Sound Right To You?

 
It's that time of year again. Roll out the old and roll in the new.

George Wallace, the former Alabama governor who underwent a change in his views, once noted about the two political parties: "There's not a dimes' worth of difference between the two."

Wallace was more than correct, but that was a long time ago and there's been much debasing of the currency since then as dimes, as are nearly all coins today, no longer in the monetary vernacular of most folks. Today it's probably the soon to be absent $100 bill of difference. But Wallace's assertion is no less true today than it was then.

Donald Trump is an anomaly. That's just one reason why he's been so despised. Anomalies are unknown, unpredictable. And until they become predictable that's really scary, especially for the entrenched. Most likely Trump will become predictable and as the old saying goes the more things change the more they remain unchanged. Another danger with anomalies is if they know where all the skeletons are interred and how the game gets played.

So it's more than highly unlikely the huge global debt that's been piled up over the last generation or so will ever be repaid. If you're an investor that poses a problem. If you're just a commoner, to use a old term, it poses much more. It was the commoners who took the brunt of the zero and negative interest rate blows. That too is an old game. Stick it to the commoners, kick the debt can down the road and celebrate your elitism.

Here's a quote for today's Financial times about interest rates and their effects on commoners.
Chris Hitchen, chief executive of the UK railway pension fund RPMI Railpen, says: “It is much harder to get returns today because yields are low. It takes decent returns as well as decent contributions to make decent pensions. This involves some risk. 

“We have risk systems in place to try to ensure we do not get into a position where we are forced sellers. In the event of falling markets, we want to be in a position where we have enough liquid assets to pay our pensions and firepower to invest at lower prices.”
RPMI has investments in quoted shares, real estate, infrastructure, private equity and hedge funds, all considered riskier than government bond
Who owns pension and retirement funds via their employers, commoners.

If inflation returns in any meaningful way--and it will--the commoners will take the hit again. It's a bit discouraging, to say the least, when one gets it coming and going. Of course, the naysayers and deniers will be out there pushing their political pablum about how much they care about you. You won't need a program to recognize them. You can easily do that by noting their all members of these two jejune political establishments that want nothing more from you than your vote and your money if you have any. And most of you don't.

Banks in the pockets of politicians make this happen. You put your money in banks and then they dictate how much and essentially how often you can take it out. It's your money. You sign up for a credit card that is connected to a specific bank and then that bank shares your data with whomever it wants and tells you why you have no control of your private information and the next thng you know you're being inundated by other commercial pests wanting you to buy their products. All because you chose to finance one purchase with one vendor not the whole damn commercial  world.

Sound right to you?  So spend your money carefully this holiday season and know that you have no moral or ethical responsibility to bail out an economy that Keynesians, bankers and politicians screwed up. One of the biggest Keynesians reportedly just went to all cash. That's why they call it semi-free markets.

Happy Holidays.