September 2022 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

xNY.io - Bank.org | DOJ Memo #2 - Goldman Sachs Deferred Prosecution Agreement
by Gunnar Larson 10 Sep '22

10 Sep '22

Mr. Marzulli: We have not heard back from the Feb.1 memo here asking about information concerning international peace and security. Mr. Marzulli, xNY.io - Bank.org will leave no stone left unturned on the corresponding Deferred Agreement, given it affects our global enterprise. When do you expect a answering any of our questions? Warm regards, Gunnar Larson https://docs.google.com/document/d/10BYgCtCf9F7A4YnhN792cTBU6P-pfdaOg0UTRbt… February 1, 2022 BY ELECTRONIC MAIL Mr. John Marzulli United States Department of Justice Eastern District of New York 271 Cadman Plaza East Brooklyn New York, 11201 John.Marzulli(a)usdoj.gov Re: Memo #2 - Goldman Sachs Deferred Prosecution Agreement <https://www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/file/1329926/download> Dear Mr. Marzulli: The Department of Justice has yet to respond to Memo #1 with our recent inquiry <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OsxfjN3TUepftKklopkQDSMwFWstWozuku4IPPu…> to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad Deferred Agreement. Goldman Sachs' Deferred Prosecution Agreement <https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/goldman-sachs-resolves-foreign-bribery…> with the United States of America is in potential breach, with ethical enforcement being concerned. Memo #2 aims to associate the malfeasance in Malaysia with the Middle East. The Bank of London vs. The Bank of London and the Middle East - November 30, 2021 two New York based firms lead investment in The Bank of London based in the United Kingdom. - July 1, 2007 The Bank of London and the Middle East opened in the United Kingdom. - The Bank of London and the Middle East confirms they have no association with The Bank of London (correspondence referenced here <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZLYO6qxOX5TIn0kPd69SQbvG-mn0I5R_/view?usp=…> ). The Bank of London seemingly has been funded from New York to irritate the Middle East. Recently, we made 91 highlights of research <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O2piNMJ3CI0wbfaFW33to3KhgOgZ8-dl/view?usp=…> associated with The Bank of London and the Middle East's recent sale to a firm in Kuwait. Harvey Schwartz is the Chairperson at The Bank of London, after spending over 20 years at Goldman Sachs Group, where he oversaw sales and trading, finance, technology, and operations. He completed his tenure as the firm’s President and Co-Chief Operating Officer. He joined Goldman Sachs in 1997 and subsequently held numerous senior leadership positions including Chief Financial Officer, Global Co-Head of the Securities Division, amongst other positions. He additionally served as a member of the firm’s Management Committee and co-headed its Risk Committee, Steering Committee on Regulatory Reform and Finance Committee. Mr. Schwartz established the firm’s Investment Policy Committee on which he also served as a member. It would appear that Mr. Schwartz has no friendly diplomatic agenda in London banking, potentially looking to profit off of The Bank of London and the Middle East. Furthermore, Goldman Sachs seemingly has a part in the scheme from New York. Bank of London and the Middle East is listed on the NASDAQ, Dubai. - Mr. Marzulli, during a recent telephone discussion together it was your general assessment that the Deferred Agreement in question was self policing. Can you kindly advise at your earliest convenience what (if any) DOJ systems, processes and control mechanisms are in place to monitor the purity of the Deferred Agreement? - Furthermore, if the Deferred Agreement is self-policing, can the DOJ kindly share any and all supporting material information that would prevent the agreement from being violated without the DOJ's general oversight? - Finally, we have made 28 highlights to Deferred Agreement <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Yx88RMoeLyyfbNK0RtPl4r-m8N21_1Sp/view?usp=…> as a reference resource tool. Memo #1 and Memo #2 both outline instances that correspond with the associated highlight references. We are concerned that potential breaches to the Deferred Agreement are impacting our global enterprise. We are looking forward to learning more about the DOJ’s approach to assessing any potential breaches to the Deferred Agreement’s mandates. Respectfully yours with anticipation, Gunnar Larson - xNY.io <http://www.xny.io> | Bank.org <http://bank.org>MSc <https://www.unic.ac.cy/blockchain/msc-digital-currency/?utm_source=Google&u…> - Digital Currency MBA <https://www.unic.ac.cy/business-administration-entrepreneurship-and-innovat…> - Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ip) G(a)xNY.io +1-646-454-9107

