Tag: economy

The Darkest Secret Behind Democrats’ Economic Policy

I’m a realist. I understand there’s always going to be hypocrisy on both sides of the political aisle. And I also understand that, as far as politics go, monetary policy is pretty much “the third rail.”

As I’ve always said, if there’s one thing that should alarm you about today’s monetary policy — which is damn close to full-on modern monetary theory — it’s the fact that both political parties agree on it. Are there any other issues that you can think of off the top of your head that both parties agree on and never argue about? I sure as hell can’t.

But while both parties have generally embraced the way the country has run monetary policy, their respective stances on how the country runs fiscal policy are quite different. And therein lies the basis for why today’s revelation matters.

There’s no doubt the United States needs to make dramatic spending cuts to prevent itself from spiraling—either downward into an eventual debt default or upward into hyperinflation. If you want a primer on why that is, I’d recommend listening to this one-hour, simple-to-understand synopsis of the country’s financial position, followed by this appearance by Jim Bianco on the Julia LaRoche podcast a couple of days ago.

Right now, the political climate consists of Republicans taking a chainsaw to anything they can get their hands on in government to cut spending, and Democrats protesting any and all cuts for any reason they can drum up. Hashing out individual issues worthy of cuts is not what this article is about, so we’ll save that discussion for another day.

This article is meant to point out the fatal hypocritical flaw that exists in Democrats’ reasoning as it relates to the country’s financials. Everybody understands the simple idea that if we run up too much debt, the country could, in essence, go bankrupt. But what’s really alarming now is the pace at which we are running up this debt. It’s why this chart of the national debt is going parabolically higher. The number $35 trillion is astonishing — but the rate with which we are moving higher is beyond breakneck.

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US Recession Risks Not As High As The Media Suggests

U.S. recession risks have been a headline over the last few weeks as the markets sold off.

“Goldman Sachs and Moody’s Analytics in recent days joined forecasters raising alarm about the increased likelihood of an economic downturn. The warnings coincided with a market plunge touched off by U.S. tariffs against Canada, Mexico, and China, some of which were delayed. Retaliatory tariffs issued by China on Monday deepened a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.” – ABC News

That concern is interesting as there was no such concern in January.

“As of January, the risk of a U.S. recession was considered small. A low unemployment rate and rising wages meant consumers were continuing to spend, inflation was drifting down towards the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, and the U.S. central bank had cut interest rates by a full percentage point since September. Fed officials considered it a stable foundation for continued growth, and many economists thought the central bank had nailed a “soft landing” from the high inflation of 2021 and 2022.” – Reuters.

Over the last couple of weeks, the market sell-off eclipsed 10% on an intraday basis, sending investor sentiment plummeting to levels usually seen during more significant declines and previous bear markets. While the markets have had a phenomenal run over the past two years, investors seemed to have forgotten that markets tend to correct now and then.

The one thing you can always count on during a sell-off is the media trying to formulate a headline to rationalize investor actions. During this particular decline, it was the return of a U.S. recession.

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LA Budget Crisis, Deficit Approaches $1 Billion, Layoffs ‘Nearly Inevitable’

L.A.’s financial problems exploded into a full-blown crisis on Wednesday, with the city’s top budget official announcing that next year’s shortfall is now just shy of $1 billion, making layoffs “nearly inevitable.”

City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo said Mayor Karen Bass’ proposed budget, which will be released April 21, will close that gap, but it will require difficult “cost-cutting decisions.” He warned that the severity of revenue declines and rising costs has created a budget gap that makes layoffs “nearly inevitable.”

Szabo, in his presentation to the council Wednesday, attributed the city’s financial woes, in part, to increased spending on legal payouts, which have ballooned over the last few years. Tax revenues have been coming in much weaker than expected — and are expected to soften further in the upcoming budget year, which starts July 1.

Pay raises for city employees that are scheduled to go into effect in the coming budget year are expected to consume an additional $250 million. On top of that, Szabo said, the city needs to put hundreds of millions into its reserve fund, which has been drained in recent months in an attempt to balance this year’s budget.

Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, who heads the budget committee, said the council will need to look at the possibility of asking unions representing city workers to defer the scheduled raises or make other concessions.

“I think everything needs to be on the table,” she said in an interview.

David Green, president and executive director of Service Employees International Union Local 721, called Szabo’s remarks “short-sighted and irresponsible.”

“There’s no question that all of us are in shock with this number,” said Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, who sits on the council’s budget committee.

Blumenfield predicted that city leaders would need to seek financial concessions from the workforce.

“Eighty percent of our expenses is labor,” he said. “If we are short more than 10% of our budget, the ‘math doesn’t math’ without looking at labor costs.”

Over the last two years, Bass and the council have signed off on raises and increased benefits for an array of unions — first police officers, then civilian city workers, then firefighters.

