Category: Uncategorized

Gold giddy. Yet another ridiculous idea.

So much of what Donald Trump does is thoughtless, cruel, unnecessary, nutty, senseless, or based on a lie one can feel is unnecessary to critique. It stares us in the face.

But, so long as there are gullible MAGAs who still believe the idiocy, we’ll keep writing about it..

His instigation of massive import duties and simultaneously claiming to combat inflation is senseless. Announcing that Ukraine started the war with Russia is nutty and based on a blatant lie. So is the claim that Jan 6 was a typical tourist day, not a riot and that the election was stolen.

Hiring Elon Musk to mass fire thousands of government workers without considering their contribution to our economy falls into the thoughtless, cruel, and senseless territory.

There are too many in that vein to list here, but I feel compelled to address one because it’s so stupid as to be humorous.

Musk Signals Looking Into Gold at Fort Knox—Here’s What to Know. 

Auditing Fort Knox gold reserves is “several decades overdue,” says a sound money advocacy group executive.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk indicated that Fort Knox, the Kentucky-based facility famous for storing U.S. gold reserves, could be investigated.
“Looking for the gold at Fort Knox,” Musk wrote on social media platform X on Feb. 18. “This gold is the property of the American people. I sure hope it’s still there!”
“Who is confirming that gold wasn’t stolen from Fort Knox? Maybe it’s there, maybe it’s not,” Musk wrote. Last week, Musk was encouraged by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to review Fort Knox’s gold reserves. .

During a Feb. 17 interview with “FOX & Friends,” Paul revealed that he has been trying to obtain greater transparency for the last decade “to make sure it’s all there.”

The Kentucky senator also believes an audit can confirm that the precious metal “still has value” and can implicitly provide “value to the dollar.”
That’s why we don’t get rid of it. We’ve got it. .

The IMF has it, the World Bank has it. Most central banks worldwide have gold, and it’s an implicit trust that the dollar still has some backing,” Paul told host Lawrence Jones.

Let’s begin with Musk and his entourage marching into Fort Knox “to make sure it’s all there.” Really?
Will they go around counting bars? Will they weigh every bar? Will they check each bar to see whether any are gold-painted bricks? Will they do anything of value on their tour? Can they be trusted not to scratch some gold off a few bars?
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Fort Knox Gold: Everything You Need to Know | TCBG
Is there any need for “Efficiency Elon Musk” to fly his gang down Fort Knox’s warehouses?
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This trek is even more useless because only half of U.S. government gold is at Fort Knox. The rest is stored at West Point Mint, New York, Denver Mint, Colorado, and Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and some are held as working stock across various Treasury facilities for minting coins.
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So even the most thorough, intensive, expensive examination of Fort Knox won’t answer the questions, “How much gold do we have,” and “Has any been stolen or lost?”
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$20 Liberty Gold Coin (XF) | U.S. Gold Bureau
$20 gold coin. Weight: approximately 1.075 troy ounces, Gold Content: 30.093 grams (approximately 0.9675 troy ounces, Purity: 90% gold, with the remaining 10% typically of copper
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Then there’s the question, what is a gold bar? There are many different purity levels in the government’s bars, ranging from 99.99% all the way down to 90% pure..

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Now let’s get to basics; Gold is not money. And gold does not back the U.S. dollar. Gold is nothing more than a metal. It is desired because it is pretty, fairly rare, a good conductor of electricity, and easily malleable. Iron, silver, and numerous other substances are far more helpful. .

> Gold doesn’t back the dollar, simply because the price varies wildly, and the federal government can, and often has, adjusted the exchange value of gold for dollars. .

If gold backed the dollar, a $20 gold coin would be worth $20. But it isn’t. A $20 gold coin is worth close to $3,000 at current gold prices, and a different amount to coin collectors. .

So, how can one reasonably claim that the U.S. dollar is “backed” by gold? It isn’t and never has been. There could be an argument that the U.S. dollar once was backed by silver, in that the government offered to buy and sell silver at $35 per ounce. .

However, that silver “backing” no longer exists, and no such buy/sell agreement exists for gold. .

The government also stores silver at various locations, including the West Point Mint in New York and the Denver Mint in Colorado. Will the Musk gang also measure our silver holdings? .

So, what backs the U.S. dollar if not silver or gold? Answer: The full faith and credit of the U.S. government. Click the link to read more about “full faith and credit. .

Finally, the Musk jaunt is asinine for yet another reason. Gold represents only a minuscule fraction of federal government assets. .

As of Feb 28, 2021, Fort Knox had about $6 Billion of the $11 Billion in gold owned by the federal government. .

Compare that to M1 Abrams Tanks: We have about 4,650 of those tanks, with a unit value of $14.5 million. In total, our tanks are worth about  $67 Billion. Think about that. All the gold owned by the federal government is worth just one-sixth of our M1 Abrams Tanks. .

