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An Other Washington

Government, the Presidency, and money (the Federal Reserve Banks).  I’ll do what I can to keep it interesting.

I am a lifelong Democrat, I am by no means a hawk, and I do listen to both sides.  “My country right or wrong,” is wrong — don’t let history repeat itself.  I don’t particularly like the term, “bleeding heart liberal,” but at times, that might describe me.

Honor the Warrior, not the War

The only wars that America has fought that were worth fighting, were World War II, and the Civil War.  The loss in human life has been appalling, and, except for those two wars, entirely unjustified.

The Iraqi War was an invasion brought on false pretenses.  Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction. There were 3,519 U.S. casualties.  Oops!  Staunch hawk, P.O.W., G.O.P., U.S. Senator John McCain, called the war “a mistake.”

The Vietnamese War was another unwelcome invasion by the U.S..  The War brought much upheaval Stateside.  The North Vietnamese backed a communist, not capitalistic, economic regime, America napalmed people so they would learn to love Western democracy.  Chatter about the Domino Theory all you’d like, but we lost the war, the Theory was wrong, and India is not Communist, fifty years later.  There were 58,220 U.S. casualties.

(Some would say wars are necessary, that casualties, and collateral damage, are all acceptable to achieve military objectives of the time.  Here’s a generation of horror photos from our nine-year involvement with the Vietnamese war that might change your mind: Napalm girl; immolating Buddhist monk; South Vietnamese soldier assassinating North Vietnamese soldier; and Kent State massacre by the Ohio National Guard.  You can find these with a search engine, if you’d like.  I’m not direct linking them, they’re too much to take.)

The Korean War was called a police action, no truce was ever signed, yet there were 33,686 U.S. casualties in this War.

World War II stopped dictator Adolf Hitler, this was the one war, outside the Civil War, that had to be fought by America.  291,557 U.S. soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice, not just for America, but to save the entire world that Hitler attempted to conquer (hey, neo-Nazis, think of soap, lampshades, and mattresses, human-sourced).

World War I began with Archduke Ferdinand being assassinated, and alliances roped in most every nation on Earth, in a War that really had no villain.  53,402 U.S. soldiers perished.

The War between the States reunified America, and that’s all that President Abraham Lincoln wanted, he was not so concerned about ending slavery.  There were 214,938 Northern and Southern soldier casualties.

The rule of British Monarchy ended in America with the Revolutionary War, yet it legalized slavery with the original Thirteen Colonies, via the Fugitive Slave Clause of the U.S. Constitution.  4,435 perished emancipating their fledgling nation (yet enslaving African Americans).

Veterans Day is a time to remember the sacrifice, sometimes the ultimate sacrifice, of American soldiers, but it is also the time to never forget that the reasons most of them died were unmerited.

Veterans’ Day, 11/11/2024.

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I could take a very hard line on war, and concur with the Amish, that if no one joins the fight, then no one can be killed (like Carl Sandberg’s: “What if they gave a war and nobody came?”).  The Amish of Lancaster County, PA, et al, are conscientious objectors, against all war.

Jesus the Christ would never stand behind murdering for the State (or for any other purpose).  The world is by vast majority Christian, there’s no one left to conscript into battle, if all the baptized, were truly devout.

Once Hitler was stopped, the Amish perspective becomes much more viable, that war is useless, and the obsession of the unholy.  War has no place among the munificence, the bounty, of Creation, we are here for far greater purpose, to benefit kith and kin, and to advance humanity to the next generation.  11/12/24.

 

Very Few Big in Politics, Today, Served in Viet Nam, Then

Very few U.S. presidents, and presidential candidates, of that age, fought in the Vietnamese war, just John McCain, and John Kerry.  John McCain served five years as a POW in the Hanoi Hilton, with an untreated, broken leg.  Unbelievably, Donald Trump said he liked war heroes that weren’t captured...  Anyhow, a few facts about that war, for anyone interested.

Donald J. Trump (78) is our next President

Donald Trump’s campaign left a bad taste in the mouths of many people.  We can only hope that his campaign trail bombast is replaced with tempered, mature leadership.  Maybe, trade protectionism, and higher tariffs will stem Asian imports, and not raise prices of domestic versions of the imported goods.  Maybe, that as a former Democrat, and as a New Yorker, he will not try to end all abortions, as his far Right cohorts would like.  Moreover, hopefully his staunch defense of Israel, translates to an abatement of Antisemitism domestically.

There may be an advantage, however slight, in that Trump is near twenty-years Kamala Harris’ senior.  And maybe Trump learned how to not stir the pot, with, say, Nancy Pelosi, this go round as President.  Maybe a dark cloud did not descend over Washington, D.C., or maybe it did.  There’s so much uncertainty, right now...  11/06/24.

