A few thoughts on economics

Mrs ERJ shared a story with me about an event she recently attended. She overheard people Shocked and Amazed at the rise in prices. It is almost certain that the people were Progressives.

Mrs ERJ is kind and virtuous and sensitive to other people's feelings. She didn't point out that their agenda guaranteed inflation.

I am not constrained by those virtues.

How things are made and services are rendered

Enterprises, whether private sector or public sector, have certain traits in common. I use the word "enterprise" in the sense of an activity that combines various inputs to create an output of greater value than the uncombined inputs.

So, what kinds of inputs are universally required by enterprises?

In most cases the principal of the enterprise needs to have enough confidence in the future to stop what he/she is currently doing (which might include a steady wage), borrow a bunch of money and launch on a new, risky venture.

Often a lease must be signed that commits the principal to a year of payments. Sometimes a property is purchased which might commit the principal to thirty years of payments so the confidence must extend at least a year into the future and possibly as long as thirty years.

Intellectual property is stirred into the mix. Just what spices to add to the sauce or when to apply fertilizer to the field. Even simple enterprises like making pizzas or growing corn involves knowledge.

Frequently the principal must hire outsiders. Even if he/she doesn't have employees they might need an electrician or an accountant or plumber.

Finally, the principal will need material inputs: pencils, paper, thumb-drives and computers, fertilizer, oregano.....

Let's take these foundational needs of a productive enterprise and see how the Progressive agenda impacts them.

Confidence in the future

The Progressive agenda declares everything old is bad and everything new is good. It throws out precedent because it is "tainted".

If the rules are going to be changed on an arbitrary basis then there is no continuity, no basis for any confidence in the future.

Property is not respected. Looters and shop-lifters are not prosecuted.

In many population centers there is no basis for principals to have confidence in the future.

The current Administration* capriciously spiked countless energy projects. That means that any enterprise can be killed by a passing whim of the Emperor with no prior warning. Again, a major killer of confidence in the future.

Facilities

The urban freak-outs spooked both businesses and citizens. They are fleeing the big cities and driving the price of property to the moon.

The monthly-nut is enough to make many principals have second thoughts about committing to a lease.

Intellectual property

The Progressive agenda believes that ideas are free. The current Administration* pressured the pharmaceutical companies to GIVE the COVID RNA "vaccine" technology to every third-world country.

Progressives seem to have no problem giving foreign agents access to Top Secret information as long as they can get into the sack with them (Swalwell) or can get their ne'er-do-well offspring jobs with Burisma.

Hiring

Yeah, good luck finding somebody who wants to work.

If you can find somebody, they are probably treading water until a better offer comes along or they intend to video you and then claim they were victimized.

Ditch-water skills who think that they are entitled to Dom Perignon wages and respect.

Materials

The United States was blessed beyond comprehension when the U.S. Dollar was the de facto world reserve currency.

For other countries to have U.S. Dollars to do international business, they had to export to the U.S. (many times at a loss) to acquire those dollars, which then continued to float around internationally and never made a corresponding counter-claim on our economy.

Those days are ending.

Trump seemed to understand that and he fought tooth-and-nail to delay that decoupling.

Progressives seem to think that defending anything "American" is un-evolved and provincial. They seem hellbent on destroying the U.S. Dollar as the reserve currency.

What that means is that the trillions and trillions of dollars that currently keeps the world economy humming along will have no intrinsic worth. Those dollars will flood back into the U.S. to buy Sitka Spruce logs and Napa vineyards and golf courses and iron-and-copper mines and so-on.

What they won't be buying will be U.S. software. Who can trust any of it after the Dominion voting machine debacle? Why would any foreign buyer (who has a choice) ever trust Microsoft or Facebook or any Google product?

Another thing they won't be buying will be inner city properties in large American cities. "Woke" politicians who won't protect their own tax-paying constituents certainly cannot be counted upon to protect properties owned by foreign entities.

A foundation that is square is a house half-built

Seen through the lens of what it takes to run an enterprise, any enterprise, it is remarkable that inflation is not already in the triple digits.