Many pundits have made the following statement, in one form or another, driving a car is the ultimate expression of freedom in America. Yet, your freedom to drive a vehicle is endangered by the political left and the neo-socialists who want to steal and destroy your freedoms. Mention economics, and most people’s eyes gloss over, brains disconnect, and they hope the pain will end shortly. Please, fight this impulse. I will attempt to make a highly complex topic simple and easily understood. While I might not get all the specific details correct, I aim to communicate economics to a general audience that is free and empowered to further research the topics for themselves. My links are reflected in the article for more information.
Money was discussed in a previous article and found here. In simple terms, money is the tool used to transfer goods from one entity to another, showing a legal purchase was made to change ownership, hence opening the first crucial role of money, legally transferring ownership of goods and services from one person to another. Unfortunately, legal ownership transference is where the government exercises its first controls, regulating cross-border commerce. When the government went on a growth spurt in the 1930s, ballooning into the behemoth, we have right now, the government used the excuse of maintaining cross-border commerce to steal products grown by farmers, regulate prices, and set up means and methods to ensure the government was the only winner.
The 1930 legal battles that wound up in the United States Supreme Court over price controls saw the citizen’s first attempt to reign in the government and failed miserably. Worse, these first moves by the citizen were the first exchanges in an economic war that has raged ever since—money stores value. Think of the money found when you do laundry. You have no idea how long that money was lost, but the value of the money has not changed, you presume, and you celebrate finding the money. Except, the value of that money has changed through inflation, and the government’s hidden tax (inflation) has robbed you of value.
Let’s say you found $20 in the laundry. When you first lost that $20 bill, it had more value, e.g., you could purchase more with that money than you can now. Sure, the value printed on the money still has $20 worth of goods or services, but the cost of those goods and services went up, restricting your ability to purchase. Hence the economic warfare being waged by your government. The government essentially said we would not worry about inflation. Meaning they will devalue the money you hold for their own political purposes.
An idea was floated by an economically challenged person to print a $5 trillion bill and use this to pay off the Chinese debt. The problem is the devaluation of the money printed will capsize American citizens due to the hidden taxes of inflation. Making that $5 trillion bill or bills would devalue the dollar and crash the American economy. The stored value in the printed bill would not stand up to and be accepted, as a medium of stored value sufficient to pay the debts incurred. Is the problem more clear; when money is printed, each dollar, pound, euro, etc., devalues the stored purchasing power of the money you currently hold in hand.
Stored value is the second tool for waging economic warfare by the government against its citizens. Consider all the money printed to pay for the supposed Coronavirus Tax Relief and Economic Impact Payments the world’s governments made to their citizens. If you had $100,000 in savings when these monies were printed, your savings were devalued by the inflation rate, which is currently at a 40-year high in America. The government is reporting inflation at 7.9%, so your $100,000 in savings lost the equivalent of $7900. But, the government does not ever report inflation at the actual level, and the actual level of inflation is ranged between 8% and 45% depending upon the purpose or product you are trying to purchase. Meaning your $100,000 could have a value of $92,000 to $55,000 in real value. A hefty tax indeed!
Stored value, the number printed on different bill faces of currency, is static. The actual value, e.g., the number of goods and services purchasable, is not fixed, and the government allows an annual inflation rate of 2% as “normal and acceptable.” Thus, your $1 will have a purchasing power of $0.98, which is compounded year-over-year. Thus, over a decade, that 2% inflation rate is now reducing your $1 to $0.80. Multiply that for the $100,000 and a decade of saving, receiving interest that does not equal inflation to compensate means your money in your savings account has lost $20,000, just from the government allowing inflation at 2% annual growth. Let’s say your bank is generous for savings account holders and provides a published interest rate of 3%, subtract the inflation taxes of 2%, and you are only earning 1% interest on your money. Is this the bank’s fault or the government’s?