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All of us at the Other Letter are hoping that President-elect Trump honors the rights of minorities, women, and the disadvantaged, which seems to be a weakness in his appeal to voters.  In many quarters, the fear of a Trump presidency is that he’ll do nothing to combat climate control, he won’t save reproductive rights, and he’ll start an inflationary trade war.  11/06/24.

“While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign.”  —Vice President Kamala Harris; 11/06/24.

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Harris outdid Trump in a key factor, civility.  He is not known for being civil to his political adversaries.  American politics can involve much jabbing at an opponents’ dignity, and pride, but Trump is known for hitting below the belt, as in calling Nancy Pelosi, “Crazy Nancy.”

Elon Musk’s Tesla shares rose 14% on Trump’s victory.  Musk has his buddy in the White House.  So-called “Trump trades,” such as Trump social media stock, Trump Media & Technology Group, was up 24%, to later settle with a 6% upswing.

The stock market did rally significantly after Trump’s victory; the bond market, more in tune with inflation fears, did not.  For those Democrats lamenting an economy run by a billionaire, here is interesting fact: Democratic Presidents out-perform Republican ones, in running the economy.  11/06/24.

 

American voters choose hate over love?

Oh, my, damn.  Trump is doing well, perhaps better than expected.  I heard his plank, and it is really rather weak.  He mostly engenders fear, he sounds like a demagogue.  Fear foreigners is his main message, and deny women the right to agency over their own bodies.

Democrats can hope for something called “the Red mirage,” an early unsubstantial lead to the Republicans, because of the order of State ballot counting.

This is very disappointing so far, but I remind myself, my life exists independently of what happens in Washington, and the White House.  Vice President Harris may have suffered from a late start, as President Biden stepped down, and handed the reins to Ms. Harris.  I felt Kamala Harris won the debate though.

During his campaign, I heard plenty of fear-mongering from Trump and his camp.  Well, now, Trump has to prove himself, the people apparently have spoken, and he needs to show that he is worthy of the greatest Office in the most watched nation, the United States of America.

If Trump wins, this is not the greatest nation, he is that weak of a leader.  He has yet to prove that he can form coalitions from both sides of the aisle.  11/05/24.  9:34PM EST.

America is not ready to have a woman for President.  Kamala Harris was more nuanced on the issues, was unifying, even more intelligent, whereas Trump was like a sledgehammer, a real hate-monger.  Who knows, maybe his health will fail him.  Is that sour grapes?  11/06/24.  12:07AM EST.

The Other Letter, Inc., Endorses Kamala Harris for President

I know what some of you are thinking: “Maybe I’ll vote for Trump, he is a former Democrat, and he’s a New Yorker.”  Well, did you get a load of his Madison Square Garden campaign rally last night?  Tony Hinchcliffe, a ‘comic’ at the rally, may have cost Trump the election.  Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico, an “island of garbage” in the ocean.

The MSG rally is being compared to one in 1939 at the same venue, preceding the rise of Nazism.  For all intents and purposes, Trump sounded like he staged a Klan rally.  The former President actually had this to say: “America is for Americans!”    Whatever happened to the Statue of Liberty ethos? “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...”  10/28/24.

The Vice Presidential Debate: Who’s honest?

They disagree, they tell different versions on every point of fact.  Who should the American voter believe?  Walz is more honest, and he edged out Vance by a slight margin.  Walz is a saint, Vance isn’t.  Unusual point: Walz saying that he is a knucklehead at times.  Vance has the extremism in evidence with Trump.  Trade protectionism won’t work, drill, baby, drill, won’t work.  Trump is ahead in the polls on the economy.  Go figure.

Interesting point: Will the loser of the election step down graciously, or will there be another January Sixth, 2021?  Vance is the carnivore, yet Walz believes in 2A, as do all four candidates.  Hypocrisy a plenty on both sides, on what to do at schools to prevent massacres.  Argh!  Repeal 2A!

Walz is being viewed as nervous, when he just looked intense, like the debate mattered very much to him.  Vance looked too cool and collected, as though the debate was not of importance, that he was above this.  10/01/24.

Democrats have a Winner in Kamala Harris

Vice President Harris, as formidable a candidate as she is, has one major weakness to her run for President, and that is guns.  Harris may not be NRA, but she does own at least one gun.  If I were her, I would concede that guns are a major liability, and distance herself from endorsing them as instant justice.  Firearms do one thing, murder people, it’s sad that she won’t surrender her security blanket.

I definitely won’t vote for Trump, but I”m considering not even voting for Harris, and leaving the ballot blank for President.  All the pro-gun votes are casting their ballot for Trump, I don’t see what she gains by not renouncing firearms.  I will probably just resign myself to the Mick Jagger philosophy, here in American politics: You can’t always get what you want, but sometimes, you get what you need.  9/15/24.

