How serious this challenge is remains to be seen. But judging from the efforts to discredit him, the elite is taking no chances.
First, we set the stage. Here’s the Committee for the Responsible Federal Budget: ‘The Deficit Was US$2.1 Trillion Over Past Year’:
‘…up 50% from the US$1.4 trillion deficit in Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 and more than twice as large as the deficit prior to the beginning of the pandemic.
‘The 12-month rolling deficit is also US$170 billion higher than it was last month, thanks to a US$236 billion deficit in May of 2023, compared to US$66 billion last May. Compared to a year ago, total nominal spending is up 11% to US$6.6 trillion, and revenue is down 6% to US$4.5 trillion.
‘As a share of the economy, deficits havetotalled 8.1% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over the past year, over three times the historical average of 2.5% and three percentage points higher than 2019.’
War and inflation
At least half of that deficit comes from something that does Americans no apparent good — the US empire. RFK Jr proposes to trim it back.
He is ‘nuts’ says HotAir. He’s an ‘eccentric’ says Slate. ‘Lunacy’ says The Daily Beast. ‘Wacky conspiracy theories’ says Cleveland Magazine.
Here’s Robert Reich, a former Secretary of Labor who is reliably wrong about everything:
‘Were it not for his illustrious name, Robert F Kennedy Jr would be just another crackpot in the growing number of bottom-feeding right-wing fringe politicians seeking high office.’
Even his own family says Kennedy is ‘tragically wrong’ according to Politico.
We have no doubt that RFK Jr is wrong about a lot of things, but we also doubt that he is wrong about everything…and perhaps not about the most obvious threat the US faces. And since we have a soft spot for diehards, lost causes, and underdogs…we will look closer.
‘Inflation’ wrote Hemingway, ‘is the first panacea of a mismanaged government. War is the second. Both bring a temporary prosperity. Both bring a more permanent ruin’.
We’re not sure Hemingway had them in the right order. Sometimes war leads to inflation. Sometimes it is the other way around. But the two tend to go together, like rats and plague, until a country is laid low.
Far-flung claptrap
Not that we are making a prediction. We’re just adding two plus two. And the expense of maintaining a far-flung empire…along with the delusional claptrap that accompanies a degenerate empire (sanctions, wars, trade barriers, prohibitions, tariffs) may be more than we can afford.
When attacked in a real war, a nation’s people rally to buy ‘war bonds’ to support their ‘boys in uniform’. But few people want to pay real money so the military can attack some godforsaken country in a ‘war of choice’. Few people willingly fatten Raytheon’s profit margins. And who really wants to pay good money to kill Syrians, Iraqis, Iranians, Serbians, Somalis, etc? Some do. But not many.
That is why empires cannot be financed by taxation alone — people won’t want to pay for them. Like almost all government programs, ‘wars of choice’ are a racket, meant to enrich and empower the few at the expense of the many. Elites readily turn to inflation to finance them.
Then, both inflation…and the empire itself…take on lives of their own.
Stay tuned.
Regards,
 |
Bill Bonner,
For The Daily Reckoning Australia
