Juan has another update on the helo-CRJ collision. He makes an interesting side comment about how the NTSB has made numerous recommendations to the FAA for improved safety and all have been ignored. I immediately thought of how the focus of the FAA under Biden was more on DEI than aviation safety. Anyway:
Reading from the sheet, Leavitt went through line by line: ‘$1.5 million to advance DEI in Serbia’s workplaces, $70,000 for a production of a DEI musical in Ireland, $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia, $32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru’ … As the liberal mainstream press stood before the 27-year-old stunned, Leavitt hammered home the point … ‘I don’t know about you, but as an American taxpayer I don’t want my dollars going toward this crap and I know the American people don’t either and that’s exactly what Elon Musk has been tasked by President Trump to do – to get the fraud, waste and abuse out of the federal government,’ she said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says El Salvador’s president has offered to accept deportees from the U.S. of all nationalities as well as violent criminals now imprisoned in the United States …’He’s also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentence in the United States even though they’re U.S. citizens or legal residents’ …’President Bukele agreed to take back all Salvadoran MS-13 gang members who are in the United States unlawfully. He also promised to accept and incarcerate violent illegal immigrants, including members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, but also criminal illegal migrants from any country,’ State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.
3) Elon Musk unleashes nerd army of college-aged engineers to dismantle government waste with DOGE – DEM Progressives don’t mind innocent young Children being groomed for sex or having sex changes, but they are already whining about ‘Six baby-faced men with little-to-no government experience’ helping Musk ‘dismantle America’s foreign aid agency.’ And one is “just a teenager“!?!?!
Don’t like this makeover at all, other than the choice of hair color. I understand that he is going to be focused on what will make a big Wow impact when the carefully lit and photographed reveal video is made but all I see is a very hard to maintain hairstyle and a ton of makeup with contouring for the camera.
Another amazing transformation is someone losing an enormous amount of weight. The “new” person appears – visually – to be an entirely different person.
speaking of the Federal budget and waste; I will surmise that about 20% to 30% of the budget for entitlements – which is where the vast majority of the Federal govt spends our money is wasted due to fraud and inefficiencies.
I will surmise that about 20% to 30% of the budget for entitlements – which is where the vast majority of the Federal govt spends our money is wasted due to fraud and inefficiencies.
==
I won’t.
“It’s a very exciting event. We’re going to have a Sovereign Wealth Fund, which we’ve never had.” — President Trump
“We are going to monetize the asset side of the U.S. balance sheet for the American people; we’re going to put the assets to work,” Bessent said. “We’re going to study best practices as done around the world. It’ll be a combination of liquid assets, assets that we have in this country as we work to bring them out for the American people. I think it is going to create value and be of great strategic importance.” — Scott Bessent, Treasury Secretary
“The extraordinary size and scale of the U.S. government and the business it does with companies should create value for American citizens,” — Howard Lutnick, Commerce Secretary nominee
“If [the Department of] Interior was a public company its stock would be in the tank, revenue has been declining, production of revenue for American taxpayers is down … we have to produce more energy, we’ve got to produce more critical minerals … if it was a company [the Department of Interior would have one of] the largest balance sheets in the world, 500 million acres of public land, 700 million of subservice, over two billion of offshore acres, these are all assets that belong to the American people – We all talk about the debt that America has the 36 trillion, we have perhaps hundreds of trillions of dollars of assets that we need to manage smartly, sustainably, for the benefit and use of the American people.” — Doug Burgum, Interior Secretary
• Have commented before that I was pleased when Trump spoke about creating a Sovereign Wealth Fund. And was pleased when Burgum spoke in September [,and on Jan 31,] about one of my favorite potential revenue streams for the fund (i.e., natural assets).”
• Have also commented that I never have any problem with Trump the executive expressing “whiteboard ideas” – see External Revenue Service – because I recognize that he is both challenging the Status Quo/ Conventional Wisdom, and stimulating the collective Thought Process – in order to address the Need.
• Also recognize that the Trump Doctrine is one of the most important doctrines in this nations’ history: Economic Security is National Security.
“…We’re going to have a Sovereign Wealth Fund, which we’ve never had….”
Not entirely true:
The country DID have one but it was controlled entirely by the Democratic Party and was used as the party’s very own personal slush fund (which is why good governance and fiscal responsibility never had to be a Democratic Party priority).
Meanwhile, Liberal journalistic PRIORITIES continue to be alive and well—and on splendid view at the All-the-Sh**-that’s-Fit-to-Print NYT… https://instapundit.com/700409/
Of course there is tremendous fraud and graft in federal spending. As Willie Sutton famously said when asked why he robbed banks, “That’s where the money is.”
There is no greater bank in the history of the world than the U.S. Treasury, so, naturally, people have concocted myriad schemes to take from it.
I suppose everyone has seen the reports of El Salvador’s supermax prison.
Maybe we could lease Guantanamo when they run out of space at their prison.
has got to have A LOT of people very, very nervous this morning. Brilliant!
For those of you who don’t click on links, it’s an X post from DataRepublican, which is one of the main communication accounts used by DOGE. It states that they have computationally dragged the entire USAID database for EINs (business, not-for-profit tax IDs). They state it will take a bit of time to pick out all relevant information, but as an example of what’s coming the account posts an image of the hydra/hornet’s nest of NGOs affiliated with Bill Kristol’s NGO.
They are using AI to quickly connect all the dots and overtly show what so many covertly created to obfuscate their grift!
The new administration is moving so quickly, and creatively, their opposition is forced to play defense. It’s hard to organize an astroturf protest when you know your questionable network to hide the dollars you skim from U.S. tax payers is about to be shown to the world. And it’s going to be very hard to garner any sympathy when those impacted by the graft are all U.S. taxpayers.
Brilliant!
Doesn’t sound very fair to me.
Shouldn’t seasoned—and creative—criminals be allowed to destroy their country (and political opponents) while enriching themselves?
Can Ron Paul’s dream of auditing the Fed be far off?
Will we learn Fort Knox is empty?
Time to start putting “nonprofit” in scare quotes. Maybe also “NGO”.
About five years ago, I got a gorgeous hair cut and fantastic color. the stylist noted the color details in my account, and I took a OT of phots of my cut. The next time I made appointment, that stylists was on maternity leave and I got someone else.
I HAVE NEVER GOTTEN AS GOOD A CUT AND COLOR AS THAT ONE TIME.