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Vice President Kamala Harris is the better candidate for United States President than former President, Donald Trump.  Unfortunately, this does not mean she’ll make it to the White House.  The best candidate does not always win in America (and probably, in other nations as well).

Harris is more sensitive, brighter, more nuanced, and informed about the issues, especially Constitutional ones, and would make a much better President.  Trump has a deserved reputation as a hothead, one who is divisive, and attacks opponents, or moreover, enemies, that he has learned to cultivate.  Unless you’re a billionaire, the choice is clear: Kamala Harris for President of the United States.  9/14/24.

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The second Presidential debate, this one pitting the former President against the Vice President, went much worse for Trump than the first one against Biden.  Trump never looked at Harris, and seemed uncomfortable, reminding me of Nixon, to some degree.  Kamala had him on the run for much of the debate.  Harris looked incredulous throughout the debate, as Trump delved into his favorite topic, immigration, and even said how Ohio residents are having pets eaten by hungry migrants.

Vice President Harris did an excellent job discussing reproductive rights, while Trump faltered claiming that women can now have end-of-term abortions.  She also excelled in explaining Obamacare, which was a foundation that she would improve.

Trump focused on the Afghanistan airlift, which may have been botched, but Harris did not play a role in it.  Trump also talked about the border, and how there isn’t enough people patrolling it.  Harris countered by saying that Trump pushed blocking a bill that would have staffed the border, doing so to make the Biden administration look incompetent.

Trump has been out of office for four years, and it seemed to show, as he did not have many concrete policy details, and Harris did.

Harris pointed out Trump’s very poor record on racial relations, reminding him of his Charlottesville’s comments about both sides being right, the White supremacists, and the non-Whites.  She also pointed out that Trump put a full-page ad in the New York Times urging the execution of five Black youths who were accused of raping the Central Park jogger (all were later exonerated).

The former President had a strong closing, but it was too little, too late.

The Vice President won this debate, and perhaps the election, tonight.  Trump may drop out of the race, it didn’t go too well for him.  Ms. Harris did fall short on one mark, though, she is not anti-guns, and neither is her choice for the second in command, Tim Walz.  Trump is, of course, pro-guns.  9/10/24.

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Ms. Vice President, Kamala Harris, is not a lightweight.  She may be much more of a heavyweight than people realize.  She has long experience as both the District Attorney of San Francisco (2004 to 2011), and the State Attorney General of California (2011 to 2017).  Harris is noted to be tough on crime — and she hails from Oakland.

The Trump Organization has had six bankruptcies.  Trump counts as a major success, perhaps his most stellar, the rebuilding of Wollman Rink in Central Park.  The only problem I see with a far more progressive, Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket, is that like Trump-JD Vance all candidates own guns.  (Originally a dump-Trump conservative, Vance is even against childlessness.)

Tim Walz is the governor of Minnesota, so that may explain if he owned a gun for hunting (for venison that is not eaten, in a State that is largely wilderness).  Still, I could not find the exact reason why he owned a gun.

Harris makes Trump rather uncomfortable.  Trump wants the Presidential debate rescheduled to Trump-favorite Fox on September 4th, instead of with ABC on larger-audience September 10th, as originally scheduled.  Harris essentially said she will be in ABC studios, on September 10th, she hopes Trump shows up.  Hopefully, Trump will not beg off, and they do face off in a debate, September 10th, 9pm EDT.

(In American politics, you stay on your side of the aisle, and stick with that side, right or wrong.  I do not subsribe to that view.  I do have favorites, as anyone would, but the other side may offer at least a little of value.  Is this an atypical op-ed?  Is this un-American?  Is this Canadian?)  8/06/24.

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Donald Trump has these defects of character: He is conceited, arrogant, power hungry, and occasionally despicable.  45 entered politics to advance his tax reform agenda for billionaires, and to enjoy the biggest power trip on Earth.

Trump had four years to advance any executive agenda, and he did very little.  His predecessor devised Obamacare, and his succcessor had many policy initiatives.

Trump reminds one of Ronald Reagan, very little interest in the nuts and bolts of governance, only interested in delegating a near-Fascist, Proud Boys-friendly regressive, discriminatory policy.

Like Joe Biden, Trump should step down because of his age, and even, because of a lack of any new ideas.  This is a sad side to Ameican politics, but he also should step down, because he might get shot again, he is very divisive.

Trump is Wonder Bread, Kamala Harris is both African American, and Asian American.  In addition, Trump is very aggressive, mean really, and petty, always picking fights.

May the best woman win.  (Psych-out!  Remember psych-outs?  I should say, may the best man win?)  7/24/24.

[Anyone can tell that The Other Letter is leftist.  I am not divisive, I am preaching to the choir.  Op-ed articles like all the letters in The Other Letter are never “fair and balanced,” they are meant to concisively change opinion, and to offer “insight found nowhere else.”]

