Trapped
“God is great. Beer is good and people are crazy.”
People are Crazy – Billy Carrington
You’ve been trapped before. Certainly, I have. I don’t mean physically trapped as lost in a maze or caught in barbed wire or something. I mean you are in a social, economic or vocational position wherein your options are now limited, and none of them are very good. You are trapped. You have to pick what you see as the least bad option and try to maneuver your way out with the least amount of damage. We have all been there. And in most cases, we got there due to our own actions. You want to go back and change what you did, but that ship has sailed.
Everyone gets trapped. There are three institutions out there now that I believe are trapped. Unlike a person getting trapped, the position in which each of these institutions finds itself affects not just themselves, but we citizens as well. And in each case, they are the cause of their own problems. Here they are:
The Federal Reserve: The massive and persistent inflation that we are all experiencing has put the Fed in a bind. They want to stop the inflation. The classic way for them to do this is to follow the Paul Volcker model of the late 70s and 80s and raise interest rates. They have an additional tool Volcker did not have which is to start to suck back some of the massive money printing they did in the last couple of years. That too, will likely raise interest rates.
The problem for the Fed is that what Volcker did killed inflation for 40 years, but it brought on a recession. There is a massive amount of debt out there now. Corporation debt, the US government debt, investment margin interest and mortgage debt are all at record levels. If interest rates go up, the carrying costs of these debts will rise as well. Asset prices will fall and the economy will slow possibly into recession.
So, the Fed will try to maneuver through the eye of the needle. They will raise interest rates or withdraw cash in an amount and at a pace to hopefully tame inflation without too great a fall in economic activity.
That is a very small eye of that needle. But they can’t let inflation run wild. They are trapped.
The Biden Regime: I call the current White House a “regime” rather than an “administration” because of its authoritarian nature, but that is a blog for another day. As of the date of this writing, the Biden approval ratings continue to decline with no poll in the last 2 weeks showing him higher than 43% and some having him descending into the 30s. It is clear that a number of factors are causing this including inflation, the China Virus, the border, crime, the BBB bill, the Afghanistan failure, and so forth. Calling this the “winter of severe illness and death” did not help. Presidents don’t like approval ratings like this. However, doesn’t it seem like the Regime is not doing anything to fix it?
That’s because they are trapped. For whatever reason, Biden has chosen to be the most leftist and authoritarian president ever. And he is trying to force that through with a 50-50 Senate. People on the left are upset because he has not accomplished enough. People on the right are upset with all of his policies. People in the middle see bad things happening around them and blame the person at the top.
The classic way to fix this political problem would be a Clintonian move to the center like that president did in 1995. But if Biden does that, he risks that the leftist/socialist/progressives who have become his base will leave him and he will be stranded to float aimlessly in political neverland.
So, he is trying to change perceptions and is hoping that some of these problems go away on their own. He is trying to get his allies, the propaganda media, to change how they report on him. They are complying as they always do for Democrats. He is trying to blame others, recently calling the virus and crime wave a problem for governors that has no federal solution. And he is trying to bury news of Afghanistan and the border while also saying inflation is no big deal.
In other words, he is changing nothing substantive and hoping to improve his approval with mirrors. That’s a tall order.
The CDC and the WHO: I’m talking about the World Health Organization here, not the rock group. Although I think I would prefer having Pete Townshend because he is not controlled by the Chinese government. These two organizations have spent 2 years trying to scare us all into compliance with whatever they want. Now, they see the economy teetering again and causing problems for Biden and China and other governments they like. They all see the new variant, Omicron, as unlikely to kill very many people and having relatively mild symptoms. So, they want to back off on the restrictions and fear.
Good luck with that. They are finding it hard to unbreak an egg. They have destroyed their own credibility in so many ways. They have instilled a fear in much of the populace which may be very lasting. They love the power that the virus gives them, but they have so abused it that it is hard to let go, even if it means hurting the very governments which they love and serve.
They are trapped.
But you and I are not. We have options to maneuver our lives and families through these messes. We are not slaves to their ideology or their orders. And maybe, in the future, the people can change these institutions so we dictate their actions rather than these groups dictating ours.
I Remain Respectfully,
Congressman John Campbell
Drive Fast and Live Free.