Just one aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, is worth $16 Billion.  Our B2 Stealth bombers are worth $15 Billion. Is Musk going to forget about tanks, carriers, bombers, and all other military hardware that totals Trillions of dollars, but focus on inventorying gold? .

And then, there are all the other federal assets: The federal government owns approximately 640 million acres of land, about 28% of the total land area in the United States. Will Musk inspect those to see how they are being used? The U.S. federal government owns and operates approximately 5,399 dams. Should Musk look into them, too? .

The U.S. government stores various strategic and precious metals, including copper, nickel, palladium, uranium, and platinum; I don’t know how much of each, but each one is more useful than gold and perhaps monetarily more valuable. Do they deserve a Musk visit? .

THE BOTTOM LINE .

Gold is a minimally functional, lovely-to-look-at metal that comprises a miniscule amount of federal assets. It is not money, nor does it back the U.S. dollar. Those Abram tanks are worth more and do more to back the dollar than gold bars. .

Musk is visiting Fort Knox to get his face on TV, not for any practical purpose. It is just one more extremely nonsensical idea from the current administration.

The irony is that Musk is the head of the mythical Department of Government Efficiency, and he is wasting thousands of federal dollars to go on a useless, nonsensical jaunt. That’s “efficiency”?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell Monetary Sovereignty Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell; MUCK RACK: https://muckrack.com/rodger-malcolm-mitchell; https://www.academia.edu/

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A Government’s Sole Purpose is to Improve and Protect The People’s Lives.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

He’s just a guy, and he speaks truth from his heart and soul

This is a direct quote from http://www.alternet.org, an excellent site from which you’ll learn a great deal:
Chris Kluwe— a punter for the Minnesota Vikings between 2005 and 2012 — was recently arrested and carried out of a city council meeting by police after a viral speech. Chris Kluwe — a punter for the Minnesota Vikings between 2005 and 2012 — was recently arrested and carried out of a city council meeting by police after a viral speech.Former NFL player arrested after calling MAGA a 'Nazi movement' at city council meeting Kluwe started his speech by telling council members that he is a 15-year city resident and wanted to speak out against the current council and its plans for a MAGA plaque at a local library.

“I’d like to take my time to talk about what MAGA has stood for these past three weeks,” Kluwe said. “MAGA stands for trying to erase trans people from existence. MAGA stands for resegregation and racism. MAGA stands for censorship and book bans. MAGA stands for firing air traffic controllers while planes are crashing.

“MAGA stands for firing the people overseeing our nuclear arsenal. MAGA stands for firing military veterans and those serving them at the VA, including canceling research on veteran suicide, opioid addiction, and medical issues related to burn pits.

MAGA stands for cutting funds to education, including for disabled children.”

Kluwe went on to assert that MAGA “stands for hate and fear, and the idea that we should have a king instead of co-equal branches of government.”

He argued that MAGA’s philosophy was “profoundly corrupt” and “unmistakably anti-democracy,” while also calling it “explicitly a Nazi movement.”

“Every single thing MAGA stands for is what the Nazis did,” the retired NFL punter said. “Eugenics. Racism. Blind loyalty to the leader over what benefits the community as a whole.

“Removal or destruction of knowledge deemed “unsavory.” Removal of groups deemed “unsavory.” Sustained assaults on science, reason, and logic. Ceaseless propaganda that has no basis in reality. The promotion of fools, imbeciles, and charlatans to positions of power.”

Toward the end of his speech, Kluwe looked at the assembled council members on the dais and said he would “now engage in the time-honored American tradition of civil disobedience.” He then walked past the lectern toward council members while several police officers swarmed him and put him on the ground face-first.

Kluwe said later on Bluesky that he was charged with “disrupting an assembly,” and that he sustained minor cuts and scratches while police were restraining him.

I could not have said it better. Pass it on. Rodger Malcolm Mitchell Monetary Sovereignty Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell; MUCK RACK: https://muckrack.com/rodger-malcolm-mitchell; https://www.academia.edu/

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A Government’s Sole Purpose is to Improve and Protect The People’s Lives.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