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Kamala Harris for President, Biden is stepping down for health reasons.  Looks as though we’re stuck with another four years of Trump: The end of reproductive services; the end of environmental protections; the end of Medicare; and the end of a kind and gentler America.  Oh m*th*rf*ck*r, no!!

The good thing about politics (or American politics at least), is that there are term limits that prevent leaders from doing permanent damage.  Trump has all the makings of a demogogue, appealing to the electorate’s prejudices, Charlottesville being just one example...

Maybe Harris will win, maybe I am short-changing her from the get-go.  After all, Kamala is currently in the White House.  She must have plenty of ideas from her present work, and from the new generation, especially ones to continue President Biden’s legacy.  Harris is the only one vying for the front office under seventy-eight years of age.  Ms. Harris is an African-American, and Asian-American woman, she covers all the bases to counter intolerance.  7/21/24.

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Biden’s slow start to the debate, left many thinking that President Biden cannot handle a second term, yet he is doing well with his first four years.  The economy is doing well, job numbers are up, inflation has been squelched.

The problem I see with Trump is his lack of honesty during the debate.  The former President was very fast and loose with his facts.

Another disconcerting facet of Trump’s psychological makeup is his aggressiveness.  He will stop at very little to get what he wants: Witness the Capitol rally he assembled on January Sixth, of 2021.  Trump clearly lost the election, but he tried to swing the vote his way by mob rule.

Most disturbing is the fact that the investigations against him have centered on marital infidelity, not this rally, which verges on treason.  7/9/24.

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Who caught the Presidential debate tonight?  Analysts seemed to suggest that Trump won, at least on presentation.  Yet Trump was evasive most of the way through, and focused on his favorite, hatemongering topic, immigration reform.

Biden did a better job with the facts, Trump would not survive any serious fact-checking.  Biden really fumbled through the first seven minutes, as it appeared his age would really work against him.  It was later revealed that he had a cold, not COVID-19 however.

One garnered the impression that at the core of Trump’s plank was tax reduction for the wealthy, although the moderators and Biden couldn’t pin him down exactly on his exact policy, if he actually had one.  Biden was significantly less hesitant to offer details on his initiatives such as his plan to expand tax credits for child care.  Trump said he would consider exiting NATO, of which Biden vigorously disapproved.

Trump criticized Biden on three policy issues: the Afghanistan airlift; border management; and inflation.  Trump claimed that Biden will not fire anyone, whereas the former President would fire anyone, just like on his reality game show, The Apprentice (remember his contestant-ending cry, “you’re fired!”)

Biden criticized Trump — essentially calling him a racist — on his equivocating on Charlottesville, where one side had made a protest, a Klan rally.  Biden also took Trump to task for mishandling the epidemic — the economy had to be jumpstarted with government spending, that is, fiscal policy, which was very inflationary.  Biden challenged Trump to be more honest, and to not be fast and loose with his facts.  6/27/24.

 

America’s Cataclysm, the War in Viet Nam...

The War effected American music, as well as its cinema, and Zeitgeist, with a very hard, acerbic edge.  France was making effervescent, Jeune Filles de Cherbourg, while Stateside, there was gritty, Midnight Cowboy...

 

Ultimately, the Doves Won, the Hawks Lost Big

The War in Viet Nam was unwinnable, so said the Pentagon, in the Pentagon Papers.  America attempted to convert a nation into a capitalistic system of democracy, over a people’s communist one.  I have heard this said before, and I agree, that capitalism is for countries with a long history, and communism is for one with a shorter history, and fewer national resources.

Given that North Viet Nam did not have an interest in becoming a Western-style capitalistic democracy, why was the war, one which cost the United States 58,220 lives, entered into in the first place?

The major reason was the Domino Theory, that Southeast Asia would collapse as Laos, and Thailand, and then India, and the Middle East would fall into communists’s hands, one by one, domino by domino.  Anyhow the Pentagon was right, the war was unwinnable, and the Domino Theory was wrong, Southeast Asia and beyond did not become Communist.

The Vietnamese War was a colossal political blunder, that soldiers seeking college funds from the Montgomey G.I. Bill, were instead sent home in black, body bags.  If they had fought for their country, they were sadly disappointed by the non-existent American support of a war against government self-determination.

The War in Viet Nam was nothing like World War Two, there weren’t really any heroes flying home to towns enthralled with their service.  Some were spit on, there weren’t any parades awaiting them.  The entire years of American involvement from 1964 to 1973, were marked by endless campus protests, of those who did not have any interest carrying machine guns through a steamy jungle, shooting anyone that moved.  By 1975, Saigon fell to the Viet Cong.

