In reality, if we measured unemployment the way it was measured during the Great Depression, the numbers would look very similar to those of the Great Depression. When counting long-term discouraged workers, which were always counted before 1994, the rate goes from 5.6 percent to 23 percent!4 That’s why nobody’s real-world experience seems to agree with the media narrative on Obama’s recovery.
So, we have a twofold problem with employment. We have millions of people unemployed that the government won’t even admit to. Plus, we have millions more employed in the wrong jobs—jobs that wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the bubble. That doesn’t mean they would be unemployed, too. If the Federal Reserve weren’t misdirecting capital with its inflationary policies, capital would flow to where it’s needed to create real jobs.
Unemployment isn’t the only number being manipulated. We’re told inflation has been lower than 2 percent for years. That doesn’t jibe with the experience of most Americans trying to pay their bills. That’s because the government plays all kinds of tricks with the Consumer Price Index, too.5 One of them is to simply remove items whose prices go up from the basket of goods it measures.
It’s the same trick they do with unemployment. When something contradicts the narrative, they just don’t count it. That doesn’t change the truth. The truth is prices are rising rapidly. I don’t think I have to tell you that. But by manipulating the official statistics, they accomplish two goals. They avoid paying higher cost-of-living adjustments to Social Security beneficiaries, and they lend apparent legitimacy to the government’s economic recovery narrative.
The key to the grand illusion is your willingness to accept the lies. As I said, interest rates, inflation statistics, and unemployment rate adjustments are boring. Nobody wants to be bothered with these details. Frankly, nobody should have to worry about them. The government isn’t supposed to be engaged full-time in deceiving us.
Unfortunately, it is deceiving us full-time and has been for many decades, under both Democratic and Republican administrations. But this one has really taken deception to a new level and the media has been more complicit than at any time in history. Let me give you a few examples.
First, we constantly hear that Obama inherited a mess in terms of the economy. That’s true; he did. But no one seems to remember the mess George W. Bush inherited at the beginning of his term. The NASDAQ crash occurred in April 2000, while Bill Clinton was still in office. Bush inherited a recession caused by that bubble popping, but the media still talk about Clinton as if he did something wonderful for the economy. All he did was ride a bubble, as both Bush and Obama did after him.
I’m no fan of George W. Bush, but fair is fair. If we’re going to be constantly reminded Obama inherited a recession, we should also acknowledge Bush inherited one as well. That one didn’t take seven years to end, either.
In reality, neither Clinton, Bush, nor Obama did anything to help the economy. They just happened to be in office while the Federal Reserve inflated the money supply and blew up bubbles during their terms. Clinton and Bush were just unlucky enough to still be in office when their respective bubbles popped.
Not surprisingly, the media don’t seem to remember the recession that started on Clinton’s watch. He also gets a complete pass on the housing bubble, even though he signed the Community Reinvestment Act and appointed Franklin Delano Raines as CEO of Fannie Mae. Both were instrumental in causing the housing bubble,6 but all anyone seems to remember is that the bubble popped when Bush was president.
Bush certainly didn’t do anything to help, but facts are facts. One of the few things the Bush administration did right was to warn Congress about the risks in letting Fannie Mae assume such huge amounts of mortgage debt, which it did repeatedly starting in 2002.7
Regardless, Bush publicly went right on cheerleading what he called the Ownership Society while it scored him political points, even though he knew it was built on a faulty economic foundation. So, I assign equal blame to Republicans and Democrats for that disaster. If either party had been representing the American people, instead of their buddies on Wall Street, it could have been avoided or at least mitigated.
This may seem like ancient history for a public with a twenty-four-hour attention span, but it’s important. The media narrative about Clinton’s wise economic stewardship, Bush’s exclusive responsibility for the financial meltdown, and Obama’s phony recovery all serve one purpose. They lend legitimacy to what Obama is doing to further destroy the economy now. So do the phony economic statistics on unemployment and inflation.
As long as most of the people believe most of the lies most of the time, Obama is free to continue his rampage over the economy. He’s already signed the Dodd-Frank act, chasing investment away from America even faster than Bush’s Sarbanes-Oxley Act, while making the big banks even more “too big to fail” than they already were.8 So he protected Wall Street while setting up Main Street for another disaster with one stroke of his famous pen.
He’s still going to try to raise taxes and increase regulations based on the global warming scam, which I’ve discussed in other chapters. He continues to push for these damaging policies, regardless of the mounting scientific evidence that the man-made climate change theory is mistaken at best, a hoax at worst.
Yet the media continue to promote this myth and defend all of the misguided policies associated with it. Late last year, the Washington Post ran an article entitled “Remember Solyndra? Those Loans Are Making Money.”9 The article claimed that despite a few loans that went bad, like Solyndra and Fisker Automotive, the loan program for green-energy companies was a net positive overall for taxpayers.
