Government Deception, Corruption and Incompetence Are Killing Developed Nations

(Simultaneously published at Downtown Magazine)

A long-standing tradition in sales and business is "underpromise and overdeliver," the point being that respect comes from making good on your commitments. Analogous to that is the time-honored adage, "don't promise what you can't deliver." This is basically Business 101. Donald Trump knows that. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin knows it as well.

One has to wonder at the stunning lack of discipline coming out of the White House and Treasury in response to the $1200 checks or direct deposits promised to "nearly all Americans" two weeks ago, now that a memo from the House of Representatives says that some people will have to wait as long as 20 weeks to receive their government stipend.

Meanwhile, Treasury and the Federal Reserve have been doling out trillions of dollars to unhealthy banks and corporations in a last-ditch effort to avert a complete economic meltdown and stock market crash. As is usually the case, Wall Street gets the money immediately, putting taxpayers on the hook, and the citizenry gets shafted.

It's disgusting, nauseating, criminal.

The Federal Reserve and Treasury Department are skirting the law in regards to handouts to major corporations in the form of bond-buying and other stimuli. The Federal Reserve is chartered to purchase bonds backed by the federal government. The have put the Treasury, using the Exchange Stabilization Fund, up as a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) in a first-loss position, to expedite the buying of commercial paper, asset-backed securities, ETF paper and the like. Blackrock will do the actual buying, even to the point of purchasing their own debt. Jim Bianco, in a Bloomberg editorial from March 27, lays out the dangerous route upon which the Fed and Treasury have embarked.

America the Beautiful is being turned into a freak show. The solutions provided at the top level of government are devoid of lawfulness, trampling on the constitution like an well-worn carpet, all over a virus, COVID-19, that can be mostly prevented with Vitamin C, D, and Zinc, and the worst effects ameliorated with chloroquine or combining hydroxychloroquine with the antibiotic azithromycin, but you won't hear that, see that, or read that on any of the mainstream media outlets, despite FDA approval of chloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19.

Markets reacted positively on Thursday to news that 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week. That's right. Stocks rallied off that news. Maybe if a few hundred thousand die from the disease stocks can surpass the all-time highs made in February.

What's happening in the United States and probably to a greater degree in Europe is the destruction of the global economy. Nothing makes any sense in all this. Why do Americans have to stop going to work, close businesses, and stay home for six weeks when the outcome of 80-90% of the people who are infected are mild and the overwhelming evidence shows that the vast majority (90-95%) of people who die from aftereffects of the coronavirus had other health issues - comorbidities?

America is being torn apart at the seams, all under the guise of protecting the people. That's what the American public is being told, the media is up to its eyeballs in it and the government is taking away rights and assuming more power than ever before. In six months time, the United States will have undergone a remarkable transition from a capitalist democratic republic to a fascist regime, where big business and government are bound at the hip.

There's no point in analysis of markets anymore. They're all broken. The New York Fed owns the stock market. Treasury yields have already turned negative for a time last week and will likely do so again. Gold and silver futures have completely decoupled from the reality of physical metal prices. Oil is stuck at $20 per barrel unless the president insists that he made deals with the Saudis and the Russians, two parties which are more than happy to put the screws to Mr. Trump and the shale oil drillers in America.

It was a nice country, America. Too bad it had to die this way, at the hands of psychopaths in government, many of whom, by the way, profited nicely before, during, and after the market turmoil. Practically every member of congress should be indicted for insider trading. They all knew this was coming, but allowed nearly unlimited travel into and out of this country for weeks while the virus was raging. They continue to not advise everybody to wear a mask, a solution too simple for their twisted minds to consider. The countries with the best results - China, South Korea, Japan - have 100% of the population wearing masks.

The world's people are being lied to on a grand scale. Get used to it.

All of this could have been avoided, but, that wasn't the plan. The plan is to inflict maximum pain on the citizens of every developed nation, and it's working.

At the Close, Thursday, April 3, 2020:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 21,413.44, +469.93 (+2.24%)
NASDAQ: 7,487.31, +126.73 (+1.72%)
S&P 500: 2,526.90, +56.40 (+2.28%)
NYSE: 10,062.37, +217.52 (+2.21%)