 

The Kennedy Assassination and the Vietnamese War

John F. Kennedy gave the war positive lip service, but in the October before his November, 1963, assassination, he pulled out 1,000 American military personnel from Viet Nam.  As he said, “They are the ones who have to win it [South Viet Nam].”  Kennedy was soft on fighting there, Johnson and Nixon were not.

Four days after Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK, LBJ wanted troops back into Viet Nam.  Lyndon Baines Johnson, a Democrat, was gung-ho behind the war, as was Richard Milhaus Nixon, a Republican.  LBJ declared, just two days after his boss’ assassination, that “before a small group including Henry Cabot Lodge...  ‘Get back to...  winning the war.’”  [Karnow, 1997, p. 339.]

There were unusual rumors that Johnson would not have been picked as the Vice President of any JFK second term.  Where was Lyndon Johnson in the motorcade?  LBJ seemed to be given short shrift in a significant campaign rally.  LBJ was in the motorcade, but not in JFK’s limosine, LBJ was two cars behind the President.

A not-incredibly rattled LBJ took the oath of office at Dallas Love Field, two hours and eight minutes after JFK was assassinated.  He was in town, in the motorcade, but it is worth reiterating, he was two cars back.  In the Air Force One photograph, LBJ’s sentiment seemed to be, ‘Jackie, we have to stop communism.’  Jacqueline Kennedy’s head is tilted towards LBJ, as in, ‘I can never say aloud what he did.  Our new president took out my husband.’  Albert Thomas oddly has his head tilted as well, as if to emphasize Jacqueline Kennedy’s symbolic pointing of her head towards LBJ.  Albert Thomas died two years later, at the age of 67.

Was this a well-orchestrated LBJ coup-d’état?  If removed from the Presidential ticket, he would have nothing to lose here.  Well, at least this required some doing of any conspiracy, Jack Ruby, murdered the fall guy, Lee Harvey Oswald.

The only one alive today who can further clarify LBJ, JFK, and Jackie Kennedy’s relationship, is Caroline Kennedy.  She is sixty-six-years of age, and I am sure she would love to talk about her mother’s relationship with LBJ, all day, every day, but she would rather get root canal instead, and Johnson died in 1973, the year the Vietnamese War he had touted, ended in defeat.  (LBJ died on January 22nd, at the age of sixty-four; the War ended March 29th, the day that the last combat troops left.)

Truth be told, the Kennedy assassination: Got America full-scale into Viet Nam; gave the Presidency to Lyndon Baines Johnson, who was about to be pulled from the Democratic ticket; and boosted the war economy.  NSAM 273 of Novermber 26th, 1963, the day following JFK’s funeral, outlines the post-Kennedy strategy, including:

“...develop as strong and persuasive a case as possible to demonstrate to the world the degree to which the Viet Cong is controlled, sustained and supplied from Hanoi, through Laos and other channels [such as Russia and China].”  (We’re going to war, folks...)

By the time 1972 rolled around, the alternative to a second term for Nixon was George McGovern, who even lost his own home state of South Dakota in the vote for President.  By 1974, Nixon resigned in disgrace for burglarizing the psychiatrist’s office of an adversary, Daniel Ellsberg of the New York Times.  Ellsberg uncovered the Pentagon Papers, which declared the War unwinnable.

 

Kennedy was soft on Viet Nam, though Oswald was with Castro

An aside about Lee Harvey Oswald, he got a job as a temporary worker at the Dallas Book Depository five weeks before the assassination.  The motorcade was to go through Dealey Plaza, by the Depository.  Oswald fired three shots from the 6th floor, 81 meters, or 265 feet away.  That’s almost a football field away in distance.  Seeing the Zapruder film of the assassination, where were the crowds?  There were few in attendance to see Kennedy — one-deep for JFK , and Camelot?

Oswald bought the murder weapon on March 13th, he got the job at the Depository on October 15th, and the route to the motorcade was finalized five days before the assassination, which occurred on November 22nd.  Oswald got the Depository job along the motorcade route, psychically knowing it would swing by the Depository, a month after he got the job?

Another consideration is that the route makes a right turn away from Main Street, to Houston Street, and then to Elm Street, where the motorcade swings by the depository.  It was as though the route was directed to travel by Oswald, yet was this smokescreen for someone within much closer range?  265 feet away, was Oswald that good of a shot?

Oswald fired three shots from the sixth floor of the Book Depository.  The problem being, the windows on that floor are curved, can they actually be opened?  (Actually, they can’t, except for the corner window, which can be opened.)  Before an itinerant Oswald was gunned down by Jack Ruby, Oswald claimed he was “a patsy,” a pawn, in some much larger conspiracy.

Case closed for most, after Oswald was gunned down (at the age of twenty-four), by a night-club owner named Jack Ruby, who was not legally in the station-house were Oswald was shot.  He would have needed a press pass, which he did not have.