I can’t find the woman who cut and colored my hair — after she went on maternity leave, she didn’t return to the same place.
Can Ron Paul’s dream of auditing the Fed be far off?
== Will we learn Fort Knox is empty?
==
Fort Knox is run by the U.S. Mint, not the Fed. It’s been about a dozen years since I crossed paths with a paulbot yapping about ‘auditing the Fed’. Not one of them ever said what they expected to learn from such an audit and what they thought the policy implications would be.
==
We do not benefit from gold. We benefit from responsible stewardship on the part of central bankers and legislators alike. We get more from the former than the latter, hence the federal deficit.
@FOAF:Time to start putting “nonprofit” in scare quotes. Maybe also “NGO”.
“Profit” is an accounting and taxation label. No organization can survive long if it doesn’t collect more than it spends. “No money, no mission”.
You can call that “more than it spends” what you like, but if you call it “profit” it’s exposed to taxation. But the thing itself is not different.
Everything in a link from the first question mark and beyond is mostly information about the user, i.e. you.
@Art Deco:We do not benefit from gold.
This is worth unpacking. There’s about 3000 metric tons of gold mined every year, and about 210,000 metric tons of gold have ever been mined, 2/3 of it since 1950.
If we were using every bit of gold ever mined as currency, economic growth could never have exceeded about 1.5% annually without causing deflation–our economy has grown at about 3% annually (correcting for inflation) since 1960. Since deflation checks economic growth by discouraging investment and spending, I think it’s safe to say we’d have been somewhat poorer had we been tied to gold this whole time, though maybe not as much poorer as the difference between 3% and 1.5% growth would imply (over 50 years, about half the economic growth would have been lost according to the difference in rates). Followers of Austrian economics, at least those who haunt comment sections, might call that a feature instead of a bug.
I don’t know everything there is to know about money, but I do know there are very good reasons not to be using gold as money. I don’t know if the pros of using gold as money outweigh the very serious cons, but if they do some country is leaving lots of value on the table by not switching to it.
Related:
These two gems from Instapundit NOTHING the Democrats and their media fiends really want you to know…
IOW it’s all disinformation / misinformation…which is why the Democrats are apoplectic and even more hysterical than usual (which I didn’t believe was possible).
“NOTHING IS MORE FRIGHTENING TO THE OTHERWISE UNEMPLOYABLE THAN SEEING THEIR GRAVY TRAIN DERAILED”— https://instapundit.com/700469/
You revel in being a contrarian, Art Deco, but even you have to see how sophomoric that statement is.
I was being hyperbolic in my comment as an attempt at humor. The contents of Fort Knox is way down on my list of concerns, vis a vis the government.However, regarding an audit of the Fed, why shouldn’t every state and federal agency that accepts tax dollars be subject to audits? Would you continue to deposit money in your local bank if you knew they had a philosophy of never subjecting their holdings to independent audits?
@Rufus:an X post from DataRepublican, which is one of the main communication accounts used by DOGE.
DataRepublican was doing this long before DOGE, I don’t know if she works there now or works with them.
You revel in being a contrarian, Art Deco, but even you have to see how sophomoric that statement is.
==
I am not being a contrarian and the term ‘sophomoric’ does not mean what you fancy it means.
==
I think we would likely benefit from a stand-alone comptroller-general who generates the federal government’s general ledger and undertakes audits. I have no particular reason to believe the operating expenses of the Federal Reserve are more in need of auditing than any other component of the federal government, but the Fed is the boogie man as far as paulbots are concerned, so this is one of their shticks.
@Rufus:Regarding an audit of the Fed, why shouldn’t every state and federal agency that accepts tax dollars be subject to audits? Would you continue to deposit money in your local bank if you knew they had a philosophy of never subjecting their holdings to independent audits?
Besides the “one of these things is not like the other”, what do you expect to learn by an audit of the Fed? For other entities you named, they take in tax money and they spend it on things, and an audit would be sure that all their numbers are right and that they only spent on things they were supposed to spend on and they had all their supporting documentation. But the Fed is a central bank. (Are you confusing them with the US Treasury?)
What is it you think the Fed does that an audit would reveal was done wrong? I’m not saying we know them to be staffed by saints and angels, I’m just wondering what wrong or illegal things a central bank might be doing? Cheating other banks out of their interest payments? Adding an extra zero to a quantitative easing? Not actually paying people for the bonds they buy? Skimming fractional cents from checks they process? I’m baffled.
@Nonapod:Medicare costs around 1.5 trillion a year. HHS estimated around $51 billion in “improper payments” occurred in 2023. Seems optimistic at a glance. It may be in HHS’s interest to understimate this figure.
Social Security costs 1.5 trillion. The SSA estimates only $13 billion in improper payments, which also seems a little low to me.
I think I agree about Medicare because there really is a lot of complex activity going on there, and billing for services that don’t really need to be done, or never were done, is hard to catch, and there’s so many providers out there who have the capability to do it.
I think the Social Security figures are more plausible because there’s so much less going on. It’s not so easy to create fake retired people the way you could create fake medical services. I’m sure there are people who use false documents to get on Social Security, especially those who come in as disabled, and I’ve heard of people not reporting deaths of relatives to continue collecting their Social Security checks, but these are hard for most people who have dealings with Social Security to even get an opportunity to do.
Rufus T. Firefly, thanks for the link. “Holy Snikeys” indeed.
“If we were using every bit of gold ever mined as currency, economic growth could never have exceeded about 1.5% annually without causing deflation” – Niketas C.
Why would be use the gold or whatever commodity we using as currency? Wouldn’t we use use gold certificates or silver certificates? That would allow for a fractional reserve banking system while providing a stable value for our currency.
Niketas,
Whether there are substantive things to be uncovered, or not, is meaningless. Everything that does not risk harm to U.S. civilians (a security risk) should be done as transparently as possible. And claims of security risks should require extraordinary proof.
Government of the people, for the people, by the people.
I mean no offense, I enjoy your comments, but you sound a bit like Raddatz or Brennan; “it’s only a few apartment buildings,” “it’s only 1% of the budget.”
My wife and I share all our accounts and have access to review what one another are doing. I have never suspected she would defraud me nor hide anything from me, and I believe she feels the same about me, but why wouldn’t we keep everything in the open with one another?
Other than national security, what possible reason can exist for non-transparent government activity in our Republic?
Recently there are accusations in the press that China lied about the true costs of its DeepSeek AI. There are frequent allegations of the Chinese government manipulating its currency. Why are these news stories? Because we recognize a government that hides things, that is not transparent, as suspect and not trustworthy.
Speaking of “improper payments”, the GAO estimates the government made $236 billion in improper payments in fy2023.
Payment errors are a long-standing issue for the federal government. Over the last 20 fiscal years, it has made an estimated $2.7 trillion in such improper payments.
What’s causing these errors and what can be done to prevent them? Today’s WatchBlog post looks at our new report, issued today.
What were the payment errors in FY 2023?
The $236 billion in improper payments were reported by 14 agencies across 71 programs.
More than $175 billion (74%) of errors were overpayments—for example, payments to deceased individuals or those no longer eligible for government programs
$11.5 billion were underpayments
$44.6 billion were unknown payments—meaning it is unclear whether a payment was an error or not
$4.6 billion were cases where a recipient was entitled to a payment, but the payment failed to follow proper statutes or regulations
I wish the article said how much of the money has been recovered!
I may be mistaken, but I thought I read recently (the past few days) that DataRepublican was working with DOGE. If she(?) is independent, how did she get access to the USAID database? Maybe it had already been publicly available?
Not being sarcastic. Sincerely curious.
@Brian E:Why would be use the gold or whatever commodity we using as currency? Wouldn’t we use use gold certificates or silver certificates?
If governments printed certificates for more gold or silver than they have, wouldn’t that just be the same kind of money printing they do now? What does the metallic standard even do in that case? What would have stopped Biden from printing a couple trillion in silver certificates in 2021? And how would the money supply not have been inflated?
@Rufus:I mean no offense, I enjoy your comments, but you sound a bit like Raddatz or Brennan; “it’s only a few apartment buildings,” “it’s only 1% of the budget.”
I said nothing whatever that is anything like this. I asked you, what do you think the Fed does, that an audit would uncover they were doing it wrong?
Where do you think they get their money? What do you think they spend it on?
The Fed is not like your local bank. “Arcane” is probably the most suitable word I can think of to describe their operations. They buy and sell bonds, they set interest rates, they let other banks deposit with them, they clear checks and facilitate the movement of funds from one bank to the other, and that’s all I understand about what they do, and I’m not seeing much scope for things like Medicare fraud which I understand very well.
For years the Fed was giving back the interest on the bonds they owned to the US Treasury…
@Rufus:If she(?) is independent, how did she get access to the USAID database?
I didn’t think she did, I thought she worked with publicly available data. That’s what she was doing pre-DOGE anyway.
This is what she describes doing, dated January 28th:
Ever wonder exactly which government grants fund nonprofits? Now you can know—because I’ve cracked the code.
Unlike older tools that only sift through nonprofit 990s (which don’t directly show government dollars), I’ve mined the USASpending database to create fuzzy matches between nonprofits and their linked government grants.
All grants are active. All grants are ongoing.
Here’s what this tool can do:
? Search by EIN, Keywords, UEI, or Recipient Name: Zero in on the nonprofit or grant you want to investigate.
? View the Award ID & Funding Agency: See where the money came from—and how much.
? Dollar Amounts Matched to EINs: Transparent numbers, no guesswork.
? Location-Based Matching: Only UEIs and grants with address matches to nonprofits are included.
This means you can now trace your tax dollars with precision—from the grant to the nonprofit and back to the government agency funding it.
? If you’re an advocate, watchdog, or just curious about accountability, this tool will empower you to dig deeper than ever before.
Ready to see how government money flows? Try it now and uncover the truth.
…With the war on USAID, GSA, OPM, and the Treasury alone, DOGE is saving taxpayers at a rate of one billion per day. All of this has driven the Democrats into a frenzy as they insist that an elected president managing the government is a coup. Unfortunately for them (but not for us), they don’t have a legal leg to stand on…
… None of [this list of USAID projects] advanced US interests. All this money—your money—was for leftist social engineering and, seemingly, political money laundering. Elon Musk is right that it needs to go….[Emphasis mine; Barry M.]
One can certainly understand why the Democrats are so freakin’ angry…
By the way, you can download the entire Federal Awards database here. It’s huge (on the order of 500GB) and it’s pretty complex. It’s a Postges SQL database, so you have to set up a Posgres server on a decent PC to host it. But Postgres itself is totally free and available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. I have downloaded this database before for my work and it took something like 3 days with a relatively fast internet connection, and then it took another several hours to run a full restore to load in up into my Postgres server. You end up with a bunch of tables that have the names, addresses, awarding agency, and amounts of money that various organizations and individuals have recieved as federal grants going back to the early 1980s. Some of the names and addresses are redacted, but the actual amounts aren’t usually. It’s certainly interesting data though.
Fortunatly the USAspending website also has an online search tool for it here.
An espionage expert has issued a chilling warning to Vice President JD Vance over his use of an Apple Watch.
Instagram account Watches of Espionage, which posts about the role timepieces play in spying, called out Vance as a ‘priority target for hostile intelligence services.’
‘Dear Mr. Vice President, Please Take Off Your Apple Watch,’ the account said in a post on Tuesday.
‘Despite its many lifestyle benefits, the Apple Watch and other connected wearables pose significant counterintelligence risks, especially for politicians who are priority targets for hostile intelligence services and APTs.’
Is this another mistake by the DEI Secret Service?
One commenter questioned: ‘How has the Secret Service not made him remove it?’
Another suggested that Vance may not use the same kind of Apple Watch that everyday people can pick up at a store.
‘Me thinks this is not your ‘average’ Apple Watch,’ they said. ‘I like to think USSS would have taken steps to mitigate any issues.’
Niketas,
I have read, “The Creature from Jekyll Island.”
I’m likely in the top 1/3 or 1/4 of Americans, regarding knowledge of the Federal Reserve, but I’m still woefully ignorant. Its operations could not be more convoluted if they tried. And I think they try.
You listed some minor things that might be found in an audit, indicating that they are fiscally insignificant. Therefore, there’s no point in doing an audit. The same thing was true of Enron and FTX. If both corporations were following the law an audit is a waste of time.
But sometimes people don’t do what they claim they are doing. And, sometimes, knowing that their actions will be made public keeps some people from behaving criminally.