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Fwd: FBI Addresses Ongoing Threats Targeting Historically Black Schools and Institutions in Call with Partners
by Gunnar Larson 10 Sep '22

10 Sep '22

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: FBI <fbi(a)subscriptions.fbi.gov> Date: Fri, Sep 9, 2022, 9:50 PM Subject: FBI Addresses Ongoing Threats Targeting Historically Black Schools and Institutions in Call with Partners To: <g(a)xny.io> * National Press Releases * FBI Addresses Ongoing Threats Targeting Historically Black Schools and Institutions in Call with Partners The FBI and Department of Justice hosted a nationwide phone call with the victims, advocacy groups, and community leaders impacted by the ongoing threats targeting Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Historically Black Churches, and Historically Black Institutions. Sept. 9, 2022 Full Press Release <https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/press-releases/fbi-addresses-ongoin…> ------------------------------ <https://www.facebook.com/FBI> <https://twitter.com/FBI> <https://www.youtube.com/user/FBI> <https://www.fbi.gov/e-mail-updates?utm_campaign=email-Immediate&utm_medium=…> * You have received this message because you are subscribed to one or more of the following categories: National Press Releases * Manage Subscription <https://delivery.fbi.gov/account-reminder> | Unsubscribe <https://delivery.fbi.gov/subscriber/c57956fe9830b3f02d21fe7a2581942df706f0b…> If you have questions about this service, email us at delivery(a)subscriptions.fbi.gov. Help <https://www.fbi.gov/e-mail-updates?utm_campaign=email-Immediate&utm_medium=…> | Privacy Policy <http://www.fbi.gov/privacy_policy?utm_campaign=email-Immediate&utm_medium=e…> | Visit FBI.gov <https://www.fbi.gov/?utm_campaign=email-Immediate&utm_medium=email&utm_sour…>

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Fwd: Open FOIL NY Request From : Gunnar Larson : One Million Black Women and Mission-Driven Banks: NAACP, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and PayPal Collusion
by Gunnar Larson 09 Sep '22

