Wrisley.Com

December 11th, 2018

    Wait! We thought U.S. democracy was the best in the world!
Now comes a veteran analyst with a different view. (?)

     "Among the reasons democracy is in discredit and retreat worldwide is that its exemplar and champion, the USA, is beginning to resemble France’s Third Republic in its last days before World War II.

      "Also, democracy no longer has the field largely to itself as to how to create a prosperous and powerful nation-state." DEMOCRACY LOSING THE WORLD.

       Pat Buchanan is not blind to President Trump's many character flaws, nor is he unaware that the popular news media are hellbent to spend the next two years pointing them out and moving as many people as possible to their view that Trump ought to serve time in jail for his "transgressions."

       Buchanan's main point is the USA brand of democracy has sunk into an unenviable mire. It reminds us that this nation was established as a representative REPUBLIC and has sadly morphed into the destructive habits of a democracy. History is strewn with stories of failed democracies. It's a shame our general media are working so hard to insure our demise by promoting the democratic government framework which always ends in chaos when the people vote themselves "free money" out of the public treasury. ~JW

'Tis the Season to be Jolly?

The national debt is closing in on $22 trillion, with over $1 trillion a year currently being added for the American taxpayer.

Corporate debt is at historic highs not seen since 2008, with S&P Global reporting over $6.3 trillion in total debts and the largest companies holding only $2.1 trillion in cash as a hedge.

U.S. household debt currently stands at around $13.3 trillion, which is $618 billion higher than the last peak back in 2008, during the credit crisis.

U.S. credit card debt surpassed $1 trillion for the first time in 2018, the highest single year amount since 2007 (once again, we see that debt levels are spiking beyond the lines crossed just before the crash of 2008).   CORE OF DECLINE

   The recent shudders on Wall Street have caught the attention of many economics commentators who worry that something is wrong with our present "powerhouse economy." That something, in our view, is unsustainable debt.

         We used to think that "they" (the financial experts knew what they were doing, but now we're not so sure. We've learned to live on the cuff and the old idea of living within one's means has flown out the window. Andy Jackson was the last U.S. president to pay off the federal debt and today going into the hole at an annual rate of nearly a trillion dollars is considered more or less the norm.

   A wise old South Caroliona banker named Col. Wylie Jones once advised a young would-be borrower, "It's easy to run into debt, but if you get out you do so at a walk."

   That advice is as good today as it was in the early 20th century when it was given.

THE GRINCH AND CHRISTMAS IN WALL STREET.

   The Grinch may have decided that monkeying with Wall Street was the best way to ruin Christmas. The swoon in stock prices was continuing near noontime today, although they got a bit of a breather late Thursday when the Fed Chairman hinted that "maybe" the central bank would pause in its plan to continue to inch up interest rates in 2019.

          The Friday unemployment numbers came in a tad under expectations, but the official unemployment rate remains at 3.7 percent. That's about as low as it has been in a half century. Why, then, is the stock market being so spastic?

          Fear. Gamblers in the financial markets are on edge about the prospects for 2019. Evidence is beginning to build concerning the ability of the once mighty dollar to weather the strains of being the world's go-to currency. The federal government is having to go into the hole to the tune of nearly a trillion dollars a year to sustain its huge obligation to remain King of the Hill. How long, we wonder, before some hothead says "I know. Let's hold war to clear up this mess!"

Venezuela is currently going through a period of hyperinflation; IMF economists predict that the country's inflation rate will exceed 1,000,000% this year.
An annual inflation rate of a million percent?

The Guardian newspaper of Britain reports on the shocking downward spiral in Venezuela. As one observer said "It's like watching a building collapsing and not being able to do anything about it."

It's the classic result of a socialist government printing irredeemable currency and presuming to direct the affairs of its citizenry. The result is airport escalators that don't work, toilets that don't flush, and hoards of people picking through dumpsters looking for scraps of food. The Venezuelan crisis is giving socialism a well-deserved black eye. VENEZUELAN CATASTROPHE

World gasoline prices, quoted in U.S. Dollars.

