified As Indiana Man Who Followed Nation Of Islam
    “Noah X”: Capitol Stabber Identified As Indiana Man Who Followed Nation Of Islam

    (Update 1512ET): The Capitol Shooter has been identified as 25-year-old Noah Green, originally from Indiana but who may have moved to Virginia. He recently lost his job and posted to Facebook that he was ‘seeking spirital help.’ NBC’s Pete Williams confirmed his identity.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Green, who is now deceased, was a follower of the Nation of Islam and referred to himself as “Brother Noah X.”

    Screenshot, Facebook

    “To be honest these past few years have been tough, and these past few months have been tougher,” Green posted to Facebook on March 16. ” I have been tried with some of the biggest, unimaginable tests in my life. I am currently now unemployed after I left my job partly due to afflictions, but ultimately, in search of a spiritual journey.”

    “There is much confusion in this day and age in my perspective. The ongoing COVID crisis, unemployment, rising National Debt, division within the political sphere, rumors of war and the like. But one thing I’m assured everyone can lean on is faith in the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan as the man who can carry us through the dark hour.”

    Screenshot, Facebook

    In a subsequent post on March 17, Green encouraged everyone “to study Revelations, study the signs of end times, study who the beast is, study who the anti-Christ is, study who the false prophet is, and study the created images during those times.”

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    That sound you’re hearing is the MSM scrambling to reset the headlines.

    *  *  *

    (Update 1450ET): Fox News is reporting one capital police officer has died, according to Acting Police Chief Pittman. As the incident unfolded “seek cover” warnings rang out across the area on the Senate side of the Capitol building:

    The United States Capitol was locked down on Friday due to an “exterior security threat,” as the United States Capitol Police (USCP) said two officers were injured after a car rammed into them. One officer died of his injuries, sources tell Fox News. 

    Sources said the suspect exited his car wielding a knife and was shot by the USCP, dying of his injuries.

    Fox News is told security officials believe the suspect was a “lone wolf,” not connected to any other group.

    LIVE FEED:

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    * * *

    (Update 1428ET): ABC is reporting the suspect has died after being transported to the hospital:

    After reports that someone hit two U.S. Capitol Police officers with a car, Capitol Police opened fire at the north barricade of the Capitol complex, law enforcement sources tell ABC News.

    Two officers are said to be injured, one critically, the sources said. Law enforcement sources tell ABC News the suspect is dead.

    Additional National Guard troops, which were already in the area, have been deployed to the scene:

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    * * *

    Chaos has unfolded outside the Capitol building after a vehicle smashed into police that were guarding a barricaded entrance. It’s also being described as a possible shooting incident which left at least one officer seriously injured. The Capitol complex is now on lockdown as a huge emergency response is underway, according to breaking reports. 

    According to a US Capitol Police statement, it is currently “responding to the North Barricade vehicle access point along Independence Avenue for reports someone rammed a vehicle into two USCP officers. A suspect is in custody.” The suspect was shot by police and is said to be in critical condition.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    The statement adds “Both officers are injured. All three have been transported to the hospital.”

    It doesn’t appear Congressional members were present or near the site of the vehicle attack incident, which seems to be over as police and emergency vehicles have taken over the scene. 

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    The AP reported that gunfire rang out in the area, before police with sirens blaring descended on the site. Further details describe:

    The incident occurred about 100 yards (91 meters) from the entrance of the building on the Senate side of the Capitol. Fencing that prevented vehicular traffic near that area was recently removed as the Capitol has started to open up after the Jan. 6 riots.

    The security checkpoint is typically used by senators and staff on weekdays. Congress is currently on recess.

    Video posted online showed a dark colored sedan crashed against a vehicle barrier, and a police K9 inspecting the vehicle. Law enforcement and paramedics could be seen caring for at least one unidentified individual.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    It appears the suspect vehicle failed to stop before police opened fire according to the emerging details.

    A look at the blue sedan that rammed through the police checkpoint:

    VOA News White House correspondent Steve Herman writes that “The suspect was shot after getting out of the car with a knife, according to media reports.”