Then, what was Oswald”s supposed motivation: He was very pro-Castro.  So pro-Castro that Oswald leafleted public areas for him.  Not too many juvenile delinquents campaign for communism at the age of twenty-three, and get on local radio debating their cause (Oswald supposedly went to twelve grade schools, he was thought to be that much of a behavioral issue — although only three schools, not twelve, are mentioned in his interview).  A transcript exists of a debate, with only partial supporting video tape extant.  Oswald didn’t have any name recognition, yet he was being grilled on a radio station, WDSU, New Orleans.

The Warren Commission does not hold up: Oswald got his job at his Depository lookout five weeks before the finalization of the motorcade route; and the sixth floor of the depository had curved, not retractable windows, except for the corner one.  Which window did he shoot from?  The corner one, 265 feet from the passing motorcade.  In addition, his rifle was from 1891, a Carcano bolt-action, how accurate could it be?  Plus, why wasn’t LBJ in JFK’s limousine?  LBJ was in the motorcade, two cars back though.

[Youtube (parent corporation, Google) does not have the Zapruder film in its vast inventory.  Youtube has also blocked me from adding videos to my playlists, they don’t like my politics.]

 

Very Brief Primer on Monetary, and Keynesian, Policy

When the Federal Reserve (“The Fed”) loosens monetary policy, the result is “easy money,” or lower interest rates.  Lower interest rates lower the cost of borrowing, which lowers the cost of business expansion, and this spurs the economy.  Too much loosening of monetary policy, then too much money chases too few goods, and as a consequence, inflation ensues.  The way the Fed loosens monetary policy, is by buying Treasury bonds with its immense store of cash (from the reserve requirements of member banks), swapping their cash liquidity for fixed-return, income-earners.

Tight monetary policy — to cool off, an overheated, inflationary economy — is implemented with easy money, or more precisely, expansive monetary policy, in reverse.  Bonds are sold in the open market, via Open Market Operations, and the larger market, has more illiquid, but income-earning bonds.  Yet, the Fed now has more cash.  Interest rates rise, as liquid, borrowing funds are less available.  Then, with the intersection of the classic supply and demand curves, supply of capital decreases, and demand likely stays constant.  The result is increased cost of borrowing money.

These monetary policies do actually work, they do fuel or slow the economy, but they cannot redirect ships of state heading towards the rocks.  Witness the 2009 economic collapse from robo-signed mortgage junk paper; or the 1989 stock market crash from over-leveraging (profiting from money with little backing collateral) junk bonds.

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Fiscal policies work as well: Also known as Keynesian economics, these poliicies employ government spending to help fuel the economy.  This is due in part to a multiplier effect.

As an example, a TVA worker gets a fiver, he or she spends $4.50 on food, saving 50¢.  (TVA is the Tennessee Valley Authority, a key New Deal program during the Great Depression.)  The grocer takes this money, and spends $4.00, and saves 40¢, and on and on, until there is not a dime left to re-spend.  This is a 90% multiplier, with a 10% propensity to save, that generated $50 in overall revenue with a $5 government expenditure ($5/(1.0-0.9)).

Fiscal policies, if mis-administered, can be inflationary.  Too much money chases too few goods.  Yet, Keynesian economics ended the worst economic downturn in history, the Great Depression of the 1930’s.

 

Novus Ordo Seclorum to a Modern-day Utopia

“Novus Ordo Seclorum,” or new world order (as seen on every one dollar bill), to a Valhalla of equality and prosperity, via more cogent thinking on goods and services distribution, perhaps without the abstraction of paper currency, without a trinket-exchange economy.

A trinket exchange economy requires continuous exchanges of trinkets, money for goods, to stay afloat.  Just as a shark must always swim to stay alive, the economy must constantly exchange, or trade, to keep going.

The problem with take what you want, leave the rest behind economics, is that people are motivated by self-interest.  That, and there are gradations of quality in a product.  Who gets the best stuff?  You could make everything global, best-in-class, but there are designs that require prohibitive levels of resources.

The alternative to full goods equality, and economic inclusivity [see, the Aspen Institute], does not mean flawless economic engine, and regime.  Currency, paper bank script, can be a huge obstacle to economic endeavor.  The Great Depression is one example where global quality-of-life completely deteriorated to poverty by financial mismanagement, and economic failure (over-leveraging in capital markets, et al).

There can be very real instances of a better life without the abstraction, and restriction, of goods changing hands only after abundant paper script is produced.  In other words, Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, and the rest of the United Federation of Planets, did not carry wallets, and someday, neither shall we.

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• Divest of laggards, that is, under-performers.  Three months of weak returns versus the rest of your portfolio, and I would say to divest, and reinvest in another mutual fund, preferably a Morningstar Five-Star fund.  Do research, review your holdings.

