I totally screwed up this morning in the first post about Living In The Past. Part of living in the past is thinking that dollar hegemony, the rule of King Dollar, will last forever. It doesn’t matter that the dollar will likely play a major role in international trade for a long time to come. What matters is hegemony, and that’s what is waning. US global hegemony relies on King Dollar hegemony. Not importance—
Trump cutting the budget? Hardly. This big b bill is way over. Hope Sen Johnson makes progress in review of the spending bill. The Senate and House haven’t done their one main job.
Trump isn't cutting the budget to fix the debt. He's balancing the budget in preparation for a default. If the government is running a surplus then a default isn't the end of the world, but if it's running a deficit when it loses access to credit then it's f*****.
Thanks for reminding me of the ZH article, Mark. I couldn't recall where I read the news about CIPs. As I write this, I'm sitting in a school staff room full of friendly, decent, hardworking teachers listening to their chatter. None of them realise that we are living through truly historical and possibly cataclysmic times.
This is more significant for American citizens than almost anything else being covered. I’ve been waiting for this to happen. Not hearing about it elsewhere.
What a paradox is being weaved. The real conundrum is going to be having to pay higher bond rates to get other countries to buy our treasury debt, conversely, the amount of money that we will have to pay on the debt will go up as a part of the budget.
In the blink of an eye, we will go from paying one trillion dollars in interest payments to two trillion dollars. Since Trump and the Congress have no political will to cut spending I look for another 8 trillion or so to be added to the national debt in a short year we will have added $24 trillion to the national debt.
At what point does the federal government realize that it will have to go on a severe austerity budget to survive? Wait until healthcare spending slashed and buy that I mean Medicaid goes totally away. That will have to happen to save Social Security and Medicare.
Then we have military spending regardless of what Trump wants military spending will have to be cut in half the number of overseas bases we have will have to be cut in half or more. Welfare., EBT., snap, and other programs will all have to be cut.
There will be absolute chaos, but in chaos there’s opportunity. Federal government employment will have to drop. All sorts of things are going to have to happen.
The biggest thing that could happen is the federal government defaulting on the debt. That might be the only way to get out from underneath everything. we will certainly have to learn how to pivot and participate in a new multi polar world because our day in the sun is over with
If history is anything to go by, regimes in this situation always cut the social spending before touching the stuff dear to their hearts: the military and bureaucracy.
To follow up on Te Reagan and Marie's comments below, I watched an Epoch Times interview with Steve Bannon from early May. Partial transcript in the three paragraphs below with Mr. Bannon speaking about what happened after Tiananmen Square in June 1989.
'Where was the outrage from the West? There was no outrage. In fact, it was the exact opposite. Bush 41, who had been ambassador to China and head of the CIA, what did he do? He sent General Scowcroft to Beijing for 30 days to basically tell Deng Xiaoping and these guys, “You’ve got to tone it down. Obviously, this thing’s not working.”'
'They said, “We'll help you figure it out, but you’ve got to clean it up, and we can’t have any more tanks.” We’ll get you into the World Trade Organization and give you the most favored nation status. We’re going to allow you to become a manufacturing power because we are going to work in conjunction and ship all the jobs over here, and we’re going to be partners.”'
'That’s what happened, and this occurred in broad daylight. The cynicism of it is that the global elites don’t have credulity. They had willful blindness back then. They knew exactly what was going on and they were party to it. Here’s the cruelest thing: they sold this to the American people.'
That led to globalization in the 1990s and speeding the movement of manufacturing out of the US in a frog in the slowly warming pot way to erode the middle class and set up the haves and have nots as would be the case under communism (but, of course, we can blame the unfair nature of capitalism for this!).
“What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He’s playing with fire!”
He’s lost it. Negotiating with the head of a state with nuclear weapons via social media posts? What really bad things will Trump do now that haven’t already been done? Launch nukes at Russia? Introduce US ground troops into Ukraine. I thought Biden and Blinken and Sullivan were fools but now I’m going to include Trump along with them.
Maybe China is being set up to be the next Global Power. Maybe this has been the plan all along? China would not have been able to do this without help from our government. Hence the reason Trump’s grandkids are learning Mandarin Chinese. They even have Chinese nanny’s. Why is this?
Sounds to me like this is a last ditch "green" looting scheme and that it's all down hill from here. The Dem Operatives cashed up their green initiative investment partners (certainly with lavish kick backs) and they can now enjoy retirement on the beach while the plebs try to unravel what happened. The investment schemes will all turn out to be bullshit, but what do they care?
Why did the past 5 Treasury Secretaries go on the attack against Bessent/Trump? If they set up our economy to be bankrupted, then what is the end game? Do the elites want our country overthrown? I agree with your observations, but why have the past administrations pursued such total devastation? Thanks for any ideas on this.
Because they know they're is no escape, and the next system is already decided. When the current one falls, naive world citizens will receive the news one with open arms. Disclaimer: same owners in both systems!