However, that is besides the point. This is not China. Government should be transacted out in the open, transparently. Until 2021 did you suspect some people in the U.S. government had found a way to fund gain of function research in foreign countries using tax payer dollars, despite Obama’s freeze on such funding?
Niketas, during the gold standard years, the federal reserve was required to hold 40% of the value of the currency they issued in gold, so it was never 1:1. (They never physically held the gold).
It would be nice if we had some benchmark to peg the dollar to, but it would be a good start for our government to get it’s spending under control.
@Rufus:You listed some minor things that might be found in an audit, indicating that they are fiscally insignificant. Therefore, there’s no point in doing an audit.
That all your opinion of what you think I might have intended by saying it, none of that is what I said. I never said those things were “minor”. I never said “fiscally insignificant”. I never said “no point”.
You’re still not answering my question: what do you think the Fed might be doing wrong that could be turned up by doing an audit? I know, for example, what could be turned up by auditing Medicare billing. I know what could be turned up by auditing a small business. I have experience with audits. I don’t know what you’d expect to find, in terms of what the Fed does. If you’re not sure what the Fed even does how do you know an “audit” is even the right thing to do? How do you know they’re not audited all the time? They already release audited financial statements. What do you think is wrong with those?
The Fed’s business is with other banks that have accountants and auditors of their own, so why are they not saying anything if the Fed is somehow cheating them? But you’re not willing or able to say if that’s what you think the Fed is doing wrong, and you just keep saying “audit the Fed” even though they are already audited all the time…
@Brian E:Niketas, during the gold standard years, the federal reserve was required to hold 40% of the value of the currency they issued in gold, so it was never 1:1.
If they are always required to hold the same % of the currency in gold, then the currency cannot grow faster than the gold supply, which is about 1.5% annually, and so this does not address my point about deflation. If they are allowed to change that %-age at will, then they have the same power over the currency that they do now and there’s no reason to tie it to the metallic standard.
Niketas @4:17pm,
In 1925 a Ford Model T cost about $260, about 20% of a line worker’s salary.
In 2024 they earn about $40/hour and a Ford Maverick pickup costs about $26k, or about 30% of a line worker’s salary. So a line worker works about 2.5 to 3 months to buy a truck.
What do the number of digits to the left of the decimal point have to do with the ratios and the wage earner’s purchasing power?
Niketas @4:15pm,
I’m not answering your question because I see your question as moot. You do not. There is no reason for a debate as we don’t agree on the premise. You may be correct regarding your premise, but I don’t want to spend a few hours reading Ron Paul speeches on Libertarian websites. (Have you ever met and talked to a Libertarian? 😉 )
Here is my stance, again, in case restating it will make it clearer.
Using your philosophy why would the FDA ever do an examination of the Hershey chocolate works in Hershey, PA? It’s against Hershey’s self interests to poison their customers. They show every indication of putting a lot of time and money into health and safety training among their employees. They purchase expensive equipment to randomly test their food products.
And even if there is some small mis-step, a batch of eggs from one of their suppliers has salmonella… Most of it will be neutralized during the production process. Large scale death and disease are unlikely.
However, I think the vast majority of American consumers want to know they have a non-biased inspector keeping companies safe, and honest. The FDA publishes their findings and Hershey is required to list anomalies to their consumers; “so and so many insect parts per pound…”
What is the case for non-independent oversight of the Fed? Why not do it? And, especially now with AI tools. The labor is greatly reduced.
I see the news that Biden has signed with major talent agency CAA.*
Seeing as how Biden is now an ex-President, and unable give out flashy award medals, or to dole out favors, I don’t see the appeal.
As he sinks ever further downward into very obvious dementia, what do they expect Biden to be able to do–appear in commercials, go on a nationwide speaking tour, actually write a book?
Lenny Bruce performed a brilliant routine, “Adolf Hitler and the MCA.” where he portrayed Hitler as being recruited by a talent agency in search of a dictator. I suspect MCA was Bruce’s disguised reference to CAA.
_________________________________________
Miss Braun, sweetie, send in the dictator type…
Sit down. We’re trying to find a dictator today. We have no script, a couple pages. We don’t know where the hell we’re going with the project. We just want to see how you guys move, that’s all. Just adlib it.
Is that some kind of cost cutting for the American Taxpayer?! Maybe a negotiating tactic?!?
• ‘We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site … level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings.’
• In his vision, U.S. reconstruction would create thousands of jobs and spare Palestinians the pain and expense of rebuilding once again … When a reporter asked if that might involve military force, Trump answered: ‘If it’s necessary.’
• ‘I do see a long term ownership position, and I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East, and maybe the entire Middle East,’ he said.
AesopFan, thank you for the free e-books link in yesterday’s Open Thread! 🙂
…………………………………………………….
Back in the day I read a book claiming that Ronald Reagan was controlled by MCA, which was controlled by the Mafia. I don’t know if it was true, but the author seemed to make a strong case.
I still think RR was one of our best Presidents.
Ukraine is still killing massive amounts of Russian troops…
… ISW observed reports in late 2024 and January 2025 that the Russian military’s monthly recruitment rate is likely equal to or below the quantity needed to replace Russia’s monthly casualty rate one-to-one.
***
The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) proposed a draft amendment on February 3 to reclassify some illnesses, diseases, and disorders for conscripts and those signing military service contracts. The Russian MoD proposed reclassifying syphilis, hypertension, central nervous system atrophy disorders, skin diseases, schizophrenia, psychotic disorders, affective disorders, and other health problems as more minor ailments that do not disqualify someone from service.
Hopefully President Trump doesn’t let Russia off-the-hook – and then also gives them Ukraine…
Mentioned @ February 4, 2025 at 9:52 pm that President Trump had brought this up – but this one is the reaction to it:
Donald Trump’s bold plan to have the U.S. take over Gaza and transform it from rubble into a Middle East ‘Riviera’ is sparking fears from foreign policy experts who warn it could lead to a bloody occupation if it actually took place.
Trump laid out his ambitious plan on Tuesday afternoon, describing how the U.S. would seize an ‘ownership position’ in the territory – even by sending troops if necessary.
The immediate reaction among Palestinians and leaders across the region was one of ‘revulsion,’ said Aaron David Miller, a Middle East expert who advised secretaries of state across multiple administrations of both parties.
