Most of our readers are too young to remember the Vietnam War of a half-century ago, but those of us alive who held draft cards classifying us as 1A have a more personal perspective. In 1971, when I received my low draft number, all I could think was that perhaps I, too, would have to participate in the horror that was combat in that wicked war.
Stephanie Kelton made a jab (it was, admittedly, funny) at Austrians in response to the Anti-MMT panel at the Austrian Economics Research Conference. She said, “MMT is a JG for Austrians.” “JG” is short for “job guarantee,” a reference to the hallmark policy prescription from MMT proponents that the federal government can and should provide a job guarantee to all citizens.
Which came first: the chicken or the egg? Inflation or the managerial class?
Inflationism is as much a tool as it is an ideology and a phenomenon. Inflation, of course, promotes consumption at the moment as prices change faster than incomes. It benefits borrowers at the expense of lenders. It benefits first and earlier receivers—those closest to the money spigot—at the expense of later receivers. It also provides the perfect tool for the managerial class that James Burnham and Sam Francis describe for the further expansion and centralization of power.
Today, April 2, 2025, is what Donald Trump and his team are calling “Liberation Day.” Because later, the president will host an event in the Rose Garden to sign reciprocal tariffs that, in the words of his press secretary, “will roll back the unfair trade practices that have been ripping off our country for decades.”
For the first five months of the 2025 fiscal year, federal spending is coming in at the highest level ever. This is true even when we adjust for CPI inflation.
The Federal Reserve continues to lose money—$77.6 billion last year according to the Wall Street Journal. The previous year the nation’s central bank lost $114.3 billion. And, there is no end in sight. The Fed is paying 4.4 percent on $3.4 trillion in reserves while earning only 2.6 percent on its securities portfolio. This is a side effect of ZIRP.