Trump cutting the budget? Hardly. This big b bill is way over. Hope Sen Johnson makes progress in review of the spending bill. The Senate and House haven’t done their one main job.
Trump isn't cutting the budget to fix the debt. He's balancing the budget in preparation for a default. If the government is running a surplus then a default isn't the end of the world, but if it's running a deficit when it loses access to credit then it's f*****.
Thanks for reminding me of the ZH article, Mark. I couldn't recall where I read the news about CIPs. As I write this, I'm sitting in a school staff room full of friendly, decent, hardworking teachers listening to their chatter. None of them realise that we are living through truly historical and possibly cataclysmic times.
This is more significant for American citizens than almost anything else being covered. I’ve been waiting for this to happen. Not hearing about it elsewhere.
Good job.
What a paradox is being weaved. The real conundrum is going to be having to pay higher bond rates to get other countries to buy our treasury debt, conversely, the amount of money that we will have to pay on the debt will go up as a part of the budget.
In the blink of an eye, we will go from paying one trillion dollars in interest payments to two trillion dollars. Since Trump and the Congress have no political will to cut spending I look for another 8 trillion or so to be added to the national debt in a short year we will have added $24 trillion to the national debt.
At what point does the federal government realize that it will have to go on a severe austerity budget to survive? Wait until healthcare spending slashed and buy that I mean Medicaid goes totally away. That will have to happen to save Social Security and Medicare.
Then we have military spending regardless of what Trump wants military spending will have to be cut in half the number of overseas bases we have will have to be cut in half or more. Welfare., EBT., snap, and other programs will all have to be cut.
There will be absolute chaos, but in chaos there’s opportunity. Federal government employment will have to drop. All sorts of things are going to have to happen.
The biggest thing that could happen is the federal government defaulting on the debt. That might be the only way to get out from underneath everything. we will certainly have to learn how to pivot and participate in a new multi polar world because our day in the sun is over with
If history is anything to go by, regimes in this situation always cut the social spending before touching the stuff dear to their hearts: the military and bureaucracy.
To follow up on Te Reagan and Marie's comments below, I watched an Epoch Times interview with Steve Bannon from early May. Partial transcript in the three paragraphs below with Mr. Bannon speaking about what happened after Tiananmen Square in June 1989.
'Where was the outrage from the West? There was no outrage. In fact, it was the exact opposite. Bush 41, who had been ambassador to China and head of the CIA, what did he do? He sent General Scowcroft to Beijing for 30 days to basically tell Deng Xiaoping and these guys, “You’ve got to tone it down. Obviously, this thing’s not working.”'
'They said, “We'll help you figure it out, but you’ve got to clean it up, and we can’t have any more tanks.” We’ll get you into the World Trade Organization and give you the most favored nation status. We’re going to allow you to become a manufacturing power because we are going to work in conjunction and ship all the jobs over here, and we’re going to be partners.”'
'That’s what happened, and this occurred in broad daylight. The cynicism of it is that the global elites don’t have credulity. They had willful blindness back then. They knew exactly what was going on and they were party to it. Here’s the cruelest thing: they sold this to the American people.'
That led to globalization in the 1990s and speeding the movement of manufacturing out of the US in a frog in the slowly warming pot way to erode the middle class and set up the haves and have nots as would be the case under communism (but, of course, we can blame the unfair nature of capitalism for this!).
Great write up!
Trump “truthed” the following around noon ET.
“What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He’s playing with fire!”
He’s lost it. Negotiating with the head of a state with nuclear weapons via social media posts? What really bad things will Trump do now that haven’t already been done? Launch nukes at Russia? Introduce US ground troops into Ukraine. I thought Biden and Blinken and Sullivan were fools but now I’m going to include Trump along with them.
Maybe China is being set up to be the next Global Power. Maybe this has been the plan all along? China would not have been able to do this without help from our government. Hence the reason Trump’s grandkids are learning Mandarin Chinese. They even have Chinese nanny’s. Why is this?
American nannies too expensive? Penny saved, penny earned.
Oh sure.. it’s a money thing. lol
https://trendcompass.substack.com/p/tens-of-trillions-the-swamps-staggering
TENS of TRILLIONS: the swamp's staggering corruption
Don't worry, Mark. Doge is on to it!
Sounds to me like this is a last ditch "green" looting scheme and that it's all down hill from here. The Dem Operatives cashed up their green initiative investment partners (certainly with lavish kick backs) and they can now enjoy retirement on the beach while the plebs try to unravel what happened. The investment schemes will all turn out to be bullshit, but what do they care?
It's about time.
Why did the past 5 Treasury Secretaries go on the attack against Bessent/Trump? If they set up our economy to be bankrupted, then what is the end game? Do the elites want our country overthrown? I agree with your observations, but why have the past administrations pursued such total devastation? Thanks for any ideas on this.
Some would prefer to rule over the ashes rather than lose their power
https://x.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1916900992299290637?t=0
Because they know they're is no escape, and the next system is already decided. When the current one falls, naive world citizens will receive the news one with open arms. Disclaimer: same owners in both systems!