Charles Hugh Smith, when you posted; "Most of the $1.2 trillion distributed to Social Security recipients flows directly into the economy as those monthly payments are spent." The velocity of money of monthly SS payments is a rarely discussed fact and is an important consideration in remodeling the economy.
I will point out if LBJ had not looted the SS fund for his communist Great Society and also to fund the Vietnam War, today Circa 2025 the boomers would be flush in $trillions of US Treasuries, instead of part of the > $35 trillions in federal debt.
Historian/economists fail to include LBJ's looting the SS fund with FDR's stealing the people's gold in 1933 and Nixon's disconnecting the US Dollar from Bretton Woods Agreement in 1971.
About the $700 hammers: I remember a story reported on 20/20 back in the late 1980's that explored why these tools cost so much. The answer came down to the written rules about the construction and capabilities of these hammers. Starting with the federal Request for Proposal, the paperwork amounted to several hundred pages! Any company desiring to produce one of these hammers had to read the RFP, then figure out how to engineer a hammer that met all these specifications, build a prototype, submit the prototype to the relevant officer that would determine if it met the specifications, determine a cost to the DoD (which is where these usually ended up), and then wait for approval.
I may have misidentified several of the federal forms in this list, but it was not a simple one-step process.
Incidentally, these specifications were often written such that only one manufacturer would be able to meet all the specifications, and that manufacturer would have a monopoly on the production of these $700 hammers into perpetuity. I know of one or two companies that have business models based upon being the sole provider of certain highly-engineered tools, so they are often the sole bidder on these types of programs. I will not identify any, even though I know I would be correct; I just don't want to expose anyone in this correspondence to pesky lawsuits or the companies involved to direct attacks on their businesses.
"There is no way to cut federal spending without reconfiguring the economy from the ground up, starting with healthcare, the relentless consolidation of companies and the distortions created by the immense concentration of wealth"
Unfortunately, here in lies the truth. This is a very complex web, and not easily unraveled. There are too many threads. The NGO industrial complex is a critical part of the web. The donors all have strings (implicit & stated) attached to what they fund. The agenda's of the donors, and the stated mission of the NGO are often at logger heads, but no one wants to admit it, because to do so would cut off the gravy train.
The only solution I know is to name what I see and hope that reform is forced when daylight is shines on the corruption. The other alternative is "collapse" which is a very uncertain road that only a fool thinks they can control the outcome of.
You are correct, but did you ever stop to ask why? The swamp is not needed if we had meaningful term limits and a balanced budget amendment. Who designed the present system of sending money to a central authority, then expecting that authority to be benevolent?
While We the People's pathway to becoming "sheeple" was first manifest in the public schools, with their "dumbing down" of our children. True reform of our economic models must begin with the dismantling of the government schools and with Trump's elimination of the US Department of Education.
Charles Hugh Smith, when you posted; "Most of the $1.2 trillion distributed to Social Security recipients flows directly into the economy as those monthly payments are spent." The velocity of money of monthly SS payments is a rarely discussed fact and is an important consideration in remodeling the economy.
I will point out if LBJ had not looted the SS fund for his communist Great Society and also to fund the Vietnam War, today Circa 2025 the boomers would be flush in $trillions of US Treasuries, instead of part of the > $35 trillions in federal debt.
Historian/economists fail to include LBJ's looting the SS fund with FDR's stealing the people's gold in 1933 and Nixon's disconnecting the US Dollar from Bretton Woods Agreement in 1971.
About the $700 hammers: I remember a story reported on 20/20 back in the late 1980's that explored why these tools cost so much. The answer came down to the written rules about the construction and capabilities of these hammers. Starting with the federal Request for Proposal, the paperwork amounted to several hundred pages! Any company desiring to produce one of these hammers had to read the RFP, then figure out how to engineer a hammer that met all these specifications, build a prototype, submit the prototype to the relevant officer that would determine if it met the specifications, determine a cost to the DoD (which is where these usually ended up), and then wait for approval.
I may have misidentified several of the federal forms in this list, but it was not a simple one-step process.
Incidentally, these specifications were often written such that only one manufacturer would be able to meet all the specifications, and that manufacturer would have a monopoly on the production of these $700 hammers into perpetuity. I know of one or two companies that have business models based upon being the sole provider of certain highly-engineered tools, so they are often the sole bidder on these types of programs. I will not identify any, even though I know I would be correct; I just don't want to expose anyone in this correspondence to pesky lawsuits or the companies involved to direct attacks on their businesses.
Matt Stoller’s blog would appreciate that, he focuses on monopoly and antitrust
"There is no way to cut federal spending without reconfiguring the economy from the ground up, starting with healthcare, the relentless consolidation of companies and the distortions created by the immense concentration of wealth"
Unfortunately, here in lies the truth. This is a very complex web, and not easily unraveled. There are too many threads. The NGO industrial complex is a critical part of the web. The donors all have strings (implicit & stated) attached to what they fund. The agenda's of the donors, and the stated mission of the NGO are often at logger heads, but no one wants to admit it, because to do so would cut off the gravy train.
The only solution I know is to name what I see and hope that reform is forced when daylight is shines on the corruption. The other alternative is "collapse" which is a very uncertain road that only a fool thinks they can control the outcome of.
https://gregreese.substack.com/p/disengaging-entirely-from-the-united?publication_id=706779&post_id=152296826&r=l6md4&triedRedirect=true
We are a a bourgeois capitalist empire
Shockingly similar to the British empire in 1913
Read Hobsons books on imperialism and VI Lenin yes
that dude
The British empire was ended by two world wars and the USA taking over it’s territories mostly
Professor Michael Hudson described how that was done ie how USA became the hegemon
We could end the income tax and that would shut down most of the government
Otherwise can go the hard way
A violent revolution or
World war 3
Dramatic conclusion of the hegemon is coming
https://gregreese.substack.com/p/disengaging-entirely-from-the-united?publication_id=706779&post_id=152296826&r=l6md4&triedRedirect=true
Mr. Smith,
You are correct, but did you ever stop to ask why? The swamp is not needed if we had meaningful term limits and a balanced budget amendment. Who designed the present system of sending money to a central authority, then expecting that authority to be benevolent?
The Swamp is code for the aristocracy - our un-natural aristocracy.
Tug our forelocks, take their abuse, support their wars of plunder and adventure.
Thrill us with 911, skule deaths, child abuse, deraigned-think, kill us, maim our survivors, poison foods, force fake money, etc, etc.
Without the Swamp - why our lives would have no meaning, no definition, no god!
Yet, as noted by CHS, a certain amount of tugging may make it all fall down, go boom!
Amen. We sheeple are to blame for allowing the snake oil purveyors to become our masters.
While We the People's pathway to becoming "sheeple" was first manifest in the public schools, with their "dumbing down" of our children. True reform of our economic models must begin with the dismantling of the government schools and with Trump's elimination of the US Department of Education.
Absolutely!
https://gregreese.substack.com/p/disengaging-entirely-from-the-united?publication_id=706779&post_id=152296826&r=l6md4&triedRedirect=true
Fortunately the deficit doesn't matter. And I say this as someone who is not an MMTer.
Anyways been a subscriber via patreon for quite some time. Figured it was time to switch subscription over here so I can wade in on this topic.