A note to reader, “PT” about the mathematical reality of GDP

Recently, I received a comment from reader, “PT” who wrote in response to “Chainsaw Elon” and how to lose weight”:
I personally think there’s an information circus going on. They clearly understand that the root cause of a recession is ‘deficit control,’ as it impacts supply. In my opinion, there will be more spending . Meanwhile, MT (Musk/Trump) are just saying what people want to hear.
My comment in return was:
PT, I agree with you. The misunderstanding is on the part of the public. MT, along with their closest advisors take advantage of this misunderstanding for their own personal gain. Example: In the world of commodities trading, there always is a losing position for every winning position. Therefore, a random bet should have a 50% chance of winning — EXCEPT –except that between the winners and losers there are the brokers who pull out a tiny percentage of each bet. With enough bets, this tiny percentage evolves to the near certainty, that almost everyone will lose, except for the intermediaries: The brokers. I was once a broker. After too long a time, I knew. It’s why I left the business. Long term, customers had to lose. We actually told them that, but the lure of riches was too strong. They bet, anyway. My morals would have made me a terrible casino owner, for that is the basis of casino profits. Even on a 50/50 bet, you will lose long term when the casino takes out even .001% of each bet. The Gross Domeitic Product = Federal Spending + Nonfederal Spending – Net Imports is no secret. Every first-year economist knows it. Further, a recession or depression is a series of reduced GDP. They know that, too. So why do they opt for reduced Federal Spending, knowing this mathematically must result in a recession or depression, which inevitably must be cured by increased Federal Spending? There are only two answers: Ignorance and deception, the latter being associated with personal gain. (No one wants to be the one to reveal that the Emperor has no clothes.) I’m going to put this response into a post for more viewing.
The above GDP formula expresses one of the most fundamental facts in all of economics, a fact of which nearly all non-economists are ignorant, and most economists act ignorant. This supposed ignorance is especially true of those with a Libertarian bent, who opt for “reduced central government” ignoring the mathematical fact that reduced central government –> reduced GDP — > recession or depression.
Historically and mathematically, reduced federal spending (blue line) has been associated with recessions (vertical bars). GDP = Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending – Net Imports.

Every U.S. depression has come on the heels of federal surpluses.

1804-1812: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 48%. Depression began 1807. 1817-1821: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 29%. Depression began 1819. 1823-1836: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 99%. Depression began 1837. 1852-1857: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 59%. Depression began 1857. 1867-1873: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 27%. Depression began 1873. 1880-1893: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 57%. Depression began 1893. 1920-1930: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 36%. Depression began 1929. 1997-2001: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 15%. Recession began 2001.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell; MUCK RACK: https://muckrack.com/rodger-malcolm-mitchell; https://www.academia.edu/

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A Government’s Sole Purpose is to Improve and Protect the People’s Lives.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Is this what you voted for?

The Federal Government cannot run short of dollars. Your taxes do not fund federal spending. The federal government pays all its bills with newly created dollars. Because the federal government is Monetarily Sovereign, it is not like you and me. It does not need to “save money.” Who says so?

Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan: “A government cannot become insolvent with respect to obligations in its own currency. There is nothing to prevent the federal government from creating as much money as it wants and paying it to somebody. The United States can pay any debt it has because we can always print the money to do that.”

Former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke: “The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost. It’s not tax money… We simply use the computer to mark up the size of the account.”

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell: “As a central bank, we have the ability to create money digitally.

Statement from the St. Louis Fed: “As the sole manufacturer of dollars, whose debt is denominated in dollars, the U.S. government can never become insolvent, i.e., unable to pay its bills. In this sense, the government is not dependent on credit markets to remain operational.”

Is Elon Musk's government role unconstitutional? What the Supreme Court might say. - ABC News
The Boss and his underling.

So if the government isn’t running out of money, why is Musk/Trump (MT) firing so many federal employees?

US President Donald Trump fired at least 40% of workers at the Federal Housing Administration, which provides mortgage insurance on loans for people who otherwise wouldn’t qualify for one. One of the largest mortgage insurers in the world, the FHA helps American homebuyers secure a loan if they can’t afford a down payment or have below-average credit scores. It was the latest in a series of mass firings of federal employees by Trump and comes just days after the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the FHA’s parent organization, announced it would terminate half of its workers at Trump’s direction. Over the weekend, amid Presidents’ Day protests against the administration across the country, the Department of Health and Human Services began jettisoning employees in some of its biggest agencies—the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those fired Saturday included employees who evaluate the safety of medical devices and conduct oversight of Affordable Care Act exchanges. (Congress meanwhile is considering major reductions to Medicaid in order to pay for the renewal of 2017 tax cuts). And on Monday, the National Science Foundation fired 11% of its staff while, despite recent plane crashes that have killed scores of Americans, hundreds of employees were being dismissed by the Federal Aviation Administration. —Jordan Parker Erb

Why gut these agencies? Because making the rich even richer requires making everyone else poorer.

The Game of Wealth: How the Rich Stay Richer

Wealth is relative. If you have $100,000, you’re rich when all others have $20,000—but poor when all others have $1 million.

For the ultra-wealthy, getting richer isn’t just about making more money. It’s also about ensuring the rest of us have less—widening the income, wealth, and power gap.

How do they do it?
✅ Tax cuts for the rich
✅ Cutting healthcare and social services
✅ Making basic necessities like housing and vaccines unaffordable

This isn’t about “saving money.” The government creates money at will.

In short, the very rich constantly try to widen the income/wealth/power Gap between themselves and the rest.

So, ask yourself: Is making the very rich even richer—while the rest of us struggle—what you voted for?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell Monetary Sovereignty Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell; MUCK RACK: https://muckrack.com/rodger-malcolm-mitchell; https://www.academia.edu/

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A Government’s Sole Purpose is to Improve and Protect The People’s Lives.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY