George Rebane
[This is the transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 27 September 2013.]
Something happened this week that will change the course of our country and our lives, something that few people noticed. It happened while we were all in a lather about defunding Obamacare and funding government; while we worried about Iran’s nuclear bomb building and Syria’s civil war; while realizing that today Al Qaeda is stronger than ever, and while we are forgivably exercised about the sophomoric foreign policy and demonstrated ineptness the Obama administration has shown us during the last years. And rightly so, but going forward, that is not what will trouble us most.
First, let’s put a bow on Obamacare. The Republicans’ attempts to defund that legislative debacle will go nowhere. The Senate will not pass anything that calls for such a castration, and the President will not relegate himself to sing soprano for the remainder of his term. All the Republicans can do is to make themselves the scapegoats should it ever come down to a government shutdown.
But we do note that Obama’s continued refusal to negotiate legislation funding the government, on the excuse that we should always pay bills due through congressional commitments, is disingenuous to say the least. His message is that such a negotiation would be the height of impropriety in governance. Never mind that precisely such negotiations have been conducted by presidents of both parties for decades. However, that point is not accessible to our government educated citizens. These folks, enlightened by the current lamestream media, will never hear of it.
Eighty years coming, Obamacare remains the fulfillment of the entitlement state. It is the natural add-on to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and a slew of other entitlements. If Obamacare works, then the US is on a one-way road to socialism – no ifs ands or buts. And there’s the rub and reward of letting that unaffordable Affordable Care Act swing into operation as planned. Americans will never renounce the socialist path if Obamacare is defeated by a complex congressional vote. They need to see it swing into action unimpeded. And when it then crashes and burns, then the resulting pain across the land just may convince us that socialism is not the future for America.
But let’s get back to the important stuff. The Open Market Committee of the Fed met this week, and chairman Bernanke calmly announced that all the talk of ‘tapering off QE3’, or the current quantitative easing, is history. You will recall that during the past year the Fed has been pumping about $85B a month or over $1T a year of new fiat money into the economy. That is in addition to the multitude of new Obama taxes, and the ongoing borrowing that continues to increase our nation’s debt.
What the Fed really did this Wednesday is announce that we now have a new, ongoing, and permanent national policy. Economics professor and investment pundit Ben Hunt puts it into sharp focus – “What Bernanke signaled this week is that QE is no longer an emergency government measure, but is now a permanent government program. In exactly the same way that retirement and poverty insurance became permanent government programs in the aftermath of the Great Depression, so now is deflation and growth insurance well on its way to becoming a permanent government program in the aftermath of the Great Recession. The rate of (the Fed’s) asset purchases may wax and wane in the years to come, and might even be negative for short periods of time, but the program itself will never be unwound.”
The Federal Reserve, historically charged only with maintaining stable prices, has donned a new mantle, or should we call it an ermine robe. It will now become the final arbiter – judge, jury, and executioner – of the country’s economy in a manner that only an agent that can print unlimited paper dollars can assume. We rejoice that the federal government will never again run short of cash, no matter the condition of the economy or how much it decides to spend. QE3 is forever – debt and deficits be damned.
My name is Rebane, and I also expand on this and related themes on NCTV and georgerebane.com where the transcript of this commentary is posted with relevant links, and where such issues are debated extensively. However my views are not necessarily shared by KVMR. Thank you for listening.
rebanesruminations.com 
Leave a comment