• Say you need to raise capital for Amalgamated Widget’s factory expansion.  You go to capital markets and float a debenture, or interest-bearing bond.  The return on your investment must exceed the cost of capital, that is, the cost of borrowing, or the interest cost.

  Now, there may be another way of raising capital, assembling a committee of investors, who bid for their profit participation in your new venture.

  Then, there is even a third way, the Amish way.  Expand the idea of a barn-raising to your endeavor.  Gather your family and friends, and just build whatever you need to build.  The Chinese may do something similar, without the artificial constraints of shortages of engraved bank script (i.e., currency).

  

• There is a take what you like, leave the rest behind method of goods distribution, one that guarantees all get to eat from the cornocopia at the table.  What would be the currency, the equalizing medium of exchange?  You’re thinking stop-gap currency for all?  The currency being paper bank script?

  Well, paper bank script may one day not be worth the paper upon which it is printed.  Then, what to do?  Then, the currency becomes food, via farmers’ markets.  The universal medium of exchange is not paper bank script, it is food.

  The modern farmers’ market would have food, of course, but also have electronic goods.  This may or may not work in densely populated areas, but in a place such as Nova Scotia, I believe this concept of mutual benefit existed in the general store, with my Uncle Roland bringing food from his farmstead to market in the 1920s to 1950s.

• The challenge for any organization is to foster a corporate culture that makes employees comfortable, and look forward to coming to work each day.

• After the the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the end of the Cold War, the defense industry was decimated.  This was a huge industry, especially on Long Island.  What has taken its place?  Security is a very significant market sector, now.

• The universal economic imperative, sing it: “I gotta have coin, do it or die, I gotta be rich, filthy rich!”

• The Upper Class does not search for value in what they buy.  In fact, they tend to ridicule those who do.  The other classes brag about bargains they have gotten. 
  “My Tesla was $37k, $37k, you heard right.  I paid $37k.” 
  “Was it used?” 
  “Huh?  Used?” 
  “The mileage, did you check the mileage?  Okay, that’s some bargain.” 
  “Used?!  Mileage?!”

• The economic imperative, in my estimation, is the requirement that bank script is needed to buy the necessities (and the luxuries) of life.  In other words, you need wads of official green paper to survive.  Organically, considering our origins in the primordial ooze, or in the Garden of Eden, currency is an abstraction.

• I come here in peace.

• If the Pyramids at Giza were built today, how would we build them?  The same way they were built then.  But how were they built then, and by whom?  I guess they left, or something, or maybe they’re coming back to get stuff...  Speaking of pyramids, who believes these to be an effective means of determining goods distribution, as opposed to democratic methods.  If the spigots were open wide, very loosely constrained, as opposed to being strictly constrained.

  “Put a dollar to the mirror...”  Enough what?  Enough Novus Ordo Seclorum, new world order?  Enough Annuit Coeptus, yearly plan?  Enough E Pluribus Unum, from many one?  Enough In God We Trust?  We trust, or we hope?  On money?  What then?  Just a bit of froth: The Fugitive Slave Clause legalized slavery with the United States Constitution.  Just saying.

• Bananas, write your own ticket, funny money, gray and black trading, creative what?  In a pinch, who’s going to know?  They’re just numbers, that can take down careers, even lives (and nations?) if not adjusted for errors in judgement, “a fix,” by “a fixer,” or possibly, on a macroeconomic scale, because there’s so much at stake.  Preferred players have a safety net, a nice, fat eraser, that others don’t.  The fetid to light, decontaminates.

  Devalue the basis cost, overvalue the selling price, inflate profits.  There isn’t any funny business?  Hollywood always says that greed rules Wall Street, I guess greed isn’t good after all.

  Do the...  Sing the song: Clearing house, oh, clearing house, rubber stamp my dreams...  “Other, learn to write in English, this here is nonsense.  I took finance, where’s the valuation models, hmm?  I don’t see any valuation models, yada, yada, yada...  How else do you make money in a down, bear market?”

  “I got this one.  COVID wiped out Wall Street, many players, yes?  Yes.  Okay, The world economy has risk, we take that risk, and we eliminate it.  How?  That’s a very good question.”

  “Easy, we hedge the risk with offsetting securities.  Since this is major league poker, we have to eliminate risk entirely, so we always come out ahead, capeche?  We forecast sales—”

  “Well, that’s just one valuation model.  We rely on outside players to give us inside, private data.  That, and we keep tight relationships with our clearing house, so trades are settled in a timely, advantageous fashion.  Accounting figures are only numbers.  Our main job as fiduciaries is to not only minimize market risk, but eliminate it outright...”

  “Market makers cannot cook the books, they are accountable to the auditor.  X players, Y dollars, divvy it up, expand Y.”