‘The question is whether or not this is Trump disrupting, or is this tethered to a an actual strategy. And I would argue this is the reflection of a very unserious man. He’s thinking with the opportunistic sensibility of a real estate developer,’ he told DailyMail.com.
Like I said earlier – “Maybe a negotiating tactic” but sure sounds like a real estate developer’s spiel…
[Trump’s] thinking with the opportunistic sensibility of a real estate developer…
If he could straighten out the !*?& over there, might be a good spot for a Trump hotel.
Was listening to a computer security podcast talking about the vast numbers of DDoS attacks which flood websites with bots to try to knock them offline.
In re the auditing of the Treasury and then the Fed –
Niketas Choniates on February 4, 2025 at 1:58 pm
“If we were using every bit of gold ever mined as currency, economic growth could never have exceeded about 1.5% annually without causing deflation–our economy has grown at about 3% annually (correcting for inflation) since 1960. …
I don’t know everything there is to know about money, but I do know there are very good reasons not to be using gold as money. I don’t know if the pros of using gold as money outweigh the very serious cons, but if they do some country is leaving lots of value on the table by not switching to it.”
I don’t know everything there is to know about money (or banking specifically) either, but I agree with you 110%. Money lubricates the economy, it does not “fuel” it. If your economy needs an extra 1 or 2% of money available to grow, then fiat money (properly and wisely managed) is still the way to go compared to any other “commodity” version. Unfortunately we have to wish and hope and pray that the government managers are truly wise and virtuous. For those of you who do pray, I fear your prayers in this regard have not been answered for some time.
and Ditto for: Niketas Choniates on February 4, 2025 at 4:17 pm
” If they are allowed to change that %-age at will, then they have the same power over the currency that they do now and there’s no reason to tie it to the metallic standard.”
Then again, a couple of famous people have said “we have met the enemy, and it is us!” A sovereign citizenry should have a responsive AND responsible Congress. We need to ask more about why we don’t right now. The DOGE crew may well be providing some early answers.
Leave a Reply
HTML tags allowed in your
comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>
Juan has another update on the helo-CRJ collision. He makes an interesting side comment about how the NTSB has made numerous recommendations to the FAA for improved safety and all have been ignored. I immediately thought of how the focus of the FAA under Biden was more on DEI than aviation safety. Anyway:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9mAUks0krI
1) ‘crap’ DEI projects -PS Karoline Leavitt hammering DEM’s MSM activists…again:
2) US strikes ‘extraordinary’ migrant deal with El Salvador to accept deportees from any country – including dangerous criminals
3) Elon Musk unleashes nerd army of college-aged engineers to dismantle government waste with DOGE – DEM Progressives don’t mind innocent young Children being groomed for sex or having sex changes, but they are already whining about ‘Six baby-faced men with little-to-no government experience’ helping Musk ‘dismantle America’s foreign aid agency.’ And one is “just a teenager“!?!?!
Don’t like this makeover at all, other than the choice of hair color. I understand that he is going to be focused on what will make a big Wow impact when the carefully lit and photographed reveal video is made but all I see is a very hard to maintain hairstyle and a ton of makeup with contouring for the camera.
Another amazing transformation is someone losing an enormous amount of weight. The “new” person appears – visually – to be an entirely different person.
speaking of the Federal budget and waste; I will surmise that about 20% to 30% of the budget for entitlements – which is where the vast majority of the Federal govt spends our money is wasted due to fraud and inefficiencies.
I will surmise that about 20% to 30% of the budget for entitlements – which is where the vast majority of the Federal govt spends our money is wasted due to fraud and inefficiencies.
==
I won’t.
https://youtu.be/0hgWLHGDnVs
https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/02/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-orders-plan-for-a-united-states-sovereign-wealth-fund/
*** relevant, Feb 3 comments are below ***
https://youtu.be/LUshtwtY-7c?t=181
• Have commented before that I was pleased when Trump spoke about creating a Sovereign Wealth Fund. And was pleased when Burgum spoke in September [,and on Jan 31,] about one of my favorite potential revenue streams for the fund (i.e., natural assets).”
https://x.com/i/status/1832782962695209086
• Have also commented that I never have any problem with Trump the executive expressing “whiteboard ideas” – see External Revenue Service – because I recognize that he is both challenging the Status Quo/ Conventional Wisdom, and stimulating the collective Thought Process – in order to address the Need.
• Also recognize that the Trump Doctrine is one of the most important doctrines in this nations’ history: Economic Security is National Security.
“…We’re going to have a Sovereign Wealth Fund, which we’ve never had….”
Not entirely true:
The country DID have one but it was controlled entirely by the Democratic Party and was used as the party’s very own personal slush fund (which is why good governance and fiscal responsibility never had to be a Democratic Party priority).
Meanwhile, Liberal journalistic PRIORITIES continue to be alive and well—and on splendid view at the All-the-Sh**-that’s-Fit-to-Print NYT…
https://instapundit.com/700409/
Regarding entitlements: Medicare costs around 1.5 trillion a year. HHS estimated around $51 billion in “improper payments” occurred in 2023. Seems optimistic at a glance. It may be in HHS’s interest to understimate this figure.
Social Security costs 1.5 trillion. The SSA estimates only $13 billion in improper payments, which also seems a little low to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmfudW7rbG0
Nonapod,
Of course there is tremendous fraud and graft in federal spending. As Willie Sutton famously said when asked why he robbed banks, “That’s where the money is.”
There is no greater bank in the history of the world than the U.S. Treasury, so, naturally, people have concocted myriad schemes to take from it.
I suppose everyone has seen the reports of El Salvador’s supermax prison.
Maybe we could lease Guantanamo when they run out of space at their prison.
‘Worst of the worst’: Go inside El Salvador’s fortress prison for gang members
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-Oz14D5sz0
Holy Snikeys!
This, https://x.com/DataRepublican/status/1886647920566636637?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1886647920566636637%7Ctwgr%5E652f176bb4638e0eefd73c955994bb4cc10f1db4%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Finstapundit.com%2F700429%2F
has got to have A LOT of people very, very nervous this morning. Brilliant!
For those of you who don’t click on links, it’s an X post from DataRepublican, which is one of the main communication accounts used by DOGE. It states that they have computationally dragged the entire USAID database for EINs (business, not-for-profit tax IDs). They state it will take a bit of time to pick out all relevant information, but as an example of what’s coming the account posts an image of the hydra/hornet’s nest of NGOs affiliated with Bill Kristol’s NGO.