09 Sep '22

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Paasewe, Siaka (DHR) <Siaka.Paasewe(a)dhr.ny.gov> Date: Fri, Sep 9, 2022, 5:08 PM Subject: RE: Open FOIL NY Request From : Gunnar Larson : One Million Black Women and Mission-Driven Banks: NAACP, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and PayPal Collusion To: G(a)xny.io <g(a)xny.io> Cc: Garvin, Sheila Y (DHR) <Sheila.Garvin(a)dhr.ny.gov> Dear Mr. Larson: Pursuant to your request below, please see the attachment. Siaka Paasewe Records Access Officer NYS Division of Human Rights One Fordham Plaza, 4th Floor Bronx, NY 10458 718-741-8422 718-741-8256 [Fax] Siaka.Paasewe(a)dhr.ny.gov foil(a)dhr.ny.gov *From:* noreply-openfoil(a)its.ny.gov <its.sm.openfoil(a)its.ny.gov> *Sent:* Sunday, April 3, 2022 7:27 PM *To:* dfs.sm.RecordsAccessOfficer <recordsaccessofficer(a)dfs.ny.gov>; dhr.dl.foil <foil(a)dhr.ny.gov>; freedominfo(a)nysif.com *Subject:* Open FOIL NY Request From : Gunnar Larson : One Million Black Women and Mission-Driven Banks: NAACP, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and PayPal Collusion *New FOIL Request for Department of Financial Services, Division of Human Rights, New York State Insurance Fund * Submitted on: 4/3/2022 7:26:38 PM Request Confirmation Number : LARSON_DFS_20220403192638664 LARSON_DHR_20220403192638664 LARSON_NYSIF_20220403192638664 *INFORMATION SUBMITTED:* *Title* Mr. *First Name* Gunnar *Middle Initial* *Last Name* Larson *E-Mail* g(a)xny.io *Telephone* (646) 454-9107 *Fax* *Affiliation/Organization* xNY.io - Bank.org *Street Address 1* *Street Address 2* *City* *State* NY *Zip Code* 10001 *Country* *USA* *Short Title* One Million Black Women and Mission-Driven Banks: NAACP, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and PayPal Collusion *Description* Dear Madam or Sir: Today's memo requests records related to NY-DFS monitoring of $10,610,000,000 of pledge funds (detailed below) specific to financial inclusion. xNY.io would like to receive any and all records related to NY-DFS' monitoring of Goldman Sachs' potential money laundering and other abuses of Goldman project, One Million Black Women, with $10B in direct capital and $100M in charity investments: https://www.goldmansachs.com/our-commitments/sustainability/one-million-bla… xNY.io would like to receive any and all documents correlating NY-DFS monitoring of (or, confirming no correlation) the One Million Black Women fund related to any association to other Goldman student scholarship funds in Africa ... Furthermore, xNY.io would like to receive any and all documents, related to NY-DFS' regulatory scrutiny of interlocking directorates at the NAACP, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and PayPal with potential collusion in leveraging marketplace spoofing tactics (or, records confirming no spoofing tactics) concerning $810 million in pledge funds associated with the 2020 Mission Driven Banks whitepaper: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rOXE7ierZcd8HlvNVy7hAYg7d86q_1dv/view?usp=… Attached and below, kindly find outline of the $850M pledged: Goldman Sachs Industry: Financial Services Pledge Amount: $250 million Use of Funds: Goldman Sachs has committed $250 million for small business lending. Goldman Sachs will not issue these loans directly since it is not an approved small business loan provider in the United States. Instead, it will provide the financing to CDFIs and other mission-driven lenders to make the loans. Wells Fargo Industry: Banking Pledge Amount: $50 million Use of Funds: Wells Fargo has pledged a $50 million investment in African American MDIs. See Press Release PayPal Industry: Financial Services Pledge Amount: $510 million Use of Funds: PayPal has pledged $500 million for a long-term economic opportunity fund to support African American and underrepresented minority businesses and communities. The initiative will include “bolstering the company’s relationships with community banks and credit unions serving underrepresented minority communities, as well as investing directly into African American and minority led startups and minority-focused investment funds.” PayPal deposited $50 million in Optus Bank, an African American MDI in Columbia, South Carolina. PayPal will use another $10 million for grants to African American-owned businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic or civil unrest surrounding protests. The very best, Gunnar Larson *FOIL Response Format* Email *If fees apply, please contact me if costs will be greater than* 25000 *Additional Information* I am a representative of, or affiliated with, the news media and this request is made as part of a news gathering effort , I am an individual seeking information for personal use , I am affiliated with an educational or non-commercial scientific institution, and this request is made for a scholarly or scientific purpose , I am affiliated with a private corporation and am seeking information for use in the company’s business for commercial purpose

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Fwd: Open FOIL NY Request From : Gunnar Larson : NAACP, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and PayPal Collusion
by Gunnar Larson 09 Sep '22