    Meanwhile…

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/02/2021 – 16:12

  • CNN 'Medical Expert' & CDC Suggest Americans' "Freedoms" Be Restricted Until They Are Vaccinated
    CNN ‘Medical Expert’ & CDC Suggest Americans’ “Freedoms” Be Restricted Until They Are Vaccinated

    With nearly every state having opened vaccinations to all adults, the CDC on Friday announced the second loosening of certain federal guidelines by declaring that all Americans who are “fully vaccinated” – a status obtained two weeks after the second dose (for Moderna and Pfizer) or the one and only dose (for JNJ) can travel “at low risk to themselves” both with the US and abroad, and won’t need to be tested for COVID before boarding a plane.

    However, the CDC advised that they should continue to take precautions like wearing a mask in public, avoiding crowds,  maintaining social distancing and washing one’s hands frequently.

    While the press celebrated the advisory as a milestone in the road back to “normalcy”, some wondered whether the CDC got the memo about packed seats on airplanes and the virtually completely reopened Florida that’s attracting tourists from around the country.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    While many Americans might not have realized it, the CDC has officially discouraged Americans from traveling – until now.

    As more countries prepare to start using vaccine passports (airports have already been demanding proof of negative COVID status since last summer), the CDC said vaccinated Americans will not need a COVID test to travel anywhere, including another country (that is, unless they’re required to do so by authorities in their destination country).

    While all this probably sounds promising, there’s a catch: vaccinated travelers still have to get a negative test result before boarding a flight back to the US, where they then must be tested against 3-5 days after returning home. This could create the potential for an explosion of false positives as some have linked to over-magnification on PCR tests used to detect the virus.

    As we noted earlier, the CDC’s latest edict, just like its first one, is essentially “permission” to do something that millions of Americans are already doing. What’s wrong here? Did the CDC not get the memo that states are reopening already?

    The answer can be found in a recent interview featuring Dr. Leana Wen, a former head of Planned Parenthood who served as a “medical expert” on CNN (just the facts, right people?).

    She explained that the CDC’s only hope for convincing every adult American to get vaccinated is to withhold the “carrot” of freedoms from the people until they assent to being vaccinated.

    Since the CDC wants everybody to continue observing social distancing guidelines like wearing masks and maintaining a safe distance, limiting their ability to travel and visit public places is really the only option. As Wen pointed out, the CDC needs to find ways to force people to get the vaccine now, or otherwise people “are going to go out and enjoy these freedoms anyway.”

    “we need to make it clear to them that the vaccine is the ticket back to pre-pandemic life and the window to do that is really narrowing…” Wen added.

    Put another way, while this latest message is couched as the CDC loosening restrictions on travel, what’s really happening is the government is giving private industry the green light to start barring travelers and customers who can’t prove their vaccination status. So instead of granting more freedom, they’re preparing to take freedoms away.

    This latest announcement adds to the CDC’s previous guidance, released in March, allowing fully vaccinated people to visit with others in small groups in a private setting. We expect more declarations about the rights of the vaccinated vs. unvaccinated will be made in the near future.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/02/2021 – 16:10

  • MLB Punishes Atlanta, Moves All-Star Game After Cancel Mob Targets Georgia Voting Law
    MLB Punishes Atlanta, Moves All-Star Game After Cancel Mob Targets Georgia Voting Law

    Major League Baseball has joined the woke backlash against a Georgia voting law which critics say ‘disenfranchises’ minorities through a series of measures designed to reduce election fraud.

    “Over the last week, we have engaged in thoughtful conversations with Clubs, former and current players, the Players Association, and The Players Alliance, among others, to listen to their views,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement, per ESPN. “I have decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year’s All-Star Game and MLB Draft.”

    So virtuous.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    The league, essentially taking the hint from the White House, is based on a false narrative spread by the media – which was forced to issue corrections – when they misreported that the new voting law limits voting hours, when in fact it expands them.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    And as Accuracy in Media‘s Ella Carroll-Smith notes:

    Another common narrative surrounding the election law is that it is akin to old Jim Crow laws, but that’s hyperbolic and best and dangerous at worst. Yet news outlets including The Guardian, NBC News and Newsweek parroted these narratives without any sort of fact check or clarification. 