They are using AI to quickly connect all the dots and overtly show what so many covertly created to obfuscate their grift!
The new administration is moving so quickly, and creatively, their opposition is forced to play defense. It’s hard to organize an astroturf protest when you know your questionable network to hide the dollars you skim from U.S. tax payers is about to be shown to the world. And it’s going to be very hard to garner any sympathy when those impacted by the graft are all U.S. taxpayers.
Brilliant!
Doesn’t sound very fair to me.
Shouldn’t seasoned—and creative—criminals be allowed to destroy their country (and political opponents) while enriching themselves?
Can Ron Paul’s dream of auditing the Fed be far off?
Will we learn Fort Knox is empty?
Time to start putting “nonprofit” in scare quotes. Maybe also “NGO”.
About five years ago, I got a gorgeous hair cut and fantastic color. the stylist noted the color details in my account, and I took a OT of phots of my cut. The next time I made appointment, that stylists was on maternity leave and I got someone else.
I HAVE NEVER GOTTEN AS GOOD A CUT AND COLOR AS THAT ONE TIME.
I can’t find the woman who cut and colored my hair — after she went on maternity leave, she didn’t return to the same place.
Can Ron Paul’s dream of auditing the Fed be far off?
==
Will we learn Fort Knox is empty?
==
Fort Knox is run by the U.S. Mint, not the Fed. It’s been about a dozen years since I crossed paths with a paulbot yapping about ‘auditing the Fed’. Not one of them ever said what they expected to learn from such an audit and what they thought the policy implications would be.
==
We do not benefit from gold. We benefit from responsible stewardship on the part of central bankers and legislators alike. We get more from the former than the latter, hence the federal deficit.
@FOAF:Time to start putting “nonprofit” in scare quotes. Maybe also “NGO”.
“Profit” is an accounting and taxation label. No organization can survive long if it doesn’t collect more than it spends. “No money, no mission”.
You can call that “more than it spends” what you like, but if you call it “profit” it’s exposed to taxation. But the thing itself is not different.
Rufus T. Firefly:
FYI — https://x.com/DataRepublican/status/1886647920566636637 would suffice for your link above.
Everything in a link from the first question mark and beyond is mostly information about the user, i.e. you.
@Art Deco:We do not benefit from gold.
This is worth unpacking. There’s about 3000 metric tons of gold mined every year, and about 210,000 metric tons of gold have ever been mined, 2/3 of it since 1950.
If we were using every bit of gold ever mined as currency, economic growth could never have exceeded about 1.5% annually without causing deflation–our economy has grown at about 3% annually (correcting for inflation) since 1960. Since deflation checks economic growth by discouraging investment and spending, I think it’s safe to say we’d have been somewhat poorer had we been tied to gold this whole time, though maybe not as much poorer as the difference between 3% and 1.5% growth would imply (over 50 years, about half the economic growth would have been lost according to the difference in rates). Followers of Austrian economics, at least those who haunt comment sections, might call that a feature instead of a bug.
I don’t know everything there is to know about money, but I do know there are very good reasons not to be using gold as money. I don’t know if the pros of using gold as money outweigh the very serious cons, but if they do some country is leaving lots of value on the table by not switching to it.
Related:
These two gems from Instapundit NOTHING the Democrats and their media fiends really want you to know…
IOW it’s all disinformation / misinformation…which is why the Democrats are apoplectic and even more hysterical than usual (which I didn’t believe was possible).
“NOTHING IS MORE FRIGHTENING TO THE OTHERWISE UNEMPLOYABLE THAN SEEING THEIR GRAVY TRAIN DERAILED”—
https://instapundit.com/700469/
“…Obama’s third term as president ends with a gasp and wheeze.“—
https://instapundit.com/700432/
Thanks, huxley!
“We do not benefit from gold.”
You revel in being a contrarian, Art Deco, but even you have to see how sophomoric that statement is.
I was being hyperbolic in my comment as an attempt at humor. The contents of Fort Knox is way down on my list of concerns, vis a vis the government.However, regarding an audit of the Fed, why shouldn’t every state and federal agency that accepts tax dollars be subject to audits? Would you continue to deposit money in your local bank if you knew they had a philosophy of never subjecting their holdings to independent audits?
@Rufus:an X post from DataRepublican, which is one of the main communication accounts used by DOGE.
DataRepublican was doing this long before DOGE, I don’t know if she works there now or works with them.
You revel in being a contrarian, Art Deco, but even you have to see how sophomoric that statement is.
==
I am not being a contrarian and the term ‘sophomoric’ does not mean what you fancy it means.
==
I think we would likely benefit from a stand-alone comptroller-general who generates the federal government’s general ledger and undertakes audits. I have no particular reason to believe the operating expenses of the Federal Reserve are more in need of auditing than any other component of the federal government, but the Fed is the boogie man as far as paulbots are concerned, so this is one of their shticks.
@Rufus:Regarding an audit of the Fed, why shouldn’t every state and federal agency that accepts tax dollars be subject to audits? Would you continue to deposit money in your local bank if you knew they had a philosophy of never subjecting their holdings to independent audits?
Besides the “one of these things is not like the other”, what do you expect to learn by an audit of the Fed? For other entities you named, they take in tax money and they spend it on things, and an audit would be sure that all their numbers are right and that they only spent on things they were supposed to spend on and they had all their supporting documentation. But the Fed is a central bank. (Are you confusing them with the US Treasury?)
What is it you think the Fed does that an audit would reveal was done wrong? I’m not saying we know them to be staffed by saints and angels, I’m just wondering what wrong or illegal things a central bank might be doing? Cheating other banks out of their interest payments? Adding an extra zero to a quantitative easing? Not actually paying people for the bonds they buy? Skimming fractional cents from checks they process? I’m baffled.
@Nonapod:Medicare costs around 1.5 trillion a year. HHS estimated around $51 billion in “improper payments” occurred in 2023. Seems optimistic at a glance. It may be in HHS’s interest to understimate this figure.
Social Security costs 1.5 trillion. The SSA estimates only $13 billion in improper payments, which also seems a little low to me.
I think I agree about Medicare because there really is a lot of complex activity going on there, and billing for services that don’t really need to be done, or never were done, is hard to catch, and there’s so many providers out there who have the capability to do it.
