RE: RE: RE: We’re being played - Some math corrections.

Wenatchee WA

Description

Thank you for being polite and considering what I had to say. Open minded discussion is a difficult thing to find in our time, unfortunately. I don't disagree with you in general, just on some specific facts. I saw the CARES act both as a fast tracked process, which was bound to have problems due to how big it was and how quickly it was enacted, and also a symptom of a bigger problem: the degree that corporations control our political process. Something was needed at that time because people couldn't afford food or rent, but, because of our political system, it was practically guaranteed to be another money grab by the wealthy. Which it partially was. With as low an opinion as I have of our system I was very pleased that we got any of that money, even if it was only a fraction of it. In terms of the financial state of the country, that's a much broader issue. I go back and forth on the topic of our national debt and the risk of inflation from these "money printer go brrrrr" scenarios. On the one hand, it seems unsustainable to keep generating money in a way that causes inflation but also ensures that only the top ~5% of the population ever gets access to that money. On the other hand, it kind of seems like we've already blown past the point where it could be corrected. Not because of the CARES act by itself, but because of the slight of hand banks use to create money in the first place coupled with the fed's ongoing and, in my opinion, overly aggressive, financial market supports dating back to the 2008 crash. To me, it seems like we're Wiley E. Coyote in an old Road Runner cartoon. We've crashed through a toll gate, through a road block, ignored the warning signs, run off a cliff and now we're hanging in the air until we realize that there's no ground. People talk about fundamentals in the markets, but they only seem to matter to the extent that people think they do on that day. So long as the majority of people truly believe that everything is fine, it doesn't appear to matter how much debt we have, how overvalued things are, or how we're going to sustain our work force with a shrinking birth rate. In terms of our debt and population demographics we're like Japan in the 90s. In some ways this modern flavor of capitalism, where only widespread belief matters, seems to have more in common with a pyramid scheme than with any legitimate economic theory. I can find no logical reason that it won't collapse, but I also can see no reason that it didn't collapse already. In many ways it's like trying to predict a weather event, volcano or earthquake: all the signs are there, history tells us that it definitely will happen, but it's impossible to say when. We'll fall when collective society looks down at the yawning abyss beneath us. Not correct, but crash. But I'm almost 40 now and I've been in the markets since I bought my first shares in the 90s. These problems were bad back then and have gotten much worse since but, somehow, and for reasons that completely elude me, most people seem to feel that everything is okay. So long as they think that, and don't make massive changes in where their money is, the overall economy seems to just keep moving. Whether that movement is the residual momentum of a train derailment or somehow maintainable (again, for reasons that I don't comprehend) only hindsight will tell. To be clear, I am speaking about debt and inflation broadly here, which the CARES act contributed to. Things are pretty bad for the poor and more people are likely to have become poor as a result of COVID. We have long since learned that a raising tide doesn't raise sunk ships, so nothing I say should be taken to imply that the current financial state of the bottom 30% of the country is either sustainable or acceptable, regardless of how well the markets are performing for the top 20%.