These articles have discussed money, monetary policy, fiscal sanity, and government spending several times this year. Some have called me alarmist for raising fiscal sanity during a “Global Health Crisis.” While COVID-19 (Sars-COV-2) is undoubtedly a viral disease with a 98%+ survival rate, I cannot in good conscience call this a “Global Health Crisis.” The pandemic declaration was a political move, the mask mandating, business closures, and every other hysterical move have been carefully formulated to present a problem where none exists. Has Sars-COV-2 mutated; absolutely, but the emotional hysteria has mutated far faster.
Dollars and Sense
When you pass paper to a store clerk, are you spending money; no, you are spending confidence. Your confidence in the dollar’s strength, as represented by a check, cash, money order, credit card, etc., is what is being spent. Why was the Great Depression so lasting and detrimental; a lack of confidence in the US Dollar. People who saved their money formed sane fiscal policies personally and acted logically lost their confidence in the US Dollar, and the dollar went into a great depression.
Since President Clinton, the US Government has been on a drunken spending spree and does not appear to be stopping unless the citizens demand they cease and desist! What does this mean for you and me; everything costs more for two reasons inflation and interest. When the government prints money, too much money increases prices, and too few goods chase too much money, resulting in people suffering. When the government borrows money, the interest must be serviced; the interest will increase prices and usually absorb some of the extra capital on the market to bring down inflation.
Except, Quantitative Easing (QE) is hindering the absorption of money on the market. Hence America is witnessing something truly remarkable for the first time in financial history, the debt (principal), the interest, and the extra capital, all of these storms are combining into a major conflagration economically speaking. Usually, at this point, a country begins to look for a place to go to war, which explains China and its expansionist policies in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean. Too much debt, too much interest, a military needing worked, and assets need to be stolen from other countries. Typical historical thinking, war truly is grand larceny on a massive scale!
Where are America and China headed; let’s ask Czarist Russia, USSR, Nazi Germany, East Germany, China, North Korea, Italy, Venezuela, Greece, France, and who knows how many other economically unstable countries historically and presently. Going to war will not solve this economic crisis, though some may try that solution. The only solution worth advancing at this critical juncture economically is reducing the size of government, placing a firm halt on all government spending, and refusing the politicians to get into debt for at least two decades! Yes, this means changing Social Security, Welfare, Medicaid and Medicare, and every other government benefit program to fit a reduced budget and smaller government model. Failure to tighten belts for the next two decades will bankrupt America, and most of the world, making the Great Depression look like a summer picnic.
Gold and Oil, real estate, Gross Domestic Products (the goods manufactured in America for sale), trade, all of these wealth tools and more cannot support the debt incurred, the money printed, nor the size of the government from the city and county to the White House. As this trend continues, Wall Street will continue to be tumultuous, at best, and the confidence in the US Dollar will continue to slide. But, as the dollar slides, which global currency will begin to take up the slack?
The Euro has discredited itself and is not worth the paper it is printed on. China thinks they will step into the void and take up the slack with the Yuan, except their financial situation is almost as bad as Venezuela’s and Cuba’s, but their size and government type keep this hidden from the public. Even though the Yuan is in junk status, the Communist government hides these facts; the truth is leaking out in higher trade tariffs and other global trade and finance costs. Russia’s economic situation still has not stabilized with the fall of the USSR and will probably need another two to three decades until it can compete on the global economy again.
I heard a postulation that the Arabian Oil Rich nations of the Middle East would produce an OPEC-backed currency if the US Dollar fails. I highly doubt this as a solution, but the potential is there. Another person claimed the lack of confidence in the US Dollar would lead to the World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF) issuing currency for the world; boy, would that be a significant problem! Yet, the American Dollar is being purposefully destroyed by the current crop of politicians, and nobody is standing up and declaring ENOUGH!
Inflation
The US Government, and many others globally, have increased their drunken spending since Jan/Feb 2020 to incredibly extensive levels and used a “Global Health Crisis” as the excuse. Except when Ebola was sweeping the world, we did not have this level of insane spending and government intrusion. Ebola is far deadlier, easier to spread, and yet the Ebola disaster is barely remembered. Bird Flu, Swine Flu, SARS, MERS, all these viruses have had their time in the media hysterical spotlight, every single one of them is deadlier than Sars-COV-2, easier to spread, and they were never a cause for a global pandemic.