I think the Social Security figures are more plausible because there’s so much less going on. It’s not so easy to create fake retired people the way you could create fake medical services. I’m sure there are people who use false documents to get on Social Security, especially those who come in as disabled, and I’ve heard of people not reporting deaths of relatives to continue collecting their Social Security checks, but these are hard for most people who have dealings with Social Security to even get an opportunity to do.
Rufus T. Firefly, thanks for the link. “Holy Snikeys” indeed.
“If we were using every bit of gold ever mined as currency, economic growth could never have exceeded about 1.5% annually without causing deflation” – Niketas C.
Why would be use the gold or whatever commodity we using as currency? Wouldn’t we use use gold certificates or silver certificates? That would allow for a fractional reserve banking system while providing a stable value for our currency.
Niketas,
Whether there are substantive things to be uncovered, or not, is meaningless. Everything that does not risk harm to U.S. civilians (a security risk) should be done as transparently as possible. And claims of security risks should require extraordinary proof.
Government of the people, for the people, by the people.
I mean no offense, I enjoy your comments, but you sound a bit like Raddatz or Brennan; “it’s only a few apartment buildings,” “it’s only 1% of the budget.”
My wife and I share all our accounts and have access to review what one another are doing. I have never suspected she would defraud me nor hide anything from me, and I believe she feels the same about me, but why wouldn’t we keep everything in the open with one another?
Other than national security, what possible reason can exist for non-transparent government activity in our Republic?
Recently there are accusations in the press that China lied about the true costs of its DeepSeek AI. There are frequent allegations of the Chinese government manipulating its currency. Why are these news stories? Because we recognize a government that hides things, that is not transparent, as suspect and not trustworthy.
Speaking of “improper payments”, the GAO estimates the government made $236 billion in improper payments in fy2023.
I wish the article said how much of the money has been recovered!
Federal Government Made $236 billion “Improper Payments” Last Fiscal Year
https://www.gao.gov/blog/federal-government-made-236-billion-improper-payments-last-fiscal-year
Niketas,
I may be mistaken, but I thought I read recently (the past few days) that DataRepublican was working with DOGE. If she(?) is independent, how did she get access to the USAID database? Maybe it had already been publicly available?
Not being sarcastic. Sincerely curious.
@Brian E:Why would be use the gold or whatever commodity we using as currency? Wouldn’t we use use gold certificates or silver certificates?
If governments printed certificates for more gold or silver than they have, wouldn’t that just be the same kind of money printing they do now? What does the metallic standard even do in that case? What would have stopped Biden from printing a couple trillion in silver certificates in 2021? And how would the money supply not have been inflated?
@Rufus:I mean no offense, I enjoy your comments, but you sound a bit like Raddatz or Brennan; “it’s only a few apartment buildings,” “it’s only 1% of the budget.”
I said nothing whatever that is anything like this. I asked you, what do you think the Fed does, that an audit would uncover they were doing it wrong?
Where do you think they get their money? What do you think they spend it on?
The Fed is not like your local bank. “Arcane” is probably the most suitable word I can think of to describe their operations. They buy and sell bonds, they set interest rates, they let other banks deposit with them, they clear checks and facilitate the movement of funds from one bank to the other, and that’s all I understand about what they do, and I’m not seeing much scope for things like Medicare fraud which I understand very well.
For years the Fed was giving back the interest on the bonds they owned to the US Treasury…
@Rufus:If she(?) is independent, how did she get access to the USAID database?
I didn’t think she did, I thought she worked with publicly available data. That’s what she was doing pre-DOGE anyway.
This is what she describes doing, dated January 28th:
Andrea Widburg with a splendid recap:
“Trump’s Attack On The Deep State Is Spectacular And Almost Certainly Legal”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/trumps-attack-deep-state-spectacular-and-almost-certainly-legal
Key grafs:
One can certainly understand why the Democrats are so freakin’ angry…
By the way, you can download the entire Federal Awards database here. It’s huge (on the order of 500GB) and it’s pretty complex. It’s a Postges SQL database, so you have to set up a Posgres server on a decent PC to host it. But Postgres itself is totally free and available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. I have downloaded this database before for my work and it took something like 3 days with a relatively fast internet connection, and then it took another several hours to run a full restore to load in up into my Postgres server. You end up with a bunch of tables that have the names, addresses, awarding agency, and amounts of money that various organizations and individuals have recieved as federal grants going back to the early 1980s. Some of the names and addresses are redacted, but the actual amounts aren’t usually. It’s certainly interesting data though.
Fortunatly the USAspending website also has an online search tool for it here.
Art Deco @2:21pm,
What do you fancy I fancy it means, then?
Niketas, Nonapod,
That’s even better!
Who should not wear an Apple Watch?
Espionage expert’s chilling plea to JD Vance: ‘There’s a significant counterintelligence risk’
Is this another mistake by the DEI Secret Service?
Niketas,
I have read, “The Creature from Jekyll Island.”
I’m likely in the top 1/3 or 1/4 of Americans, regarding knowledge of the Federal Reserve, but I’m still woefully ignorant. Its operations could not be more convoluted if they tried. And I think they try.
You listed some minor things that might be found in an audit, indicating that they are fiscally insignificant. Therefore, there’s no point in doing an audit. The same thing was true of Enron and FTX. If both corporations were following the law an audit is a waste of time.
But sometimes people don’t do what they claim they are doing. And, sometimes, knowing that their actions will be made public keeps some people from behaving criminally.
However, that is besides the point. This is not China. Government should be transacted out in the open, transparently. Until 2021 did you suspect some people in the U.S. government had found a way to fund gain of function research in foreign countries using tax payer dollars, despite Obama’s freeze on such funding?
Niketas, during the gold standard years, the federal reserve was required to hold 40% of the value of the currency they issued in gold, so it was never 1:1. (They never physically held the gold).
It would be nice if we had some benchmark to peg the dollar to, but it would be a good start for our government to get it’s spending under control.
@Rufus:You listed some minor things that might be found in an audit, indicating that they are fiscally insignificant. Therefore, there’s no point in doing an audit.
That all your opinion of what you think I might have intended by saying it, none of that is what I said. I never said those things were “minor”. I never said “fiscally insignificant”. I never said “no point”.