It turns out this was just more shady government accounting. When the profits from the program were calculated, the interest that DOE pays the government to finance its lending wasn’t included in the calculations. When those costs are added, the program will actually cost taxpayers over $2 billion.10
At least the government is consistent in its methods. When it wants to report low unemployment, it simply doesn’t count everyone who is unemployed. When it wants to report low inflation, it doesn’t include products whose prices went up. When it wants to report one of its boondoggles is making a profit, it simply leaves out some of the costs.
You and I would go to jail for accounting like this. But the Grand Illusionist gets praise from the media instead.
He wouldn’t be able to get away with any of this if it weren’t for the Federal Reserve’s unprecedented inflation and the willingness of average Americans to believe a mountain of official lies, despite indisputable evidence right before their eyes. That’s why I call Obama the Grand Illusionist, and he’s not finished yet.
Destroying the Dollar
One of the consequences of unprecedented inflation is supposed to be a weaker currency. When the supply of currency units go up, their value in relation to other goods goes down. That’s simple supply and demand. Yet the U.S. dollar has rebounded sharply during the past year. How can that be?
The most likely explanation for this is that as bad as the Federal Reserve has been, the central banks in other First World nations have been even worse. Some, like the European Union’s ECG, have inflated to fight unemployment and bail out even more socialist members like Greece, even though its mandate is strictly price stability,11 unlike the Fed’s dual mandate.
Meanwhile, export nations like China continue to manipulate their currencies downward intentionally in order to maintain trade surpluses with the United States.12 This has hurt U.S. economic growth, but it’s just another foreign policy issue the sorority has either bungled or intentionally ignored.
Keep in mind, the dollar has remained relatively stable against gold for over two years now.13 So it’s not buying more gold and it’s not buying more food, health care, or stocks. Those prices have all gone up. It’s not buying more of very much at all for the average American, unless you believe the phony CPI numbers put out by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
r /> But it is increasing in value against a number of foreign currencies, which means the buying power of Americans is increasing for foreign goods. That’s good for the average American, but bad for multinational corporations looking to sell out American workers and consumers even further. As you might expect, the media have come out in a full court press lamenting the strengthening dollar.
We’re told a strong dollar will increase trade deficits, deflate stock prices, and cause a recession. Those are half-truths. Yes, it will be cheaper for Americans to buy foreign goods, but it will also be cheaper for American manufacturers to import foreign materials to make goods here. Corporate profits from overseas sales may decline slightly, but investment in new production in the United States will increase.
Do you see the connection to everything else I’ve talked about? A strong dollar is good for Americans living on Main Street in America. It gives an incentive to multinational corporations to make investments in America. It sacrifices a few quick profits today for long-term job and general economic growth within the United States.
As Larry Kudlow notes:
Between 1982 and 2000, as the dollar increased 178 percent, King Dollar (with lower tax rates and lighter regulation) presided over a stock market gain of 1,099 percent, a jobs increase near 40 million, and 3.5 percent average annual real GDP.
During the recent dollar decline period, from 2001 to 2011, as the dollar fell 25 percent, jobs increased a paltry 2.3 million, real GDP growth averaged less than 2 percent, and the S&P gained a measly 15 percent. [Emphasis in original.]14
I’m not surprised the media is conducting a propaganda war against a stronger dollar. It coincides perfectly with the internationalist, progressive agenda to turn America into a depressed, European-style social democracy. A weaker dollar means foreigners own more of America, the average American can buy less with his wages, and the fat cats on Wall Street can make quicker profits without reinvesting in America.
That Americans believe the lie that a strong dollar is bad for the economy just gives Grandma Yellen one more excuse to keep pushing back the interest rate hikes necessary to arrest the enormous bubble blowing up over the whole economy.
If you want to see high-paying jobs and domestic production return to the United States, you want the dollar to stay on its upward trend. That’s one bright spot in an otherwise dark and cloudy American economic landscape.
Trade Treason
There is a trade deal this traitor in the White House has been trying to push and the Republicans have supported him. They’re all traitors. This deal is such a sellout for America that even Harry Reid opposed it.15 Of course, I’m talking about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a twelve-nation free-trade agreement that our beloved dictator has decreed be kept completely secret.
It was kept so secret that even Nancy Pelosi opposed it. Those lawmakers permitted to look at the deal had to go into the basement of the building where the documents were hidden and were not allowed to take notes with them or discuss what they read afterward. I’m not making this up. As Politico in Europe reported:
“It’s like being in kindergarten,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who’s become the leader of the opposition to President Barack Obama’s trade agenda.16
I call it trade treason. No one really knows what this trade deal is, but I can tell you this: It’s a sellout of the American worker by both Obama and the Republicans. They want to give Asia a trade deal that will destroy us economically.
The only thing the Republicans care about is their connected friends in big business. Anything that lowers costs for gargantuan corporations is good for America, according to this faux opposition party, even if it actually harms most Americans. Another hundred thousand jobs are migrating overseas? That’s okay. My friends on Wall Street will make another couple billion. The stock market will go up. That’s how too many of today’s Republicans think.
