Put A Fork In The United States

Investment Research Dynamics

The tragedy of our day is the climate of fear in which we live and fear breeds repression. Too often sinister threats to the Bill of Rights, to freedom of the mind, are concealed under the cloak of anti-Communism.  – Adlai Stevinson, Speech to the American Legion Convention, 1952

Today the climate of fear being fomented is concealed under the cloak of terrorism/ISIS. Severe repression is coming.  The policies and laws implemented since the inauguration of Bush 2 in 2000 have been slowly strangling the middle class, financially and legally.  The affects of the latter are about to become more apparent and more painful for everyone.

The American public has stood by passively in complete acceptance of the horrendous acts of brutality, savagery and wealth confiscation thrown at it since the passage of the Patriot Act.  We stood by and watched as our Government implemented an illegal attack into Iraq predicated on blatant lies, conducted unimaginable acts of torture on illegally detained prisoners of “war,” bombed weddings and funerals (Hillary Clinton:  “oops, my bad”) – the list seems endless.  The U.S. Government shamelessly throws propaganda in our face which turns the truth inside-out.  Everyone else is the bad guy.  The U.S. is exceptional and therefore entitled to trample over the rest of the world.

Perhaps the most egregious crimes have been right under our own noses, where the elitists have been openly wiping the last crumbs of middle class wealth off the table and into their own pockets.  You really think your retirement fund or pension money will be there when you retire?  That’s laughable.

I’m still trying to sort out and understand the exact reason why the Fed decided to push up the Fed funds rate from zero to not-much-more-than-zero.  What you might of missed is that the Fed raised the interest it is paying to the Too Big To Fail banks who have $2.4 trillion in cash given to them from QE that is earning interest in the Fed’s “Excess Reserve Account.”  The rate was raised from .25% to .50%, effectively doubling the amount of free cash flowing into the banks from their Excess Reserve largesse.   On the other side of this, consumer borrowing rates were immediately raised.

The only conclusion that can be reasonably drawn by the Fed’s move is that the noose described above – put in place quietly over and with no resistance over the last 15 years – is now being tightened.