09 Sep '22

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Paasewe, Siaka (DHR) <Siaka.Paasewe(a)dhr.ny.gov> Date: Fri, Sep 9, 2022, 4:54 PM Subject: RE: Open FOIL NY Request From : Gunnar Larson : NAACP, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and PayPal Collusion To: G(a)xny.io <g(a)xny.io> Cc: Garvin, Sheila Y (DHR) <Sheila.Garvin(a)dhr.ny.gov> Dear Mr. Larson: Pursuant to your request below, please see the attachment. Siaka Paasewe Records Access Officer NYS Division of Human Rights One Fordham Plaza, 4th Floor Bronx, NY 10458 718-741-8422 718-741-8256 [Fax] Siaka.Paasewe(a)dhr.ny.gov foil(a)dhr.ny.gov *From:* noreply-openfoil(a)its.ny.gov <its.sm.openfoil(a)its.ny.gov> *Sent:* Wednesday, March 16, 2022 11:57 AM *To:* dfs.sm.RecordsAccessOfficer <recordsaccessofficer(a)dfs.ny.gov>; freedominfo(a)nysif.com; dhr.dl.foil <foil(a)dhr.ny.gov> *Subject:* Open FOIL NY Request From : Gunnar Larson : NAACP, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and PayPal Collusion *New FOIL Request for Department of Financial Services, New York State Insurance Fund, Division of Human Rights * Submitted on: 3/16/2022 11:57:06 AM Request Confirmation Number : LARSON_DFS_20220316115706337 LARSON_NYSIF_20220316115706337 LARSON_DHR_20220316115706337 *INFORMATION SUBMITTED:* *Title* Mr. *First Name* Gunnar *Middle Initial* *Last Name* Larson *E-Mail* G(a)xny.io *Telephone* (646) 454-9107 *Fax* *Affiliation/Organization* xNY.io *Street Address 1* *Street Address 2* *City* *State* NY *Zip Code* 10001 *Country* *USA* *Short Title* NAACP, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and PayPal Collusion *Description* Dear Madam or Sir: We would like to receive any and all records concerning NAACP, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and PayPal collusion, where facts and figures beg the question of coordinated systematic racism associated with PayPal's conditional Bitlicense award. We would like to receive any records that would indicate NY-DFS' insights into both PayPal and Wells Fargo partnering to organize a clear scheme to profit off of New York's minority population (according to the details below). We would like to receive any and all records that indicate New York State NOT choosing to ignore the relevant facts associated with this matter. Furthermore, we would like to receive any and all records that indicate the New York State Retirement Fund is not being leveraged as a key investor in the associated scheme. Below kindly find detail that supports this records request: *March 11, 2022:* Bloomberg reported that Wells Fargo approved fewer than half of Black applicants were approved by the biggest bank mortgage lender: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2022-wells-fargo-black-home-loan-refinan… *August 19, 2021:* Wells Fargo Launches Passive Bitcoin Fund for Wealthy Clients, minority and low income clients excluded: https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/wells-fargo-launches-passive-bitcoin-fund-f… *October 22, 2020: *PayPal first to receive NY conditional virtual currency 'Bitlicense.' PayPal Inc. became the first firm to receive a conditional virtual currency license from the New York State Department of Financial Services*: * https://today.westlaw.com/Document/Ib5cd5e2f149c11ebbea4f0dc9fb69570/View/F… *July 23, 2021, Wells Fargo Stock Ownership: * Ownership (NYS:WFC) Total Shares Outstanding 13F Ownership # of 13 Holders Insider Ownership 4,107,998,274.00 77.05% 2,062.00 0.12% Top 10 13F Holders 13F Holders % Total Shares Held % of Portfolio Trend Prev. 8 Quarters Current Shares Market Value (B), USD New York State Common Retirement Fund 0.26% 0.46% 10,617,151 $414.81M New York State Teachers Retirement System 0.13% 0.44% 5,219,084 $203.91M Bank of New York Mellon Corp 0.77% 0.25% 31,624,345 $1.24B *July 23, 2021, PayPal Stock Ownership: * Ownership (NAS:PYPL) Total Shares Outstanding 13F Ownership # of 13 Holders Insider Ownership 1,174,728,054.00 86.69% 2,661.00 6.11% Top 10 13F Holders 13F Holders % Total Shares Held % of Portfolio Trend Prev. 8 Quarters Current Shares Market Value (B), USD Bank of New York Mellon Corp 0.97% 0.57% 11,452,187 $2.78B Goldman Sachs Group Inc 0.64% 0.46% 7,554,169 $1.83B Wells Fargo & Co 0.64% 0.41% 7,465,572 $1.81B New York State Common Retirement Fund 0.20% 0.62% 2,317,196 $562.71M New York State Teachers Retirement System 0.13% 0.80% 1,521,757 $369.54M *FOIL Response Format* Email *If fees apply, please contact me if costs will be greater than* 25000 *Additional Information* I am a representative of, or affiliated with, the news media and this request is made as part of a news gathering effort , I am an individual seeking information for personal use , I am affiliated with an educational or non-commercial scientific institution, and this request is made for a scholarly or scientific purpose , I am affiliated with a private corporation and am seeking information for use in the company’s business for commercial purpose

