Guest Post by Simon Black
At precisely 9:26pm this past Friday night, May 15th, the House of Representatives in the United States passed the “Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act.”
For short, they call it the HEROES Act.
And yes, it’s as ridiculous as it sounds.
Bear in mind that Congress passed the first bailout bill– the “Families First Coronavirus Response Act” on March 14th. That set the taxpayers back $1.3 trillion.
Less than two weeks later, Congress passed the “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act”, or CARES, which cost a hefty $2 trillion.
A few weeks after that, they passed another half-trillion dollar bill, the “Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act,” which, sadly, did not come with a catchy acronym.
Are you keeping score? In total that’s around $3.8 trillion in federal bailouts.
And now on top of that, the House just passed the HEROES Act, which adds another $3 TRILLION to that total.
If the HEROES Act becomes law, that will bring the total bailouts in the Land of the Free to nearly $7 trillion, more than 30% of the entire US economy!
The HEROES Act itself is extraordinary. At 1,815 pages and nearly 300,000 words, it’s more than twice as long as the New Testament.
And I spent several hours this weekend reading it.
With a high-sounding name like “HEROES,” I naively thought the focus of the bill is to take care of front-line healthcare workers.
But I was wrong.
HEROES hands over taxpayer money to everyone from the Fish and Wildlife Service to the National Endowment for the Humanities.
There’s money for school lunches, broadband Internet access in rural areas and tribal lands, prison phone calls, “environmental justice grants,” and pretty much anything else you can think of.
There’s a phrase they use in this bill over and over again: “to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus. . .”
For example, they’re giving the General Services Administration (GSA) $1 billion to modernize their technology… leading a rational person to wonder,
“Hey wait a minute– what does that have to do with Covid?”
Nothing. And that’s why they include those magic words– The GSA will receive $1 billion “to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus.”
Oh gee, then I guess it makes sense.
It reminds me of right after 9/11, nearly two decades ago. Back then the government could get away with anything they wanted. They just had to use the magic words “for your safety and security,” or “in the interest of national security.”
They were able to pass the most insidious laws and say the most ridiculous things. But as long as it was for your safety and security, it was all OK.
Today it’s the same thing.
If this HEROES bill passes, for example, the National Endowment for the Humanities will receive a bunch of taxpayer money “to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus.”
Wait, what? What does one thing have to do with another?
Nothing. It’s just empty justification to spend all the money they ever wanted.
But astonishingly, even this doesn’t seem to be enough.
Last night the news show 60 Minutes aired an interview with the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, who expressed clear concern that all the government spending and all the federal reserve money printing so far might not be enough:
Reporter: “In terms of stimulus, has Congress done enough?”
Fed Chairman: “. . . I don’t think we know the answer to that. It may well be that the Fed has to do more. It may be that Congress has to do more.”
The interview was pretty extraordinary– the Fed Chairman didn’t bother sugarcoating what they’re doing–
Reporter: “Fair to say you simply flooded the system with money?”
Fed Chairman: “Yes. We did. That’s another way to think about it. We did.”
Reporter: “Where does it come from? Do you just print it?”
Fed Chairman: “We print it digitally. So as a central bank, we have the ability to create money digitally. And we do that by buying Treasury Bills or bonds for other government guaranteed securities. And that actually increases the money supply. We also print actual currency and we distribute that through the Federal Reserve banks.”
Reporter: “In terms of size, Mr. Chairman, how does what the Fed is doing right now compare to the unprecedented action it took in 2008?”
Fed Chairman: “So the things we’re doing now are substantially larger. The asset purchases that we’re doing are a multiple of the programs that were done during the last crisis. . .”
That pretty much sums it up–
The government is on track to have a nearly $7 trillion bill for Covid so far, while the Federal Reserve has already expanded its balance sheet by nearly $3 trillion.
And even with that bonanza of money, they’re still not sure if it’s enough.
They acknowledge that they’re simply [digitally] printing money, and that the size of the problem is MUCH bigger than the last crisis.
He then acknowledges later in the interview– sure there will be consequences to all the debt and money printing, but we’ll worry about it later: “This is not the time to prioritize that concern.”