Do you see how the government is robbing you through economics? Your 5% raise is only 3% once the inflation devaluation has been factored into your budget. Play the lottery; the taxes alone might kill you, but the devaluation of the money reduces the actual purchasing power of your winnings. If you do not understand the economic warfare being waged against you by your government, you will lose more than you ever gained in winning the lottery. Yet another reason why lotteries are a tax on stupid people, for even when you win, you lose!
Cash has another problem beyond inflation, money supply. The money supply is the technical term for ensuring banks can replace worn-out, ripped, and damaged money. Money supply plays a role in how much money your local store has on hand to provide change and cashback to customers. For employers who pay employees in cash, the money supply is a significant problem with extremely high costs. The government regulates those costs and passes them onto consumers through banks and lending institutions. Are you struggling to get a loan; this is another by-product of money supply woes. Paying higher fees to change money to another currency for your trip is another money supply product. Money supply remains another weapon of the government to affect economic warfare, and many people do not understand this principle, making the government’s policies more effective.
Have you noticed the decline in the availability of $10 dollar bills? I asked for two $10.00 bills when I broke a $20.00 at a Walmart recently, I was denied because Walmart has instituted a policy to only accept $10.00 bills, not give them. Albertson’s, Staples, the in-store bank in Walmart, and the local credit union, all have a similar policy. What is the government doing forcing a reduction in $10.00 bills in circulation? In researching this single policy, I can find no written information on this issue; yet the evidence is clear, there is a manual currency reduction in process and the government needs to explain why.
Before 1980, the basic money supply was measured as the sum of currency in circulation, e.g., cash, traveler’s checks, and checkable deposits. Currency serves the medium-of-exchange function but denies people any interest earnings. However, as discussed, interest earnings are not all they are cracked up to be due to inflation. Cash under a mattress, lost in pockets of clothes, stuck in a book in your library is black money; it is as dead as yesterday’s fish and constantly devalued by inflation. The money supply tries to regulate the cash on hand to lend as a tool to protect your money from inflation. Except, the government constantly allows a 2% inflation rate, negating a lot of savings accounts and other interest-earning propositions.
Want a new car, consolidate your credit card debt, or try to buy a house; all of these loan products are an extension of the money supply and the regulation of money supply by the government. Important to note that your credit cards and bank-issued or employer-issued debit cards are not affected by the money supply, and this is another reason why credit cards and debit cards are so dangerous. These tools are agreements between you and the issuer, where money is transferred when the tool is used, and the consumer is responsible for all the fees the government insists upon to help pay for the money supply.
Conclusion
In waging economic warfare, it remains imperative to know about economics, identifying what money is, its role, and the fiduciary controls the government exerts to attack its citizens. Some may call my language inflammatory, but tell me, do the inflationary costs right now not feel like your taxes have skyrocketed? Inflation is a hidden tax, a tax fully controlled by the government, and the value of your money decreases yearly because the government says 2% inflation is acceptable. Who made this decision, an unconstitutional entity called the Federal Reserve Bank. Since its inception, Congress has tried to obtain transparency and accountability from the Federal Reserve Bank to no avail. Do you understand why I take umbrage with the Federal Reserve Bank?
The governors of the Federal Reserve Bank decided your money could be taxed at 2% inflation annually as a normal condition of doing business. These people set the interest rates you pay for your credit cards and are not paid for your savings accounts. Looking into the history of interest rates since 1900, there is always volatility; the Federal Reserve’s actions have since the 1980s to not allow savings rates over 5%. When adjusted for inflation, that’s a 3% interest rate for those trying to save money. What does this mean; fewer people are saving money. Look where those trying to beat the 3% have invested their money, the stock market, where volatility is a minute-to-minute occurrence, higher risks against less interest, where your money remains subject to taxes, fees hiding other taxes, government fingers, and inflation.
Your government did that to wage economic warfare against you, to empower them to steal your rights, freedoms, and liberties. There is no other way to describe what is happening globally in all governments. China plays games with the value of its currency to power trade deficits. This, in turn, changes prices and increases costs. These actions are taken to “compete,” when in reality, the activities cover massive debt problems in China. If the CCP cannot keep the tap turned wide open on trade deficits, their money supply drys up, and debts come due in a bankrupting tsunami!
