Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Throwing the dollar under the bus...


As we come to the close of the year, we have many challenges facing the country. These challenges seem nearly insurmountable. This very morning, I learned that the dollar, the currency that has been the world’s reserve currency for nearly 65 years, is facing disaster. The government has so inflated the money supply that the currency is nearly worthless on the world markets. We have so much debt that the world believes us incapable of anything resembling fiscal responsibility. There are rumblings that the world financial community might even throw the dollar “under the bus” in favor of the Euro or the Yen or a commodity like gold or a combination of all of the above. This would be a disaster for us as a country as we have relied on dollar supremacy to fund the ridiculous spending practices of our government.

In the seminal work, “Democracy in America”, by Alexis de Tocqueville, the author stated “a democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it”. Both major political parties, Republicans and Democrats have been guilty of this. He further stated, “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money”. In that, Masseur de Tocqueville was a prophet. We have now reached the point where reason has been suspended in favor of more largesse for the people at public expense. The costs of which can be funded or financed via taxes or debt which can be deferred. The congress and the executive branch have seemingly lost control of themselves in an effort to see who can give away the most to the greatest number of people, thus “buying” the votes necessary to remain in power. The level of dependency on selling our debt overseas has reached critical mass. What’s more, the major holders of the mortgages (Communist China, Russia, and the Persian Gulf oil monarchies) that have been written on our futures are seemingly positioning themselves to call the notes.

What of the responsibility of the people in this rising tide of financial and social decay?

They, the people, are absolutely responsible for what we suffer today and must now reassert the common sense and fiscal responsibility necessary to reverse certain disaster. True conservatives must stop being so one-dimensional in their views, so stuck strictly on a single issue like reproductive rights, gun rights, gay rights or indeed, “rights” of any group or individual. We must begin to look outside our own pet concerns and worry about the very survival and solubility of the republic. Without our fiscal, monetary, and general economic issues being addressed and made secure, those other concerns become immaterial as the nation will cease to exist. The people must stop electing politicians to office just because they bring home the cash and benefits they have become accustomed to. We must realize that we can’t expect government to provide for our every need and want, to “level the playing field and ensure prosperous outcomes for all”. We must insist instead on the freedom to pursue our own means and insist government stop spending beyond its means and financing all manner of government give-aways on the backs of those of us who are productive and taking care of ourselves.

All men (and women) may have been created equal endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, such as Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, but nowhere, anywhere does it say that all will have an equal outcome of their pursuits or that they will all attain Happiness, even at the expense of their fellow man, thus depriving them of their full and just due.

We have to make fundamental changes in what we can expect government to do, and indeed what it should do. If we don’t, the rest of the world will force the issue, and when it happens (not “if”...) it will be very ugly indeed. Already Russia, Communist China, the Arab oil states in the Persian Gulf are beginning to make loud noises that in the near future, they won’t take our dollars for oil and other goods we rely on everyday. If that happens, if they kick the dollar to the curb as a reserve currency, this nation will see financial and economic damage worse than anything that was seen in the 1930’s. For those who think this can’t or won’t happen, I ask them to consider that the nations that hold our debt are in much better shape economically than we are and that they are developing nations who could survive any economic hit that would occur if the dollar collapses. They have the mineral and economic resources, the political will, a singularity of purpose and an intrinsic dislike of America and her institutions that would allow them to make the calculation to dump the dollar and/or call our Treasury Notes at the first opportunity, and failing to pay back what we owe, the world would and could simply let us go, and we would be powerless to stop the disaster that would follow.

I am reminded once again of Masseur de Tocqueville and his view of Americans. He said in his book “The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.”

I think we have the time to correct what needs to be corrected if we muster the will to end the liberal penchant to create dependency. We can reverse course from certain disaster if we revive conservative practices and instill conservative principles into the next generation. We must elect conservative candidates to elective office so that they can begin to dismantle and reverse the destructive policies of their predecessors. We must completely discard the antiquated 19th century tax system and system of financial supports and ruinous bail-outs that are crippling the private sector and impoverishing the nation by removing capitol from the system to support failing businesses because they are allegedly “too big to fail”. We must make it possible to utilize our natural resource base again and to revitalize our industry so we can employ Americans and make the products that Americans can buy. We must encourage businesses to start here or come here instead of outsourcing or moving off-shore, especially in the manufacturing sector. We must free the people of this country from the crushing burdens that government has placed on them by casting off old ideas of entitlement and dependency and encourage self-sufficiency and enterprise that built this nation in the beginning.