Bear in mind the prices above are shown in U.S. dollars. It may look like gas at the pump in Venezuela is a huge bargain, but laying hands on twelve U.S. cents in Venezuela is not an easy task given the collapse of the country's own currency.

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THE 2019 SOCIAL SECURITY INCREASE

In January Social Security recipients will receive a cost-of-living raise. It'll boost the average Social Security check by about $39 per month. This increase will run to nearly $29 billion for all of 2019. (That's $1 million X 29,000 - - a considerable sum.)

The Social Security Administration is now predicting it's in a fiscally sound position until 2034. It should be remembered that in 1983 the SSA expected the system to remain solvent until 2058. Wha'happened?

There is not room in the present frantic news schedule for consideration of the long range finances of Social Security, Medicare, Medicade, SNAP and other support that pours from the government cornucopia, but there will be an eruption of interest as the overload of dependents sink the Ship of State to the gunwales and everyone starts looking for lifeboats.

"The media in America has become like the European Union: an enemy of the people, unelected and answering to no one."
~Taki Theodoracopulos

"Night after night on television, hysterical women and irrational men call for civil unrest against the Trump machine. The democratic result of 2016 has to be reversed, is the message. And yet Trump has succeeded until now: The Islamic State is on the run, the economy is booming, unemployment is at an all-time low, new and better deals have been signed with Mexico, Canada, and South Korea, even the little rocket man has calmed down and is playing nice." OUTRAGE ALL AROUND

     What's this? Mr. Theodoracopulos launching another unfair attack on American journalism? Most news folk will assure you they are merely reporting events as they occur in an unbiased way, but it's impossible to listen to NPR, watch mainstream TV news and talk shows, or read the New York Times, Washington Post, et al, without detecting a strong political bias against Republicans, conservatism, and President Trump in particular. The sub-text is"We wuz robbed in November, 2016."

     There is plenty wrong with the GOP platform. No question there. There are even more basic flaws in the Democratic Party platform. Both parties scramble to influence the masses. A high percentage of journalists are attracted to the liberal path and feel obligated to lead as many readers and viewers to the political liberal ranks as possible.

      Unfortunately, a high percentage of journalists write from the heart not the head. Their passage through academia has attracted them to a general socialist view of egalitarianism of outcome. Sadly, this view has a very high failure rate.

ITEM:

General Motors said recently it plans to effectively halt production at a number of plants in the U.S. and Canada next year and cut more than 14,000 jobs in a massive restructuring that will cost up to $3.8 billion.

In response, the United Auto Workers vowed to use "every legal, contractual and collective bargaining avenue" to fight the changes.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also criticized the automaker's decision.

Trump tweeted Tuesday, "If GM doesn't want to keep their jobs in the United States, they should pay back the $11.2 billion bailout that was funded by the American taxpayer."

< President Trump doesn't appear to understand the dynamics of this move by General Motors. GM sees sales of certain vehicles are drying up so it makes a rational decision to quit producing something consumers don't want.

             What are they to do? Keep making cars consumers will not buy?

               Now comes the question, "Why did taxpayers bail out GM to the tune of $11.2 dollars in the recession ten years ago?" Because when really large companies founder the government will to go into hock to bail them out, sending the bill to future taxpayers. Hardly a hallmark of free market capitalism.

               On this topic Trump is playing the politician not the canny businessman.

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The Chicken Littles come out to bray.
Howard Kuntzler waves the caution flag.
"China, Euroland, and the USA can’t possibly meet their tangled obligations, and are running out of tricks for rigging, gaming, and jacking the bond markets, where all those promises are vested. It boils down to a whole lot of people not getting paid, one way or the other — and it’s really bad for business.

"Given his chimerical personality, [President Trump] may try to put on an FDR mask — perhaps even sit in a wheelchair — and try a few grand-scale policy tricks to escape the vortex. But the net effect will surely be to make matters worse — for instance, if he can hector the Federal Reserve to buy every bond that isn’t nailed to some deadly derivative booby-trap. But then he’ll only succeed in crashing the dollar. Remember, there are two main ways you can go broke: You can run out of money; or you can have plenty of worthless money." Holiday Undoings