The European Union has never been fiscally sound because the various members of the European Union are taking advantage of the productive members to cover the costs of the fiscally useless members. France cannot survive as a country without the European Union’s largesse; Greece, Portugal, and several other countries are all in the same boat. Their governments did this intentionally as political games to stay in power. When these countries run out of other people’s money, they will be forced to change socially, and the tsunami of debt to the World Bank and other nations will not be pretty.
Economics drives these problems mainly due to the lack of knowledge of the lines of congruence between economics and the psychology of governing. The enemies of freedom understand economics, and this is why these tools have been so successful in waging war and stealing freedom, rights, and liberties through monetary policy. Until we, the rightful owners of government, understand what is happening, we will all be at the whims of our enemies.
© Copyright 2022 – M. Dave Salisbury
The author holds no claims for the art used herein, the pictures were obtained in the public domain, and the intellectual property belongs to those who created the images. Quoted materials remain the property of the original author.
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.
Imagine you are going about your daily duties and visit the grocery store. Where for a specific amount of confidence and hope, you complete an exchange for a product groceries. Another trip sees you investing hope and faith in retirement using confidence to help protect against the vagaries of the future. April 15th is fast approaching, where confidence in the government is measured through tax revenue, and government officials then spend your confidence on various projects where you hope the investment will be rewarded by improved roads, better economic conditions, and safety inside defensible and sovereign boundaries.
I ask, because too often, when hope is mentioned, people immediately tie religious expectations and connotations to the word, then plasticize hope into being something it is not. Hope is not an end goal but the journey to an expectation born of desire and bounded by trust in a system that supports a person’s hope.
Complete trust is observable all around us daily, from inserting the key into the car ignition to start a car to the hours spent working where we trade our time (a precious resource) for a tangible item (paycheck) and in so many other ways and means. Consider grocery shopping; we make selections using our best judgment, with complete trust that the products purchased will not make us sick from food-borne illness or the ignorant or malicious actions of other people. Why does spitting in a police officer’s cup of coffee make us mad; because it breaks that complete trust that the same will not happen to us.
Confidence is a unique term, and Webster spends an inordinate amount of time trying to capture the power of, and reality is confidence. Confidence is “a feeling of self-assurance arising from one’s appreciation of one’s own abilities or qualities; firm trust, a specific feeling regarding the truth of something, a feeling or belief upon the reliance of someone or something.” The key to confidence is your own self-assurance. For example, you are assured through past transactions that your employer is not kiting paychecks. Your confidence in receiving a salary drives you to be motivated and return to work each day. When that trust is broken, you will leave and find new employment. Hence, people do not work for companies, but for managers and leaders, they like.
Confidence is never an unconscious decision! One cannot have firm trust, faith, or hope, in something without being consciously aware and possessing experience and knowledge in that someone or something. Hence, confidence is the conscious use of trust as a destination in the journey of hope, launched by faith.
By removing the Gold Standard from money, we stopped trading in a fungible and tactile substance (Gold, Silver, Grain, Salt, Animal Hides, etc.). We began trading in a measured system of confidence as provided by the government. Your “money” is nothing but your faith and trust in the government sponsoring your system of confidence be that confidence called a US Dollar, a Rial, a Pound Sterling, a Euro, etc., you deal in nothing but confidence. Raw products with tradable value, grain, precious metals, oil, etc., are all injected into the monetary system through investment and speculation markets, not the individual farmer, rancher, miner, etc. Who receive their wages not through trading their products but by trading their efforts and time with their confidence in an employer-supported by a functioning government system.
A “Liberty FIRST Culture” understands their money relationships to government, is engaged in preventing government abuse as that leads to lower values of currency, and the lower the value of a currency, the more expensive products and services become. Kate, the blacksmith from the (2001) movie “Knight’s Tale,” is absolutely correct, “Each drop of sweat has a price!” But the price of that sweat is not always competitive with the currency used to remunerate that effort, all because of hope, faith, and confidence in the government managing the currency. Think about that the next time you are asked to vote!
DNC-Consulting 