    Calling the new Georgia voter law the “new Jim Crow” or Biden’s preferred language “Jim Crow on steroids” is not only misleading, but it undermines the significance of just how terrible Jim Crow laws really were. Requiring citizens to provide a form of ID to request an absentee ballot is not the same thing as a racial caste system that relegated Black Americans to the status of second-class citizens. 

    People are required to provide ID in order to do all sorts of things in America. You must show ID to obtain a library card or fly on the plane, which makes Delta’s criticism of the bill somewhat ironic. Interestingly, CNN is also headquartered in Atlanta, but it remains to be seen whether activists will call to boycott them in protest. 

    *  *  *

    Earlier this week, 72 black executives were joined by the likes of Google, Apple, JPMorgan, Citigroup, BlackRock, Home Depot, Delta Airlines, Coca-Cola and others in opposing Georgia’s new voting law –  which they say will disproportionately impact black communities. Many of these virtue-signaling corporations were silent when the law was being considered or before Governor Brian Kemp (R) signed it into law on March 25, only to succumb to a Democrat-led pressure campaign against state GOP leaders.

    Meanwhile, the MLB’s decision received pushback from Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff (GA), who told the Epoch Times: “I absolutely oppose and reject any notion of boycotting Georgia. Georgia welcomes business, investment, jobs, opportunity, and events.”

    “In fact, economic growth is driving much of the political progress we have seen here. Georgia welcomes the world’s business. Corporations disgusted like we are with the disgraceful Voter Suppression bill should stop any financial support to Georgia’s Republican Party, which is abusing its power to make it harder for Americans to vote,” he added.

    And of course, sometimes there are unintended (?) consequences to unchecked wokeism. As PJ Media drives home:

    Blacks make up 32.7 percent of the population of Atlanta — the largest black population of any major city – so it’s a mystery why MLB wants to move the All-Star Game from there. The tens of millions of dollars that would pour into the coffers of black businesses by Atlanta hosting the All-Star Game will now flow into the coffers of others.

    The city of Atlanta would be a loser by moving the game. The people of Georgia would be losers. The only winners are those who want the game moved to prove a political point, no more.

    * * *

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/02/2021 – 15:44

  • GDP Hides The Damage From The COVID-19 Lockdowns
    GDP Hides The Damage From The COVID-19 Lockdowns

    Authored by Patrick Barron via The Mises Institute,

    Do not believe government pronouncements that the economy is rebounding from very minimal damage caused by unprecedented covid-19-inspired closures of businesses. Government will use its favorite statistic of the health of the economy to justify its actions – gross domestic product (GDP).

    GDP is supposed to represent the total of spending on final goods and services in the economy. It is a Keynesian term that elevates a concept called “aggregate demand” as most important. Not production and especially not savings. In fact Keynesians fear savings most of all. Now, you and I know that we can become wealthier only by saving some of our income and investing it wisely for the future. But Keynesians invented a concept called “the paradox of thrift,” whereby they claim that the economy enters a death spiral from reductions in spending caused by an increase in savings. Individually, savers may be better off, they say, but collectively the economy suffers. For example, the new auto that we savers do not buy, rather keeping our old one in good repair for a few more years, denies the automakers and all who work for them the money they need to continue production. Layoffs and plant closings ensue. The reduction in aggregate demand ripples outward, bankrupting more and more support businesses and their employees. This is the simplistic Keynesian view of savings.

    But what happens to the money that we do not spend on as many new cars? Is it thrown down a rathole? No, of course not. It is invested in longer-term production processes that will yield even more wealth than if we had continued our former practice of buying new cars more often. Austrians call this phenomenon a change in the “structure of production.” We may produce few automobiles now, but later we’ll have access to products and services that would not have existed without our previous investment. We see this in our personal financial profiles. Our savings accounts increase at a compounding rate, allowing us to live a more comfortable existence later in life. This is the truth that used to be drilled into all of us before governments’ in-house economists propagandized that by being frugal we were denying our fellow citizens what was rightfully theirs: i.e., our money and our future. It’s nonsense.

