Most Americans have little or no idea what “the Fed” is or does, despite the fact that, ever since its creation in 1913, it has had monopolistic control over the money supply in the country and regulated virtually every type of financial transaction.
The US government debt debate matters to everyone but especially to generations unborn and those worried about the near future. The $36 trillion or so of red ink—and that is the government’s self-assessed number that I believe is based on questionable accounting standards—should frighten everyone who has any wealth in dollars or who cares about his or her children. That’s because governments can and have gone broke, unleashing painful long-term inflation.
Some startup ideas are so obviously bad that no one questions passing on them. Others, though, sit in a strange space — outliers that don’t fit the conventional mold. These are the ones that, at first glance, seem weird but intriguing. Maybe your friends and family think you’re crazy for considering them. Maybe even you hesitate, wondering if you’re wasting your time, because not every outlier is a breakthrough, many are just noise.
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.