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19 Reasons Why the Federal Reserve Is at the Heart of Our Economic Problems

Most Americans have absolutely no idea how we got into the mess that we are in today.  The reason why the U.S. government is 36 trillion dollars in debt and our society as a whole is 102 trillion dollars in debt is because the system is performing exactly as it was designed.  We have a system that was literally designed to create colossal amounts of debt.  But if you ask most Americans about this, they cannot tell you what the Federal Reserve is or why it is at the heart of our economic problems.  When Americans get into discussions about the economy, most of them still blame either the Democrats or the Republicans for our rapidly growing economic problems.  But the truth is that the institution with the most power over our economic system is the Federal Reserve.  So exactly what is the Federal Reserve?  Most people would say that it is an agency of the federal government.  But that is not entirely accurate.  In fact, the Federal Reserve itself has argued in court that it is not an agency of the federal government.   The truth is that the Federal Reserve is a privately-owned banking cartel that has been given a perpetual monopoly over our monetary system by the U.S. Congress.  This privately-owned central bank has been destroying the value of the U.S. dollar for decades, it has run our economy into the ground, and it has driven the U.S. government to the brink of bankruptcy.  The Federal Reserve operates in great secrecy  and it acts as if it is not accountable to the American people.  Yet the decisions that the Federal Reserve makes have a dramatic impact on the lives of every single American citizen.

If you really want to understand what is causing our economic problems, it is absolutely crucial that you understand exactly what the Federal Reserve is and how it is systematically destroying our economy.  Once you understand the truth about the Federal Reserve, you will view economic issues a whole lot differently.

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How Tariffs Will Lower The Cost Of Living

Critics of President Trump’s trade policy – tariffs, tariffs, and more tariffs – cry that tariffs will cause inflation and make Americans poor. This is false.

Although there will be a brief period where the market adjusts to the new normal, tariffs will not cause inflation. In fact, tariffs will lower the cost of living in the long run.

Perhaps the more interesting question to ask is: inflation of what? Consumer goods? Why are these critics not concerned about the inflation of assets like houses or investments that are caused by economic globalism and the trade deficit?  Why are the Democrats and Neocons so preoccupied with keeping the cost of disposable products low, when people cannot afford their rent or mortgages?

Contrary to popular belief, tariffs did not raise the cost of goods during President Trump’s first term, and they are not likely to do so the second time around. 

There are a few reasons for this.

First, a tariff is a tax imposed on imports. For example, a 25% tariff on steel would increase the price of steel coming from Canada or South Korea. However, that same tariff would not apply to steel that was made in America. In this way, tariffs are a completely avoidable tax. If you do not want to pay tariffs, buy American. Simple.

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What Are The Left’s Solutions For The Problems They Created?

The Wall Street Journal has consistently criticized Trump’s economic policies, particularly his ongoing “trade war” with Canada, over the past several weeks. And certainly, the tensions are regrettable. Trump’s trolling of the insufferable Justin Trudeau, with talk of Canada becoming the “51st state,” perhaps only galvanized the Canadian left. It unfortunately may ensure that the only real hope for a Canadian return to normality, the election of Pierre Poilievre, may be lost.

That said, does the WSJ truly believe that the current $1.7 trillion budget deficit stacked on top of $36 trillion in national debt and an annual $1 trillion trade deficit are sustainable in any fashion? Do they believe any Republican president would have survived the midterms if he cut or “reformed” Social Security? If so, consult the fate of the recommendations of left-wing Barack Obama’s 2010 Simpson-Bowles commission (“The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform”).

DOGE, the effort to demand either symmetrical or no tariffs, closing the border, the rare minerals agreement, etc., are all controversial, even desperate efforts to stave off insolvency.

NAFTA was sold on the promise of trade equilibriums, eventually leading to no tariffs and rough parity. Yet Canada currently runs a $60 billion surplus largely because of its energy sales and selective tariffs on U.S. agriculture and some manufactured goods. That sum might be tolerable from a friend and not worth the acrimony, even with the present massive trade and budget deficits—if it had occurred in isolation.

But it did not.

The Canadian surplus is force multiplied by its chronic refusal to spend a measly 2 percent of its GDP on defense. Canada could have easily offered a partnership with the U.S. to explore joint missile defense or shared Arctic Ocean naval patrols with a new fleet of Canadian and American icebreakers.

But it did nothing of the sort.

Worse still, no Canadian leader can offer any defense of their policies, such as: 

“We believe a $60 billion surplus with our free-trade American partner is justified, and we also believe we are further correct in not spending our promised 2 percent of GDP on defense.” 

Their veritable retort of “Trump is a monster” is no defense at all.

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Do We All Have PTSD?

Just how much mental and psychological trauma exists in the country and world today cannot be quantified, and I would not trust any studies that tried. But this much is clear. We have lost our footing in knowing something that scientists long believed we could know: whether and to what extent an economy is growing and prospering or going the opposite way. 

Everyone seems just to be winging it these days. Ever since lockdowns utterly broke reporting, it’s been hard to tell up from down. 

The substantial hits taken by major financial indexes over the last two months seem to have triggered a shift in public sentiment from indifferent to gloomy. Probably this has nothing to do with the vast wealth held in invested retirement accounts. 

Each refresh of the page seems to deliver more bad news. 

This has in turn affected the willingness to spend and the outlook generally. 

And yet there is something strange going on. 