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After Funneling Trillions of Dollars in Repo Loans to Serial Bank Offenders, Lorie Logan Gets a $440,000 Job Running the Dallas Fed
by Gunnar Larson 09 Sep '22

09 Sep '22

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Pam Martens <alerts(a)wallstreetonparade.com> Date: Fri, Sep 9, 2022, 11:02 AM Subject: Once Daily Digest Email To: <alerts(a)wallstreetonparade.com> Wall Street On Parade has posted a new item: After Funneling Trillions of Dollars in Repo Loans to Serial Bank Offenders, Lorie Logan Gets a $440,000 Job Running the Dallas Fed https://wallstreetonparade.com/2022/09/after-funneling-trillions-of-dollars… By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: September 8, 2022 ~ Lorie Logan, Former Head of Trading at the New York Fed; Now Dallas Fed President Bailing out the Wall Street megabanks that are serially fined and hit with felony counts appears to be catching on as a major career advancement strategy at the New York Fed. On August 22, [...] If the hyperlink above is not active, please paste it into your browser and press "Go" to read the full article. You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are posted. If you ever wish to stop receiving these emails from us, just email me at pamk741(a)aol.com with the word "Unsubscribe" in the subject line. Best regards, Pam Martens, Editor, Wall Street On Parade

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Trump Suit Against Hillary Clinton Is Dismissed as ‘Manifesto’
by Gunnar Larson 09 Sep '22

09 Sep '22

Trump Suit Against Hillary Clinton Is Dismissed as ‘Manifesto’ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-09/trump-suit-against-hilla…

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Cryptocurrency: Chia Waste, News, Cryptos Merge Global ZFS
by grarpamp 09 Sep '22

09 Sep '22

> Up 10$ since June and bound to break ATH sooner rather than later - BTFD! > https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/chia > Founded by Bram Cohen, the inventor of the BitTorrent network, Chia Network is building a better blockchain and smart transaction platform which is more decentralized, more efficient, and more secure. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVIXRh4neAI Tech services reaching adoption Prince Philip of Serbia and Yugoslavia Joins Bitcoin Startup JAN3 as CSO. Prince Philip of Serbia: "We need hard money immune to inflation, and Bitcoin is the solution" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M6samPEMpM After another washout and Cuban going limp, BTC pops a green dildo... up 12% (3.2%/h $625/h) in potential pump trap for weekend dump, bid accordingly. Gensler throws BTC to JPM's futures manipulators. Maxi Pomp gets scared and whitewashes his profile, skeevy Mow etc expected to follow. ZKP's advancing and rolling out everywhere as prophesized. Coinbase employees and Ethereum backers sue U.S. Treasury over wrongful Tornado Cash sanctions XRP trash and ETH premine set to pop in Sept. FED's steal $30M from DPRK. Chia still wastes a lot of space, but what if the space was filled with useful data... Any of the hash based filesystems such as ZFS might perhaps be hacked into doing consensus over their uberblocks, content and addressible hashes, crypto addressed leaf mountpoints, etc thus resulting in the planet's biggest distributed encrypted filesystem ever.

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Contempt for journalists is very cypherpunk
by professor rat 09 Sep '22

09 Sep '22

1775 - Marc J. Randazza @marcorandazza · Sep 8 The "Journalism Competition and Protection Act" does what? It creates a four-year safe harbor from antitrust laws for news companies and tech companies. Does that sound like "competition?" Sounds more like "protection for our friends" ( Repost provided with Royal seal of app )

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Cohen the Barbarian
by professor rat 09 Sep '22

09 Sep '22

Up 10$ since June and bound to break ATH sooner rather than later - BTFD! https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/chia Founded by Bram Cohen, the inventor of the BitTorrent network, Chia Network is building a better blockchain and smart transaction platform which is more decentralized, more efficient, and more secure. DO YOU WANT TO LIVE FOREVER!?

