Nibble, Nibble, Like A Mouse

 

The headline of a recent article at Bloomberg, by Alex Tanzi, caught my eye: “One-Third of Americans Making $250,000 Live Paycheck-to-Paycheck, Survey Finds.” The author likely intended a little shock value. However, my reaction was, “yes, of course!” Allow me to explain (again).

“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” (Exodus 22:18). Thou damned sure shouldn’t suffer one in charge of thy economy. Alas, thou hath done that, and worse.

Janet Yellen is the current, putative Secretary of the Treasury. She was formerly the head of the Federal Reserve. She has a Ph.D. in economics from Yale. She is possessed of that most-mythical “high” 115 average IQ. Ever channeling the wisdom of Keynes and the spirit of Baal, she has haunted the monetary world for over forty years. Accordingly, she is as fucking wicked and stupid as they come. 

Who knew that pumping, what, twenty trillion dollars into an already flooded money supply could possibly lead to more inflation? Certainly not a putative Treasury Secretary. It’s like adding wood to the fire and not expecting to roast small children. “Opps, y’all. Wrong path. My bad!”

Yes, I know. She’s but the latest in a never-ending line of alleged experts who somehow manage to get everything wrong, shrug, screw things up even more, and then ride off leaving the rest of us to dodge the debris. She’s just the only one that my sources tell me lives in a gingerbread house in the dark woods – a matter I cannot independently verify.

Herein, I’m about to repeat some economic comparatives, mostly from memory and based on mental estimates, that I’ve been reciting for years now. Sources? If you can’t trust me or do your own research, then consult the archives at this blog, my TPC columns, FP columns, and PPN episodes. If that’s not good enough, then just follow a white bird deeper into the forest. 

I will give you this:

(US Debt Clock, 6/1/22. It’s worse now).

The first number, from left to right, is speculative. The second is highly speculative. The third is essentially science fiction fantasy. The Treasury Dollars figure is the only “lawful” money in the economy. Theoretically, it might be kind of backed by gold or something more than mere lies and threats; almost all of it is off-limits to the sheep. M2 is a play-pretend accounting of the Fed’s fiat to include that colorful paper in the wallet. The Derivatives+ sum is a wild guess at the total (fake) value of all the loans, bets, hedges, and voodoo swirling around the whole economy. This is the fulfillment of Gresham’s Law. The slightest adjustment, possible under multiple scenarios, places the ratio of real money to nonexistent fantasy money at around 1:1,000,000. Statistically, there is zero money. Thus, as I keep writing, there is no money in the economy. This is the end result of over a century of mass financialization, of rebuilding the economy and money supply completely on fake debt. It has driven all real value into the hands of a tiny, elite group of evil criminals. And it has left even those of the ordinary masses earning a quarter-million (fake) dollars per year living “paycheck-to-paycheck.” As with the schools, the shootings, the demographics, and the false flags, this is what you get.

Seventy years ago, which something tells me was 1952, the average wage in the old US was approximately 75% of the cost of the average house in the old US. Both numbers were, then, well under $10,000. The average wage was calculated from all occupations – executives, firemen, teachers, carpenters, farmers, lawyers, etc. It typically represented the work of the sole breadwinner in a household, generally the husband. Since 1952, all prices have increased. However, wages have lagged waaaaaaaaay the hell behind the rest. 

Today, household income accounts for all parties within the household who are working. That may mean a total of two jobs. Or four. Or more. Boomer, this is why your dad’s factory job more than provided for you and your three siblings and why your only son and his partner can’t afford to live or give you grandchildren even as they work two “good” jobs each. 

Assuming inflation as it actually happened, but also assuming that average wages had kept pace with the cost of the average house, then the current average wage would be around $300,000 per year. On average. For all occupations. With one income earner. Interestingly enough, the wage increase would be roughly the same, allowing for actual, as-it-happened inflation, had the dollar remained tethered to a gold-silver standard. Funny, no? No. But dead serious. So it is that those making $250,000 a year are on the low side of average. Their barely getting by isn’t hard to fathom with the correct math. 

In sad, modern reality, most Americans are lucky to bring home one-tenth of what they should earn. I read somewhere recently that Massachusetts has the highest average income, on the order of $75,000 per year. That, honestly adjusted out, is about what minimum wage should average across the country. Of course, in a more expensive place like Mass, the national average would be comparatively low. 

The terrible thing is that my afore-referenced accounting is based on pre-2020 information. Thanks to Yellen, Brandon, Orange Man, and the rest of the gang, elected and selected, things are getting even worse. How much worse? We’re finding out, now, and we will keep finding out. Hang on to something.

As bad as things are, and have been, most people still either don’t get it, don’t care to understand it, or simply refuse to acknowledge reality. I figure that once the booze, the dope, and the TeeVee are interrupted for more than a day or three, things will heat up. Dramatically. Time will tell.

What’s the solution? “FIRE!” immediately jumped into my mind. But there’s another single word that would, if applied, start to do wonders. One will find that word (starts with a “J”) repeated several times in a row in the book after Exodus in that old Bible no one likes to read or believe in anymore. Or, of course, we could just lay down a trail of breadcrumbs, hope for the best, and keep trusting the cackling, cannibalistic experts who forged this predicament. For the short time being, I think I know the people’s choice of inaction.

Either way, any way, I trust the good reader is prepared.