You’re still not answering my question: what do you think the Fed might be doing wrong that could be turned up by doing an audit? I know, for example, what could be turned up by auditing Medicare billing. I know what could be turned up by auditing a small business. I have experience with audits. I don’t know what you’d expect to find, in terms of what the Fed does. If you’re not sure what the Fed even does how do you know an “audit” is even the right thing to do? How do you know they’re not audited all the time? They already release audited financial statements. What do you think is wrong with those?
The Fed’s business is with other banks that have accountants and auditors of their own, so why are they not saying anything if the Fed is somehow cheating them? But you’re not willing or able to say if that’s what you think the Fed is doing wrong, and you just keep saying “audit the Fed” even though they are already audited all the time…
@Brian E:Niketas, during the gold standard years, the federal reserve was required to hold 40% of the value of the currency they issued in gold, so it was never 1:1.
If they are always required to hold the same % of the currency in gold, then the currency cannot grow faster than the gold supply, which is about 1.5% annually, and so this does not address my point about deflation. If they are allowed to change that %-age at will, then they have the same power over the currency that they do now and there’s no reason to tie it to the metallic standard.
Niketas @4:17pm,
In 1925 a Ford Model T cost about $260, about 20% of a line worker’s salary.
In 2024 they earn about $40/hour and a Ford Maverick pickup costs about $26k, or about 30% of a line worker’s salary. So a line worker works about 2.5 to 3 months to buy a truck.
What do the number of digits to the left of the decimal point have to do with the ratios and the wage earner’s purchasing power?
Niketas @4:15pm,
I’m not answering your question because I see your question as moot. You do not. There is no reason for a debate as we don’t agree on the premise. You may be correct regarding your premise, but I don’t want to spend a few hours reading Ron Paul speeches on Libertarian websites. (Have you ever met and talked to a Libertarian? 😉 )
Here is my stance, again, in case restating it will make it clearer.
Using your philosophy why would the FDA ever do an examination of the Hershey chocolate works in Hershey, PA? It’s against Hershey’s self interests to poison their customers. They show every indication of putting a lot of time and money into health and safety training among their employees. They purchase expensive equipment to randomly test their food products.
And even if there is some small mis-step, a batch of eggs from one of their suppliers has salmonella… Most of it will be neutralized during the production process. Large scale death and disease are unlikely.
However, I think the vast majority of American consumers want to know they have a non-biased inspector keeping companies safe, and honest. The FDA publishes their findings and Hershey is required to list anomalies to their consumers; “so and so many insect parts per pound…”
What is the case for non-independent oversight of the Fed? Why not do it? And, especially now with AI tools. The labor is greatly reduced.
I see the news that Biden has signed with major talent agency CAA.*
Seeing as how Biden is now an ex-President, and unable give out flashy award medals, or to dole out favors, I don’t see the appeal.
As he sinks ever further downward into very obvious dementia, what do they expect Biden to be able to do–appear in commercials, go on a nationwide speaking tour, actually write a book?
* See https://www.cbsnews.com/news/joe-biden-caa-powerhouse-talent-agency/
Re: CAA
Snow on Pine:
Lenny Bruce performed a brilliant routine, “Adolf Hitler and the MCA.” where he portrayed Hitler as being recruited by a talent agency in search of a dictator. I suspect MCA was Bruce’s disguised reference to CAA.
_________________________________________
Miss Braun, sweetie, send in the dictator type…
Sit down. We’re trying to find a dictator today. We have no script, a couple pages. We don’t know where the hell we’re going with the project. We just want to see how you guys move, that’s all. Just adlib it.
–Lenny Bruce, “Adolf Hitler and the MCA”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtgCJv3CmEY
_________________________________________
Still brilliant.
Upon further research, in the 50s MCA was “Musical Corporation of America.” It was called “the Octopus” in its day.
Trump says US will take over Gaza Strip with troops ‘if necessary’
Is that some kind of cost cutting for the American Taxpayer?! Maybe a negotiating tactic?!?
AesopFan, thank you for the free e-books link in yesterday’s Open Thread! 🙂
…………………………………………………….
Back in the day I read a book claiming that Ronald Reagan was controlled by MCA, which was controlled by the Mafia. I don’t know if it was true, but the author seemed to make a strong case.
I still think RR was one of our best Presidents.
Ukraine is still killing massive amounts of Russian troops…
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, February 4, 2025:
Hopefully President Trump doesn’t let Russia off-the-hook – and then also gives them Ukraine…
Mentioned @ February 4, 2025 at 9:52 pm that President Trump had brought this up – but this one is the reaction to it:
Trump’s bold proposal to ‘take over’ the Gaza Strip draws outrage from Washington to Rafah amid fears it will lead to bloody US occupation
Like I said earlier – “Maybe a negotiating tactic” but sure sounds like a real estate developer’s spiel…
Why the Future of Energy … May Be Underwater
[Trump’s] thinking with the opportunistic sensibility of a real estate developer…
If he could straighten out the !*?& over there, might be a good spot for a Trump hotel.
Was listening to a computer security podcast talking about the vast numbers of DDoS attacks which flood websites with bots to try to knock them offline.
In re the auditing of the Treasury and then the Fed –
Today the pits, tomorrow the wrinkles. Trump marches on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh9e0ZGp5d4
Niketas Choniates on February 4, 2025 at 1:58 pm
“If we were using every bit of gold ever mined as currency, economic growth could never have exceeded about 1.5% annually without causing deflation–our economy has grown at about 3% annually (correcting for inflation) since 1960. …
I don’t know everything there is to know about money, but I do know there are very good reasons not to be using gold as money. I don’t know if the pros of using gold as money outweigh the very serious cons, but if they do some country is leaving lots of value on the table by not switching to it.”
I don’t know everything there is to know about money (or banking specifically) either, but I agree with you 110%. Money lubricates the economy, it does not “fuel” it. If your economy needs an extra 1 or 2% of money available to grow, then fiat money (properly and wisely managed) is still the way to go compared to any other “commodity” version. Unfortunately we have to wish and hope and pray that the government managers are truly wise and virtuous. For those of you who do pray, I fear your prayers in this regard have not been answered for some time.
and Ditto for: Niketas Choniates on February 4, 2025 at 4:17 pm
” If they are allowed to change that %-age at will, then they have the same power over the currency that they do now and there’s no reason to tie it to the metallic standard.”
Then again, a couple of famous people have said “we have met the enemy, and it is us!” A sovereign citizenry should have a responsive AND responsible Congress. We need to ask more about why we don’t right now. The DOGE crew may well be providing some early answers.