Inflation is caused by poor economic policy, where the government grants itself the ability to print money. Inflation is not just money and monetary policy; inflation is also confidence, faith, and trust. Inflation is how the government acts, thinks, and behaves. Inflation is as real as COVID-19 and just as deadly as Ebola while being more problematic for everyone. From Dec 2020 to the end of July 2021, inflation has increased the price of goods and services by 3.8%, seasonally adjusted, or 5.4% non-seasonally adjusted, which means that prices go up as a seasonal adjustment in the summer.
Fiscal Insanity
Consider with me an analogy; you live in a community of houses and pay a Homeowners Association (HOA) Fee. Your neighbor has decided they can write checks on your checking account, and the HOA has granted them legal protection to write checks on your bank accounts. Because your neighbor has legal protection, you sell off assets to provide the funds for your neighbor. You sell to other neighbors letters of credit that you promise to pay interest on, provided your other neighbors hold those letters of credit for specific amounts of time. Except, your neighbors stop buying those letters of credit over time because they do not like how your neighbor keeps writing checks and spending your money. How do you keep this house of cards from blowing over and losing everything?
America is in this position right now! Trend lines show a steady downward trend in the value of the US Dollar. Inflation will keep increasing prices as too much money is chasing too few products on the market. Debt needs to be serviced and interest paid. But, when the interest payment is the only thing being paid, and the principal will also need to be serviced, where and how does the principal get serviced when the interest is absorbing all the monthly payments? Simple economics, money once created and put into the money market, cannot just be absorbed or disappeared. Just like food doesn’t disappear once consumed, the offal must come out and be handled responsibly. Well, the dollar is in an offal position and needs responsibly handled!
© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.
In Chapters 
Pensions are the first point of discussion as to where these funds can go; never forget, 
Just as important, look at the total number of government workers as a share of the total workforce, and you will discover just how big your state and local governments have become. For example, two states selected at random from the 50-state list, New Jersey, and New Mexico are displayed below, and sourced from the 
Consider New Jersey for a moment, if you met 100 new people in one day, more than 1/10th of those met will work for the state or local government in some capacity, and those 11 people are earning $32,148 taxpayer paid dollars a year for being retired. Worse, New Jersey is kiting checks on your children’s future to the tune of $130.7 Billion dollars every year. Raising taxes cannot help closing the funding gap in the pension. Want more news, the majority of those retired are not living in New Jersey, so all those taxpayer monies are not being recouped in sales taxes, property taxes, and other taxes.
A few days ago, I was discussing broadband Internet grids, and there susceptibility to failure with people who work for a major Internet Service Provider. In 
Come, let us reason together for solutions that actually work. I offer below the following suggestions, feel free to agree, disagree, add more, and discuss openly in the comments. We, the owners of government, must re-take control of the government, and to do so, we must communicate and act.
Not every child should be forced into college. Not every job requires a college degree. Opening the community colleges produces certified, trained, and non-debt laden students that are workforce ready. Workforce ready means able, willing, and skilled in working, be that in academia for a degree, or in the workforce as a tradesman the requirement is the same and the distinction needs removed from the leaders of K-12 educational leadership.
First step, believe it is possible; live like it has already occurred. Second step, join others to raise the cry and demand the changes. Third, support only candidates who already live fiscally proper, morally upright, and ethically dedicated. Fourth, never give up! Never lose focus, and never relinquish the moral high ground for a bowl of pottage or 30 pieces of silver.
PSA: I am not a cynic; I understand the concepts being discussed, and it might appear that I am cynical about insurance companies by the tone of the writing. Please note, I am generally in favor of the insurance industry. However, when government mandates insurance coverage to spread the risks out for the benefit of the insurance industry, insurance has become a tax. When a business offers insurance, but the co-pays and the costs are too high, insurance is no longer a benefit, and I want the option to opt-out of the employer “benefit.”