We have always been the nation of big ideas and even bigger accomplishments. We can still be that if we return to the roots of what made us that for over two hundred years. The time to repair the faults is at hand.
As we come to the close of the year, we have many challenges facing the country. These challenges seem nearly insurmountable. This very morning, I learned that the dollar, the currency that has been the world’s reserve currency for nearly 65 years, is facing disaster. The government has so inflated the money supply that the currency is nearly worthless on the world markets. We have so much debt that the world believes us incapable of anything resembling fiscal responsibility. There are rumblings that the world financial community might even throw the dollar “under the bus” in favor of the Euro or the Yen or a commodity like gold or a combination of all of the above. This would be a disaster for us as a country as we have relied on dollar supremacy to fund the ridiculous spending practices of our government.

In the seminal work, “Democracy in America”, by Alexis de Tocqueville, the author stated “a democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it”. Both major political parties, Republicans and Democrats have been guilty of this. He further stated, “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money”. In that, Masseur de Tocqueville was a prophet. We have now reached the point where reason has been suspended in favor of more largesse for the people at public expense. The costs of which can be funded or financed via taxes or debt which can be deferred. The congress and the executive branch have seemingly lost control of themselves in an effort to see who can give away the most to the greatest number of people, thus “buying” the votes necessary to remain in power. The level of dependency on selling our debt overseas has reached critical mass. What’s more, the major holders of the mortgages (Communist China, Russia, and the Persian Gulf oil monarchies) that have been written on our futures are seemingly positioning themselves to call the notes.

What of the responsibility of the people in this rising tide of financial and social decay?

They, the people, are absolutely responsible for what we suffer today and must now reassert the common sense and fiscal responsibility necessary to reverse certain disaster. True conservatives must stop being so one-dimensional in their views, so stuck strictly on a single issue like reproductive rights, gun rights, gay rights or indeed, “rights” of any group or individual. We must begin to look outside our own pet concerns and worry about the very survival and solubility of the republic. Without our fiscal, monetary, and general economic issues being addressed and made secure, the rest are immaterial as the nation will cease to exist. The people must stop electing politicians to office just because they bring home the cash and benefits they have become accustomed to and realize that we can’t expect government to provide for our every need and want, to “level the playing field and ensure prosperous outcomes for all”. We must insist instead on the freedom to pursue our own means and insist government stop spending beyond its means and financing all manner of government give-aways on the backs of those of us who are taking care of ourselves.

All men (and women) may have been created equal endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, such as Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, but nowhere, anywhere does it say that all will have an equal outcome of their pursuits or that they will all attain Happiness, even at the expense of their fellow man, thus depriving them of their full and just due.

We have to make fundamental changes in what we can expect government to do, and indeed what it should do. If we don’t, the rest of the world will force the issue, and when it happens (not “if”...) it will be very ugly indeed. Already Russia, Communist China, the Arab oil states in the Persian Gulf are beginning to make loud noises that in the near future, they won’t take our dollars for oil and other goods we rely on everyday. If that happens, if they kick the dollar to the curb as a reserve currency, this nation will see financial and economic damage worse than anything that was seen in the 1930’s. For those who think this can’t or won’t happen, I ask them to consider that the nations that hold our debt are in much better shape economically than we are and that they are developing nations who could survive any economic hit that would occur if the dollar collapses. They have the resources, the political will, a singularity of purpose and an intrinsic dislike of America and her institutions that would allow them to make the calculation to dump the dollar and/or call our Treasury Notes at the first opportunity, and failing to pay back what we owe, the world would and could simply let us go, and we would be powerless to stop the disaster that would follow.

I am reminded once again of Masseur de Tocqueville and his view of Americans. He said in his book “The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.”

I think we have the time to correct what needs to be corrected if we muster the will to end the liberal penchant to create dependency. We can reverse course from certain disaster if we revive conservative practices and instill conservative principles into the next generation. We must elect conservative candidates to elective office so that they can begin to dismantle and reverse the destructive policies of their predecessors. We must completely discard the antiquated 19th century tax system and system of financial supports and ruinous bail-outs that are crippling the private sector and impoverishing the nation by removing capitol from the system to support failing businesses because they are allegedly “too big to fail”. We must make it possible to utilize our natural resource base again and to revitalize our industry so we can employ Americans and make the products that Americans can buy. We must encourage businesses to start here or come here instead of outsourcing or moving off-shore, especially in the manufacturing sector. We must free the people of this country from the crushing burdens that government has placed on them by casting off old ideas of entitlement and dependency and encourage self-sufficiency and enterprise that built this nation in the beginning.

We have always been the nation of big ideas and even bigger accomplishments. We can still be that if we return to the roots of what made us that for over two hundred years. The time to repair the faults is at hand.

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