  “Growth stocks don’t grow since the Fifties.  GM makes X amount of cars, and we expect them to continuously sell more than X, but there is only Y customers, and that’s mostly constant.  They need capital, we call them a dog.  Financing from an auction house, sure.  So what we do is—”

  “Rely on valuation models, even in bear markets...”

• “Don’t our ledgers have to be clean by the time the Alpha-Centauri gravity-centrifigal providers arrive?  Whatever, I want to settle up with them.  You do what you like.  On Judgement Day, I’m set.”

• “But Buffy, we’re on the same team!”

• “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

• If you peruse recent editions of Consumer Reports, they discuss the latest in car technology.  One such technology that has not yet taken off, is auto-piloting...

• Did you know that the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan contained asbestos?  That’s right, and what is done with buildings that contain asbestos?  Right again.

  

• Do you know how to dial for emergency services in Canada?  Saudis knew 9-1-1 is the United States emergency service?  Whatever.  I know someone who died on 9/11/01 who did not actually die.  Under 46, take the day off.  He knew many of the older ones.  No bull.

• After 9/11, world leaders wanted the end of privacy in favor of complete surveillance.  Just pretend light bulbs can do double duty, providing both light, and a transmittable video signal; a Wifi signal easily relayed by any home’s Internet router.  Just saying.  I know, who cares.

 

Don’t be fooled.  Adolf Hitler was Satan incarnate...

There are still a few crazies out there who think Adolf Hitler was a master leader, especially one righting the sinking ship of the German economy.  Any leader that requires slave labor, ones starved to death, to make an economy work, is obviously an extreme failure.  Hitler was not John Maynard Keynes, the famous British economist who mathematically formed the foundation of fiscal and monetary policies.

Germany did suffer greatly from hyperinflation, from 1922 to 1923.  They blamed the Jewish bankers for this, yeah right, Chase and J.P. Morgan were Hasidim.  Hitler wasn’t an economic hero, he wasn’t any hero at all.  Der Fuhrer was Satan, pure and true.

His Final Solution exterminated millions of Jewish mothers, fathers, sons and daughters.  With a thousand concentration camps, working with German efficiency, Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, et al, were death factories, gassing and cremating Jews by the thousands daily.

(Six million Jews murdered divided by [six years of WWII x 365 days] equals 2,739 murders of Jews daily.  With a thousand extermination camps, six million Jews murdered seems to be a death count greatly underestimated.)

Hitler was an abject failure who catapaulted himself to tremendous power, which he used to ultimately defame his own people.  Just as a for instance, my family, eighty years after Auschwitz was liberated, will never buy a German car.  Hitler got full national support.

[I have seen photos inside the camps, and they are all of men.  Where are the women?  Are women strong enough to do factory work?  Just saying.  One photo has a son asleep in a bloody attic of a camp, beside his dead father.  It was a secret to not cremate the father, as his son’s comfort.  Or worse: The father died the day before liberation, and the son thinks he’s still alive.  Rings a bell with my situation, and the SCPD not letting me see my nonagenarian dad living next door.]

 

Selling Bitcoin Short (Versus Buying and Holding Long)

[The following is an op-ed.  I write op-eds, letters to the editor, for the Other Letter; and I do have an MBA, a Master of Business Administration.]

Everyone understands the bitcoin market for digital assets?  Sure, a company becomes a bookkeeper, a registrar, for bit (zeros and ones) coin, without the underlying faith and credit of any principality.  Bitcoin is money, or more realistically, a hopefully liquid substitute for money.

Most know by now that a bitcoin market-maker is not much different than a casino in Monte Carlo, glamorous, yet only about the money.  Bitcoin is speculative “fun,” if gambling is your fun.

If you ask for the opinion on bitcoin of a market maker on the NYSE trading floor, people who live and die capital exchange, I would bet they have a negative view of bitcoin.  Paper currency used to be backed by silver, Silver Certificate issues.  That was abandoned in favor of backing money by your confidence in the full faith and credit of the U.S. Treasury.

I would take silver, but I’ll accept a U.S. government voucher, you won’t see me putting money into bitcoin.  Trump has stayed on the sidelines, even though he goes where the money is (if he could be brutally honest, and he cannot, I bet he would say the entire enterprise is frothy).  Senator Elizabeth Warren said today that laissez faire bitcoin markets need to be regulated just as any other financial market.

The acid test for a currency is, is it a store of value?  Hopefully, bitcoin is exchangeable for green bank script by the market maker specialist, or an investing, bit player.  Well, if I had a million dollars of bitcoin, I still could not buy an ice cream cone with it.  By the same token, if the dollar bill were to fail, we have reached the end times.  Bitcoin buyer beware: Too much paper profits, too much Monopoly money, and not legal tender.  Just saying.