Neither of the two major political parties offer much hope by way of platform promises.  We used to believe we had a choice....either a party promising more largess from the public treasury or one pledging to trim waste and strive to eventually produce a balanced budget.  We played along knowing very well the hollowness of political promises.  (!) 
  
Did you know that plank #2 of the 1932 Democratic platform was: "Maintenance of the national credit by a Federal Budget annually balanced...." ?

  Did you know that plank #3 of tht published platform was:  "A sound currency to be maintained at all hazards...." ?

 And did you know the Democrats of the 1932 campaign promised in plank #1 to immediately reduce government expenditures?

  That's what the voting majority chose in 1932 but they got the New Deal instead. 

    Eighty-eight years later the major political candidates are still feeding the voters a line of baloney. We can't find anybody who can recite the first thee planks of the 2020 Democrat Party.  Nor Republicans whoe know anything of the GOP platform, either.

    So - who is informing the voters?  And which is the better choice?

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             With breath abated the world awaits the results of the November 3rd election. For president we're personally voting for the lesser of two evils - but well aware of the fact  we're voting for evil.  We thought of writing in a name like Calvin Coolidge or Tom Jefferson but that would be wasting a vote. 

                 We're also aware that none of the presidential or vice presidential candidates have said anything about the seachange that the nation's financial affairs are facing.  Since the U.S. republic began to morph into its present-day democracy, and the voting majority began voting for a socialist form of governance, both major political parties have been steepening the downhill economic slope.  But we-the-people will straighten the whole mess out on November 3rd.  Won't we? 

                   Probably not.  We-the-people have been carefully taught to lean on the central government for hand-outs and most of us will vote for candidates who promise to take care of us.  Liberal economists insist we can fiddle with inflation rates and keep the economy expanding.  Conservative economists point out we've reached the end of our tether and must face a sharp economic correction.  But, we can't keep borrowing from the future production of our children without their living standards being damaged.  The young, however, having all the answers as the young tend to do, don't belive it and follow the Bernie Sanders/Joe Biden plan to plunge as far to the political left as possible. 

                   Senator Sanders, of course, is not on the Democrat ticket.  Senator Harris is, and more than a few pundits are certain that - if elected - a physical indisposition of some kind will interfere with Biden's Oval Office term and Ms. Harris will wind up in the job.  The same can be said of Donald Trump if he wins a second term.  He's no spring chicken, either.  But the idea of Mike Pence taking over the big chair sits well with many citizens while Harris's agenda, not well articulated and less well understood, lurks in the shadows.

                    If we're lucky we may know who the winners are by midnight November 3rd. 

                    Then, what?

"Depressions don't have to be depressing. Most of the real wealth in the world will still exist—it will just change ownership."  ~Doug Casey

    Doug Casey has been warning his readers about an upcoming economic depression for a long time.  The U.S. is presently in an inflationary phase (still) but most economists see happy days ahead when we beat the coronavirus and get back on a productive economic track. 

         We and the Missus were born in 1929 - just in time to experience childhood in the Great Depression of the 1930s.  It was not all miserable, despite the strain it put on working class families.  So, we agree with Casey that if the present economic confusion declines into an official depression it doesn't have to be emotionally depressing - particularly for people who kept their debt load low or non-existent and stashed away some "rainy days assets."  

       Can an economic depression be avoided?  With history as our guide the answer is "no."  There has never been a long period of currency debauchery, chiefly by the politicical trick of inflation, that did end badly. The writers of the U.S. Constitution thought they designed a money system that would prevent serious and lengthy bursts of inflation.  However,  without amending the constituion the people's elected politicians deftly led the voters astray with promises of social money guarantees.  Where the republic of 1789 was  to be a limited form of central government supported by citizens it evolved into a top-heavy mob of politicians and bureaucrats who ooperate a democracy pledged to support a hefty number of its citizens.  Critics have long held that "when the people discover they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury they will do so" even though it projects unpayable debt as burdens on future generations. 

       At some point, says Casey, the scheme falls apart.  One for the Record Books

Social Security checks to increase 1.3 percent in 2021.

Consumer prices, including rent, espected to rise at more than 2 percent.  The present annualized rate is 1.4 percent. 

Social Security benefits will rise by 1.3% next year, with the average monthly benefit increasing by $20 to $1,543 from $1523, according to the Social Security Administration.   

Well, there you have it - the 2021 Social Security COLA will be 1.3 percent....approximately twenty bucks a month for the average recipient.  Several economists are predicting a considerably higher price inflation rate (the Consumer Price Index) based on the enormous currency flood triggered by the Federal Reserve in response to the advent of the coronora virus. 

THE DOLLAR BECOMES INCREASINGLY WORTHLESS.

Why not fix it? 

   Before the value of the U.S. dollar reaches zero Americans should demand a national conversation about the debauchery of the once mighty U.S. dollar. Opiniion leaders must insist that Congress do the one thing that will restore confidence and trust in the nation's money unit - - replacing the present debt-money scheme with the honest money mandated by the Constitution.  

   Thomas Jefferson, who invented the U.S. money system, warned of the damage debt-money (paper) could cause.  In a letter to Albert Gallatin in 1818 he wrote, "The flood with which the bankers are deluging us of nominal money has placed us completely without any certain measure of value, and, by interpolating a false measure, is deceiving and ruining multitudes of our citizens."  

   In an earlier letter to Thomas Cooper, Jefferson wrote, " Our whole country is so fascinated by this Jack-lantern wealth [it] will not stop short of its total and fatal explosion."

   Franklin Roosevelt began removing the dollar from its constituional moorings in 1933.  Richard Nixon finished the job in 1971.   From a monetary unit based on something of intrinsic value, we're now doing business with "money" backed by little but debt. We're being punished for allowing it to happen.  

   Let's talk about restoring the United States to a system of honest money!  Surely there's still a market for honesty.  

              The above was written in the autumn of 2008 by our chief curmudgeon, Potiphar Gride.  He was convinced the long run of inflation since World War Two was about to morph into a deflationary depression.