Interest, in this usage is referring to the advantage to a group or single person, as well as improving one’s welfare. Maritime shipping would take on several loads, and people who owned those loads had a vested interest (having a personal stake in something) in seeing that ship arrive on time at its intended destination. For example, sugar has been a huge commodity in history, and a sugar mill would ship the sugar to destinations for sale. People interested in improving their welfare could invest in the sugar mill, or with a higher risk, expecting a higher return, invest in the shipping company, or the ship. Thus, investing became one where opportunities to increase interest became popular.
One final point, government’s have interests, generally traced to those paying the highest taxes, or with the most political connections. Government’s do not have allies, as much as they have groups of governments that share a common interest. For example, countries belonging to NATO. NATO is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and was designed for those countries with interests in seeing trade safely through the North Atlantic. Not all the countries in NATO are friendly with all the other countries, but the common interest in seeing trade and markets operate smoothly has generated NATO and kept it alive since 1949. Government never has friends; they only have relationships based upon mutual interests. These are cogent points that must be remembered! Incredible as it seems, interests change, and when interests change, relationships between countries and governments force ideological changes, and today’s relationship might not be the same tomorrow, which is one of the reasons why the United Nations is such a pile of hypocrisy and uselessness!
Hence, lawyers and bankers have a vested interest in seeing insurance companies not have to pay claims, but still collect premiums. Thus, contract law was established, and the insurance companies took full advantage of language to protect their premiums from paying a claim. Another growth industry directly tied to the insurance industry, was special courts for hearing claims and awarding damages (Tort Law). Cornell Law university provides some clarity on tort law, “A tort is an act or omission that gives rise to injury or harm to another and amounts to a civil wrong for which courts impose liability. In the context of torts, “injury” describes the invasion of any legal right, whereas “harm” describes a loss or detriment in fact that an individual suffers.” Placing insurance companies squarely into the middle of tort law, and thus opening up new avenues for protecting against paying a claim from the premiums paid and invested.
Important to understanding, Carl Marx and communism uses the ideas of mutual insurance companies to create a society where all share the risks, all benefit in the gains, at least in theory. However, like insurance companies, someone in communism must enjoy all the benefits for taking the risk of establishing the community, and the reality of China, Cuba, and USSR become evident. Where the leaders take everything for themselves, and the regular people live in squalor and depredation.
With all the ties to investing, savings products, and the flow of money into and out of an insurance company, the discussion of insurance companies remains critical. Especially when the government can create an insurance company, then mandate that company be used to provide coverage, creating a tax and fee that the taxpayer might not realize. For example, around the time that states began demanding drivers have car insurance, GEICO began selling policies to non-government employees. GEICO is an acronym for Government Employees Insurance Company, and by selling policies to non-government employees, the government is able to reduce the risk of insuring their employees. Thus, an argument can be made that the government only created GEICO to reduce the risks of insuring government employees, as well as benefiting from a flush of cash from premiums paid.
Both Lloyds of London and GEICO leave me worrying for taxpayers. However, since the US Government is the only provider for some types of insurance, specifically flood insurance, which is mandatory for homeowners living in a flood plain, one must ask more questions about where the money goes and why? What steps have been taken to protect the public from large scale incidents where the insurance company will have to make massive payments? What does the government invest in to protect the premiums paid against the time of claims?
America, when it comes to cash flow, money, and government fiscal policy, we need answers. We need the elected representatives to understand basic economics, and we need to hold a tighter rein on those elected representatives. The current fiscal health of America is poor, solely because of the elected representatives and their bureaucratic minions. We must have a solution that protects America, and this solution needs every citizen involved and engaged.
Consider your home finances, you and your significant other are working hard for the paycheck. Your significant other comes in and reports they have improperly paid the mortgage company, the electric company, the car loan, the gas company, and the credit cards over the last year to the tune of $100,000. These funds are not recoverable, did not reduce your balances, did not pay ahead, did not apply to your account, and your significant other expects to be praised for improperly paying the bills. What is your response?
Returning the original analogy, if your significant other was reporting these failures to comply, how long would that person remain a significant other? Yet, somehow, we, the American Taxpayer, accepts this type of poor performance from government bureaucrats. The legislation is not working to improve performance after 10 consecutive fiscal years of trying. Leading to the following recommendations for immediate Congressional action.
DNC-Consulting 