Inflation in real time is genuinely down from its 4-year trend and showing the best numbers since 2020. Even the CPI reflects this. The jobs outlook for the private sector is slightly improving. 

Why has consumer sentiment suddenly taken a dive? 

It’s odd because there is a paucity of evidence for a sudden shift, unless tariffs are to blame, which seems doubtful (to me). 

One possible theory: the public has a form of economic post-traumatic stress disorder, a clinical name for what was once called battle fatigue and shell shock. It is what happens to the human spirit in the face of something unexpected, terrible, and ultimately traumatizing. There are stages of recovery that move from denial, anger, bargaining, and depression, with acceptance as the last stage. 

That might be where we are. For years now, the national media and government agencies have claimed that all is well. Inflation is cooling. Job growth is strong. The recovery is upon us. Countless media articles have bemoaned the gap that separates real data and maudlin public perceptions. We are encouraged to believe that “shutting down the economy” is really no big deal, just something you do before turning it on again. 

Stop complaining! You are rich! 

It was the ultimate in economic gaslighting, something about which many of us have been kvetching for five years now. 

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EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin Launches Largest Deregulatory Effort in U.S. History to ‘Save Coal, Bring Down Cost of Living’

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin said it is “not a binary choice” to either protect the environment or grow the economy.

“We don’t have to just choose one,” he explained.

Joining Breitbart News Washington bureau chief Matt Boyle on the Breitbart News Saturday radio show, Zeldin went over his recent historic launch of the largest deregulatory effort in U.S. history and talked about the EPA’s sweeping deregulations to “save the coal industry” and “bring down the cost of living.” 

After announcing 31 deregulations on Wednesday, including the termination of the Biden administration’s “Environmental Justice and DEI arms of the agency (EJ/DEI),” Zeldin told Boyle, “Undoubtedly, we’re going to be able to create jobs, including inside the American auto sector.”

“We will bring down the cost of living. It’s going to be easier to heat your home, to purchase a vehicle, to operate a business,” the former New York congressman said, touting President Donald Trump’s economic plan. 

“A lot of Americans struggling to make ends meet want common sense back into the federal government, and we’re going to do our part at the EPA,” Zeldin continued. “So that’s why we made this announcement. It’s a lot of regulatory actions impacting the energy space. We want to make it easier for people to be able to access choice.”

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Germany’s Perfect Storm: Skyrocketing Knife Crime, Crumbling Economy, and Failed Leadership Threaten National Stability

As Germany contends with a faltering economy, soaring prices, rising unemployment, intensifying political violence, and mounting geopolitical instability, it also faces an alarming surge in knife crime—an epidemic fueled by decades of failed leadership, reckless, short-sighted policies, and unchecked mass immigration from countries with alien cultures.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state with over 18 million residents, knife crime has surged dramatically.

Citing police data, State Interior Minister Herbert Reul, a member of the liberal globalist Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, reported that 2023 saw 7,295 knife-related crimes—a 20.7% increase from the previous year, which had already marked a 44% rise from the year before.

What’s more alarming? Despite making up 16.1% of North-Rhine Westphalia’s population, foreigners made up nearly half (47.6%) of the suspects.

The police data, meanwhile, revealed that native Germans bear the brunt of the knife-related violence, accounting for 60.1% of the victims.

However, these statistics do not tell the full story. German authorities do not track the foreign backgrounds of newly naturalized German citizens, which allows them to downplay the growing crime rates and their connection to mass migration.

State Interior Minister Herbert Reul, despite holding office for years, now claims he’ll take action to curb the rise of knife attacks.

“I hope that we will see the first positive effects here in the coming year and that this knife violence will be curbed. Otherwise, we will have to make adjustments,” the CDU politician vaguely stated. But talk is cheap—he introduced a ten-point plan to tackle knife crime last August, and yet, violence continues to escalate.

While the official report states overall crime rates are down by 1 percent, this is misleading. The largest drop came from drug-related offenses, which fell by over 30%—likely due to the legalization of marijuana.

Meanwhile, the number of murders rose by nearly 16 percent last year, from 154 to 180 cases. Again, foreigners make up nearly half of the suspects in the most serious violent crimes—murder and manslaughter. The same is true for burglaries.

Over the past decade, violent crime has climbed by 20%, with non-German passport holders accounting for 41.8% of suspects.

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Trump Effect: Gas Prices PLUMMET Below $3 in 31 States — A Stark Contrast to Biden’s $5/Gallon Disaster

After years of economic pain at the pump under Joe Biden, Americans are finally seeing some relief as gas prices continue to decline under President Donald Trump’s second term.

On Thursday, the national average price for a gallon of regular gas sat at $3.07, according to AAA, significantly lower than what drivers were forced to pay during Biden’s disastrous tenure.

It’s a stark contrast to the Biden years when the cost of fuel soared to over $5 per gallon, an all-time high, thanks to reckless policies, overregulation, and a war on American energy.

Under Trump, who prioritized energy independence in his first term, Americans saw an average gas price of just $2.47 per gallon between 2017 and 2021. But as soon as Biden stepped into the Oval Office, that all changed.

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