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Cryptocurrency: Replacing Keynesian Abuse of Humanity with Freedom
by grarpamp 08 Sep '22

08 Sep '22

Inflation Is State-Sponsored Terrorism https://mises.org/wire/inflation-state-sponsored-terrorism https://mises.org/library/when-money-dies https://mises.org/library/ethics-money-production https://schiffgold.com/guest-commentaries/inflation-is-state-sponsored-terr… https://www.amazon.com/Joyless-Street-Greta-Garbo/dp/B0010XVFY6 https://schiffgold.com/commentaries/inflation-tax-costing-us-households-433… https://schiffgold.com/interviews/peter-schiff-and-megyn-kelly-this-recessi… https://schiffgold.com/commentaries/fed-paper-admits-the-central-bank-cant-… https://www.science.org/content/article/conquistador-silver-may-not-have-su… https://www.axios.com/make-believe-economy-27a5a019-6798-4dd5-b674-e4dd914d… Americans have been laboring under the burden of inflation for well over a year. We feel the pain everywhere, from the gas pump to the grocery store. Once it became impossible to sell the “inflation is transitory” narrative any longer, the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates to fight inflation. As a result, the bubble economy is getting shaky. But even some people at the Fed seem to realize this is a fight they can’t win. In a talk at the Ron Paul Institute, Mises Institute president Jeff Deist called inflation “state-sponsored terrorism.” Inflationism is both a fiscal and monetary regime, but its consequences go far beyond economics. It has profound social, moral, and even civilizational effects. And understanding how it terrorizes us is the task today.” Following is a transcript of Deist’s talk. The following article was originally published by the Mises Wire. The opinions expressed are the author’s and don’t necessarily reflect those of Peter Schiff or SchiffGold. I. Introduction Remember the quaint old days of 2019? We were told the US economy was in great shape. Inflation was low, jobs were plentiful, GDP was growing. And frankly, if covid had not come along, there is a pretty good chance Donald Trump would have been reelected. At an event in 2019, my friend and economist Dr. Bob Murphy said something very interesting about the political schism in this country. He said: If you think America is divided now, what would things look like if the economy was terrible? If we had another crash like 2008? Well, we might not have to imagine such a scenario much longer. If you think Americans are divided today, and at each other’s throats—metaphorically, but more and more literally—imagine if they were cold and hungry! Imagine if we had to live through something like Weimer Germany, Argentina in the 1980s, Zimbabwe in the 2000s, or Venezuela and Turkey today? What would our political and social divisions look like then? Ladies and gentlemen, we live under the tyranny of inflationism. It terrorizes us, either softly or loudly. I suspect it will get a lot louder soon. As the late Bill Peterson explained, “Inflationism, in today’s terms, is deficit-spending, deliberate credit expansion on a national scale, a public policy fallacy of monumental proportions, of creating too much money that chases too few goods. It rests on the ‘money illusion,’ a widespread confusion between income as a flow of money and income as a flow of goods and services—a confusion between ‘money’ and wealth.” Inflationism is both a fiscal and monetary regime, but its consequences go far beyond economics. It has profound social, moral, and even civilizational effects. And understanding how it terrorizes us is the task today. II. Understanding Inflationism I’ll ask you to consider three things. First, inflation is a policy. We should make them own it. Inflation is not something beyond our control that comes along periodically like the weather. Our monetary and fiscal regimes actually set out to create it and consider it a good thing. Let’s not forget—both Trump and Biden signed off on covid stimulus bills which combined injected roughly $7 TRILLION dollars directly into the economy—even as actual goods and services were dramatically reduced due to lockdowns. Deflation was the natural order of things in response to a crisis, a bullshit crisis in my view, but still a crisis. So of course Uncle Sam actively attempted to undo the natural desire to spend less and hold more cash during a time of uncertainty. This $7 trillion was created on the fiscal side of things. It was not new Fed bank reserves exchanged for commercial bank assets as a roundabout monetization of Treasury debt, as we saw with quantitative easing. This was direct stimulus from the Treasury via Congress as express fiscal policy. Free money. This money went straight into the accounts of individuals (stimulus checks), state and local governments, millions of small businesses (PPP [Paycheck Protection Program] loans), the airline industry, and untold earmarks. This was actual cash, and it is being spent. So any economist who tells you today’s inflation is somehow a surprise is either charitably misinformed or gaslighting. This is a policy. Inflation is engineered. The difference between supposedly desirable 2 percent CPI [Consumer Price Index] and very bad, awful, no good 9 percent CPI is only one of degree. The same mindset produces both. But the inflationists insist a little bit of virus is good for us, like a vaccine … So an express policy of some inflation is the mechanism to forestall too much inflation. This is a curious position. Second, inflation is nothing less than sanctioned state terror, and we ought to treat it as such. It’s criminal. It makes us live in fear. Inflation is not just an economic issue, but in fact, produces deep cultural and social sickness in any society it touches. It makes business planning and entrepreneurship—which rely on profit and loss calculations using money prices—far more difficult and risky, which means we get less of both. How do you measure money profits when the unit of measurement keeps falling in value? It erodes capital accumulation, the driver of greater productivity and material progress. So inflation destroys both existing wealth and future wealth, which never comes into being and thus diminishes the world our children and grandchildren inhabit. And it makes us poor and vulnerable in our senior years. After all, saving is for chumps. Current one-year CD rates are below 3 percent, while inflation is at least 9 percent. So you’re losing 6 points just by standing still! By the way, the last time official CPI approached double digits, in the early ’80s, a one-year CD earned 15 percent. I’d like to hear Jerome Powell explain that. By the way, ever since Alan Greenspan began this great experiment of four decades of lower and lower interest rates, guess who hasn’t benefited? Poor people and subprime borrowers, who still pay well over 20 percent for their car loans and credit cards. But here is an unspoken truth: inflation also makes us worse people. It degrades us morally. It almost forces us to choose current consumption over thrift. Economists call this high time preference, preferring material things today at the expense of saving or investing. It makes us live for the present at the expense of the future, the opposite of what all healthy societies do. Capital accumulation over time, the result of profit, saving, and investing, is how we all got here today—a world with almost unimaginable material wealth all around us. Inflationism reverses this. So this very human impulse, to save for a rainy day and perhaps leave something for your children, is upended. Inflationism is inescapably an antihuman policy. Third, hyperinflation can happen here. It may not happen, and it may not happen soon. But it might well happen. And even steady 10 percent inflation means prices double roughly every seven years. We can pretend the laws of economics don’t apply to the world’s leading superpower, or that the world’s reserve currency is safe from the problems experienced by lesser countries. And it’s certainly true our reserve currency status insulates us and makes the world need dollars. Governments and industry mostly use US dollars to buy oil from OPEC countries, hence the term “petrodollar.” It’s certainly true governments, central banks, large multinational companies, worldwide investment funds, sovereign wealth funds, and pension funds all hold plenty of US dollars—and thus in a perverse way share our interest in maintaining King Dollar. It’s true we don’t have easy historical examples of a world reserve currency, like gold, suffering a rapid devaluation across the world (even the Spanish silver devaluation of the 1500 and 1600s was not necessarily caused by a glut in circulating currency). So we’re in uncharted territory, especially given the fiscal and monetary excesses of the last twenty-five years and especially the last two years. But this only means the potential contagion is greater and more dangerous. The whole world can be sickened at once. III. A Story: When Money Dies But as most of you surely know by now, we don’t turn the ship around or win hearts and minds simply with logic and facts and airtight arguments. We need stories, or narratives, in today’s awful media parlance, to gain influence. We need emotional reactions. So I will suggest a story with plenty of pathos to shake people out of their complacency and sound the warning. That story is When Money