    But, you may ask, where does GDP enter the picture? Remember, aggregate demand is measured by spending on final goods and services, which becomes GDP. There are two critical problems with GDP. One, it does not capture a lot of spending on longer-term and intermediate-term production, but rather mostly retail sales. (For a quick explanation of how the government calculates GDP, listen to the twelve-minute narration of Mark Brandly’s Mises Wire article “Calculating GDP Correctly.” In his summary of key points, Brandly states that intermediate goods and services are not generally included in GDP unless added to inventories.) Headlines that retail sales are up are supposed to generate confidence that all is well with the economy. But is it? If you and I spent all our savings and even borrowed more, we would soon find ourselves in the poorhouse. But Keynesians would say that our individual financial difficulties were good for the economy. Anybody buying that? I certainly hope not!

    GDP Captures Price Inflation and Calls It Economic Growth

    But the biggest problem with GDP is the most obvious one—that GDP measures price increases, not increases in the production of real goods or services. For example, in the past month or so the price of a gallon of regular gasoline in my home state of Pennsylvania has gone up from just under $2.50 to around $3.00. That’s a 20 percent increase in price. Since gasoline consumption changes little in the short run, selling the same volume of gasoline at a higher price causes GDP to go up. But our standard of living just went down! Our increased dollar spending on the same amount of gasoline had to come from somewhere. We had to cut back somewhere else, either some other consumption item or, most likely, a reduction in savings. Whereas government says that the increase in GDP means that we are better off, actually we are worse off.

    Increases in the Monetary Base and M2 Are Harbingers of Future Price Inflation

    The best measure of long-term price inflation is not necessarily measuring retail prices in the short run but measuring the increase in the money supply over time. If the money supply increases, eventually this increase will work its way into the price structure. It can do nothing else. The two statistics that best measure the money supply are the “monetary base” and “M2.” The monetary base consists of all cash, wherever held, plus bank reserves held at the Federal Reserve Bank which may be converted into cash on demand by the banks. It is called the monetary base, because banks can create money out of thin air by pyramiding loans on top of their reserves at roughly a ten-to-one ratio. Just after the 2007/08 subprime-lending debacle the monetary base was $0.910 trillion. The Fed juiced the monetary base to bail out the banks, so that in January 2020, just prior to the covid-19 lockdowns, it stood at $3.443 trillion. That’s a 278 percent increase. After the covid-19 lockdowns the Fed juiced the monetary base again. Today it stands at $5.248 trillion, a further increase of 52 percent over the already inflated January 2020 level. And we haven’t seen the effect of the recently passed $1.9 trillion stimulus bill! Since this government helicopter money will be funded completely by money printing by the Fed—a process called “monetizing the debt”—the full amount will go directly into the monetary base as the checks are either cashed or deposited to the recipients’ bank accounts.

    M2 is the broadest measure of the money supply that can be accessed by the public on demand. It comprises cash in the hands of the public (but not cash in bank vaults) plus money in checking and savings accounts. M2 has exhibited similar meteoric increases. M2 stood at $7.215 trillion in 2008, then was juiced to $15.419 trillion by January of last year. It now stands at $19.384 trillion. That’s a 169 percent increase, and tracks well with inflation in asset prices like stocks and housing. The $1.9 trillion third stimulus program will add dollar for dollar to M2 initially. If the banks pyramid more lending on top of this increase in their reserves, M2 will continue to grow beyond the $1.9 trillion. This is exactly what the government wants, because it will goose GDP.

    The lesson is this – don’t be fooled by government statistics, especially GDP, that the economy is recovering nicely from the covid-19 lockdowns. The covid-19 lockdowns have caused immense damage to the economy. Government money printing may goose GDP, but It will do nothing to compensate for the deadweight loss that millions have suffered.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 04/02/2021 – 15:35

Digest powered by RSS Digest