As far as I’m concerned, Mitch McConnell is one of the worst Benedict Arnolds in America. He said the “bipartisan effort” would help grow opportunities for “our constituents.”17 He must have meant the lobbyists. The only opportunities that will result from this deal are those pushed by the Better Business Bureau and those few multinational corporations that will benefit.
As for the bill being bipartisan, that could only be true if we had two political parties. But we don’t. We have one party, the Government Zero Party.
The only ones standing in the way of this sellout right now are the Democrats and a few authentic, conservative Republicans. The Democrats oppose this because if they didn’t they’d have to go back to the workers in their districts and explain why they betrayed the working man once again.
The monster in the White House, the world’s worst bully, tried everything he could to scare the heck out of his own party, but they wouldn’t cave. They stuck to their guns and voted down an attempt to get the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) bill giving Obama fast track authority on this trade deal through the House.18 The progressives would not cave in to this bully, who is wholly owned by Google, Microsoft, General Electric, and the rest of the multinational corporations.
It was actually a Progressive-Conservative coalition that defeated this bill, at least for the moment. There are a few authentic, nationalist conservatives in the Republican Party who joined the progressives in blocking this. That coalition provided a glimpse of what a true nationalist coalition would look like.
Unfortunately, it didn’t last long. The House had actually voted to approve TPA the first time around, but voted down the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) bill that would appropriate aid to workers who lost their jobs due to the trade deal itself. Because TPA, or “fast track,” was originally contingent upon passage of TAA, Democrats were able to vote for TPA and still make sure it failed by voting against TAA, which they would otherwise support.
If that sounds confusing, welcome to Washington politics. To make a long story short, the two bills were separated, and TPA was brought up for a vote just a week later and passed the House.19 The Senate quickly passed the House version and sent it to Obama to be signed into law.20 This means that Obama can bring the final deal to Congress for an up-or-down vote, with no amendments allowed and debate severely restricted.
Government Zero always wins in the end.
The deal is being sold as one that will open new markets to U.S. exports, which sounds great. But that’s not what’s really going to happen. We know that because they told us the same thing when they rammed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) down our throats. Instead of increasing exports of U.S. products, it increased exports of U.S. factories and jobs.
Back when I was on the radio in the mid-1990s, I opposed NAFTA. I said it would destroy jobs in America. I said it would destroy factories in America. I said it would bring illegal aliens and drugs into America.
Was I wrong or was I right?
NAFTA decimated American manufacturing. It destroyed America’s entire industrial base.
Remember what I told you about the World Trade Organization (WTO)? Has that worked out for America? No. It’s also weakened American manufacturing.
Fast-forward to 2015. The United States ran $50 billion in trade deficits in March alone,21 and Obama wants to make it even worse.
The president has repeatedly claimed the deal will result in more auto sales to Japan. “If you drive around Washington, there are a whole bunch of Japanese cars. You go to Tokyo and count how many Chryslers and GM and Ford cars there are. So the current situation is not working for us,” Obama said in April.22
Like everything else that comes out of this man’s mouth, this is a lie. This deal won’t result in more American cars being sold in Japan. Japan doesn’t even have a tariff on American cars. They don’t sell in Japan because the Japanese want smaller, more fuel-efficient cars.
The U.S. does place a tariff on Japanese cars, however, which this deal will eliminate. So, the TPP will actually do exactly the opposite of what Obama says it
will. It will increase the sale of Japanese cars in the United States, meaning increasing competition for domestic sales, and it will do nothing to increase sales of U.S. cars in Japan.
Believe it or not, I’m with the liberals and the labor unions on this one. They’re not always wrong about everything. The majority of Republicans are wrong about this, because they’re not representing the American people. They’re representing their pals on Wall Street and in the board rooms of big corporations.
I’m sorry if I’m shocking you, but I don’t have to go party line. I’m not in the Rush Cartel. I call them as I see them. It’s that simple.
Real conservatives should be against this bill for constitutional reasons. In addition to selling out our workers and manufacturers, it also has serious implications for our national sovereignty. The deal creates an international tribunal that would have the power to override our own state and federal laws and levy fines against U.S. taxpayers.23
Just before the House voted on whether to grant Obama fast-track authority on this sellout, yet another bombshell broke: This supposed trade treaty would massively expand the traitor in chief’s authority on immigration.24 According to Rosemary Jenks, the director of government relations at Numbers USA, Obama has not told Congress or the American people the truth about his secret deal.
“He has told members of Congress very specifically the U.S. is not negotiating immigration—or at least is not negotiating any immigration provisions that would require us to change our laws. So, unless major changes are made to the Trade and Services Agreement—that is not true,” said Jenks.25
Frankly, I’d be surprised if we found out this pathological liar was telling the truth about anything. But a few naïve conservatives out there may still be surprised the Republicans who knew about this would back it. I’m not.
Today’s Republicans are so bought and sold by big business that they don’t even care about their own long-term survival. As long as Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg, and the rest can print as many H-1B visas as they want to replace American science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workers with foreigners, the Republicans don’t care if they rip up the Constitution and make Obama a king over immigration.
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