So, on top of everything else, they’re flat-out telling you that there are going to be problems down the road… but they’re going to keep printing and going into debt regardless.
No one here is being subtle.
And you’re not some wild conspiracy theorist to think that there might be consequences down the road. The Federal Reserve is telling us that this is the case.
And they’re also telling us that they’re going forward with their plan to print money and facilitate government debt regardless of the long-term damage.
If that’s not a reason to own precious metals and real assets, I don’t know what else could be.
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“That pretty much sums it up”
only if you understand the implications of what they’re doing.
they will have money, to have and buy and support whatever they like, whenever they like, to any degree they like. you will provide the labor to give it all to them, or you won’t have money for food.
that sums it up.
“And even with that bonanza of money, they’re still not sure if it’s enough.”
it’s not money. it’s debt. of course it’s not enough.
Of course it’s not enough. Just consider who the money is really for.
$250 billion paid to Americans from a $2.2 trillion bill.
That leaves a few bucks left after the few Americans get their diversion funds.
“Just consider who the money is really for.”
it’s not money. it’s debt. printed up debt, repaid with labor, at interest.
What about the WTF Act or the FUBAR Act?
Personally, I don’t care anymore, gimme sum muni.
We didn’t get a single fucking penny of our money back in the first bailout of 2020, and sure as hell don’t expect any in this latest giveaway. Not brown enough, poor enough or rich enough I suppose.
Yeah i’m sure i won’t see a dime of it, bet persons with stock options in china based corporations will see some tho.
I did not get a stimulus check because i make too much. I would have at least expected a tax credit. Just because i work my ass off and get paid for my expertise does not mean i have not taken a 30% decline in income. The higher income bracket pays for all this and we got nothing. We deserve at least tax credit or we can john galt your asses and you get nut fucked zero….
“The higher income bracket pays for all this and we got nothing.”
what, you want the ticks to give you a share of what they take from you? that makes no sense at all. next up, ubi.
“we can john galt your asses”
(shrug) can you?
Twice as long as the New Testament?
How about 3.5 times as long as ANOTHER TESTAMENT aka the Boom of Mormon?
The Bible is great, but it has a fair amount of bloat.
“The Bible is great, but it has a fair amount of bloat.”
well it wasn’t written by one guy.
Got Gold?
got rice?
Susan?
Nope. They will convince the world they too can create their digital currency and as long as the ratios of other countries debts stay the same vs the usa debt nothing has changed as ratios go. Therefore, they will all, together, continue to look away from a real currency like gold backed. Until a super power like china or russia declare their own currency will be backed by gold and are fiscally responsible then everyone will immediately turn to that currency as a stay of value. If some small no name like Libya or Iraq who tried this, the usa will take them out like we did….it was an example made. China or russia will have to do it stealthily and very very quickly nearly overnight otherwise the usa will bring forth a narrative of distrust and fear mongering of war and try to Libya or Iraq them too. But if it is done quickly, faster than the narrative machine can convince the sheeple here it will work….what they found is if people get $1,000 a month free they will allow their govt to do any damned thing they want. People do not understand money or wealth. Much less assets. They only know a few dollars gets them something they want immediately. That is all they care about and this was proven a fact recently. We are on a steep fast slippery slope and I really wonder if precious metals is a waste of time and money. I feel it is for me but maybe not my grandkids. Because we all know history repeats and when there is no trust left in a currency it always finds a foundation in gold. Always. But the problem is the grandkids will probably not understand the nuggets they inherited and have been brainwashed and have no idea the leverage of wealth that they inherited……and will once again be wasted and confiscated without a fight.
“Until a super power like china or russia declare their own currency will be backed by gold”
would you trust them?
“and are fiscally responsible”
the chinese communist party ruling class families are duplicitous – it’s a feature of their culture for 3000 years. their present financial and fiscal bubble puts the fed’s to shame. their only concern is getting and holding permanent power – they’ll be responsible to that, not to anyone or anything else.
It’s all fun and games til a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk costs you $1,000. Meanwhile back at the ranch everything you own is only worth 10% of it’s value due to deflation. At that point, you understand WHY you should have purchased a tail hedge like gold. It is insurance against this kind of craziness.