Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she
said. “One can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said
the queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why,
sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” -
Alice in Wonderland
We live in an age when the level of deceit and
propaganda is at an all-time high. Josef Goebbels, Vladimir Lenin and others
did their best to force-feed propaganda to the masses, but they were rank
amateurs compared to the spin doctors employed by the political leaders of
today. They’re masters at convincing people of impossible things.
Whenever I listen to Americans discuss their
country, I find people that are eager for more news and information, yet
most, without even knowing it, accept much of the dogma they’ve been fed on a
daily basis by their government and the media, even if , to outsiders, the
assumptions are preposterous. Only those who make a concerted, ongoing effort
to see through the smokescreen seem to keep clear.
Here are six impossible things that many seem to
have little trouble accepting as reality.
Yes, the country’s in a mess, but that’s because
of opposition party meddling. If the party I favour could get a majority,
they’d sort things out.
This seems to have been a popular belief for
decades. It’s believed by Democrats and Republicans alike. But, in 2001, the
Republicans held both houses of Congress, plus the presidency, yet even then
they failed to deliver on what they claimed were their party’s fundamental
goals. Between 2009 and 2011, the Democrats controlled all three, yet they,
too, failed to deliver. If the electorate were to step back and look at the
history of who is in power vs. changes in policy, they’d find that the
government central programme of welfare/warfare continues unabated,
regardless of who controls the Congress and White House. The primary policies
of the US are determined independently of who has been elected. As American
writer Mark Twain stated correctly, “If voting made any
difference they wouldn't let us do it.”
We’re on the road to economic recovery. We just
have to be patient.
The US is deeper in debt by far than any country
ever has been in the history of the world. The level of debt is so great at
present that it’s impossible to pay back. The reaction by the US government
has been to increase that debt, pumping more heroin into the body of the
addict. There’s no possibility for this to end well; all that can be achieved
is to postpone the inevitable, thus assuring that the final outcome will be
even worse. The final tab will be picked up, not by the political class, but
by the electorate.
I don’t like government bailing the banks out,
but, if they don’t, the system will collapse.
Bank failures have existed for as long as banks
have existed. Under a laissez faire system, a bank that’s behaved recklessly
with lending, to the point that it becomes insolvent, collapses. Depositors
are harmed and sometimes financially ruined. Often, there’s a brief economic
downturn, but the culling of the bad bank actually strengthens the economy in
the long run. However, in the last century, the major banks in the US have
become so powerful with regard to government policy that they can now act
recklessly, then be bailed out by the government, then act recklessly again.
(Ultimately, this trend will result in a crash of epic proportions – an event
that may come quite soon.)
There’s no problem raising the debt ceiling.
All that’s necessary is to print more money to pay for it.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Dramatic
printing of currency generally leads to higher prices. Inflation robs people
of their wealth. Hyperinflation can utterly destroy it. And, as regards
foreign debt, trading partners don’t take kindly to having the debtors
degrade their debt. At some point, they’re likely to sell back their debt
into the debtor’s economy. It would only take a fraction of the US debt held
by the rest of the world to be sold back into the US for the US economy to
collapse.
I don’t like war, but the attacks on Ukraine
and the Middle East are necessary to make the world safe for democracy.
Since the end of World War Two, the US has regarded
itself as the world’s policeman - a role that most of us outside the US
consider to be quite an arrogant one for any nation to take. Even more
puzzling for us is the general belief in the US that American invasions of
countries actually result in democratisation. From Viet Nam to Afghanistan,
to Iraq, to Libya (the list goes on), there has been little evidence that US
invasions have led to stable, democratic rule. In most cases, it has led to
increased chaos. America is seen, not as the policeman, but the world’s
foremost aggressor. This is not conducive to long-term American hegemony.
I realise that the US has passed considerable
legislation lately that’s taken away my basic freedoms, but it’s been
necessary in fighting terrorism.
Beginning with the Patriot Act of 2001, the US
government has gone mad with the passage of a plethora of legislation that
has trashed the US Constitution (often regarded by the outside world as the
finest founding document that any country has ever produced.) As a result, even
many Third World countries now enjoy greater individual freedom than can be
found in the US.
This is still the best country in the world.
By almost every standard, this has, over recent
decades, ceased to be the case. Before the world wars, the UK was the most
powerful country in the world. Britons managed somehow to equate this fact to
the belief that the UK was the “best” in every way. This was never entirely
true, but most Brits accepted it anyway. Today, the methadone has finally
taken effect and most of us accept that the dew is very much off the vine.
This suggests that it will be a long time, possibly generations, before
Americans come to realise that the glory days of empire are over and the
decline is in process.
Alice had the right idea. As a young person, not
yet programmed by her government and the media to believe impossible things,
she had a greater ability to see the world as it was. The rest of us have to
work quite a bit harder to see through the smokescreen that governments and
the media create. By the 1960’s, it was apparent to the world that Britain
had become a shell of its former self, but many Brits weren’t ready to accept
that the party was over. (Today, 70 years after the war, the message has sunk
in.) Now it’s America’s turn and it will be equally hard for them. For most,
the standard of living and quality of life will diminish.
Those who will be the most likely to do well will
be those who choose to recognise that, as America declines, there are some
countries that are on the upswing. Those few who choose to diversify
themselves beyond American shores will not only increase their objectivity,
but, very likely, will assure themselves a freer, more prosperous future.
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Jeff Thomas is British and resides in the Caribbean. The son of an
economist and historian, he learned early to be distrustful of governments
as a general principle. Although he spent his career creating and
developing businesses, for eight years, he penned a weekly newspaper column
on the theme of limiting government. He began his study of economics around
1990, learning initially from Sir John Templeton, then Harry Schulz and
Doug Casey and later others of an Austrian persuasion. He is now a regular
feature writer for Casey Research’s International Man
(http://www.internationalman.com) and Strategic Wealth Preservation in the
Cayman Islands.
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The author is not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by Sprott Money
Ltd. The views and opinions expressed in this material are those of the
author or guest speaker, are subject to change and may not necessarily
reflect the opinions of Sprott Money Ltd. Sprott Money does not guarantee the
accuracy, completeness, timeliness and reliability of the information or any
results from its use.