Dies, Adam Fergusson’s brilliant cautionary account of hyperinflation in Weimar-era Germany. It is the story Americans desperately need to hear today. Fergusson’s book should be assigned to central bankers stat (we wonder how many of them know of it). It’s not a book about economic policy per se—it’s a story, a historical account of folly and hubris on the part of German politicians and bureaucrats. It’s the story of a disaster created by humans who imagined they could overcome markets by monetary fiat. It’s a reminder that war and inflation are inextricably linked, that war finance leads nations to economic disaster and sets the stage for authoritarian bellicosity. We think Versailles and reparations created the conditions for Hitler’s rise, but without the Reichbank’s earlier suspension of its one-third gold reserve requirement in 1914, it seems unlikely Germany would have become a dominant European military power. Without inflationism, Hitler might have been a footnote. Most of all, When Money Dies is a tale of privation and degradation. Not only for Germans, but also Austrians and Hungarians grappling with their own political upheavals and currency crises in the 1910s and ’20s. In a particularly poignant chapter, Fergusson describes the travails of a Viennese widow named Anna Eisenmenger. A friend of mine, @popeofcapitalism on Twitter, sent me her diary from Amazon. The story starts with her comfortable life as the wife of a doctor and mother to a wonderful daughter and three sons. They are talented and cultured and musical and upper middle class. They even socialize with Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, the Duchess of Hohenberg. But in May 1914 their happy life is shattered. Ferdinand is assassinated at Sarajevo, and war breaks out. Wars cost money, and the gold standard wisely adopted by Austria-Hungary in 1892 is almost immediately seen as an impediment. So the government predictably begins to issue war bonds in huge numbers, and the central bank fires up the printing presses. This results in a sixteenfold increase in prices just during the war years. But the human effects are catastrophic, even apart from the war itself. Frau Eisenmenger is luckier than most Viennese women. She owns small investments which produce modest income—fixed in kronen. Her banker quietly urges her to immediately exchange any funds for Swiss francs. She demurs, as dealing in foreign currency has been made illegal. But soon she realizes he was right. There is probably a lesson here for all of us! As the war unfolds, she is forced into black markets and pawning assets to procure food for her war-damaged children. Her currency and Austrian bonds become almost worthless. She exchanges her husband’s gold watch for potatoes and coal. The downward spiral of her life, marked by hunger and hoarding anything with real value, happens so quickly she barely has time to adjust. But her misery doesn’t stop with the end of the war. On the contrary, the Saint-Germain Treaty in 1919 gives way to a period of hyperinflation: the money supply increases from 12 to 30 billion kronen in 1920, and to about 147 billion kronen at the end of 1921 (does this sound like America 2020, by the way?). By August 1922, consumer prices are fourteen thousand times greater than before the start of the war eight years earlier. In just a few short years she endures countless tragedies, all made worse by privation, cold, and hunger. Her husband dies. Her daughter contracts tuberculosis and dies, leaving Frau Eisenmenger to take care of her infant daughter and young son. One son goes missing in the war, one son is blinded, and her son-in-law becomes crippled following the loss of both legs. Food and coal are rationed, so her apartment is a miserable hovel—and she is forced to dodge searches by the “Food Police” looking for illegal hoarding. Ultimately, she is shot in the lung by her own Communist son, Karl, in a fit of rage. There is a haunting and historically accurate silent film about conditions in Vienna during this era called The Joyless Street, starring a young Greta Garbo. Her character sees everything deteriorate around her; even her father beats her with his cane for returning home without food. Once friendly neighbors become suspicious of each other’s stores of bread and cheese, while prostitution becomes rampant. Angry people jostle in line, waiting for the butcher to open; when he does, only the most attractive women receive the scraps of meat available that day. Fistfights become common. Starving children beg for food in front of restaurants and cafes like stray dogs. Everything familiar and beautiful in society becomes degraded and cheapened seemingly overnight. Like a Stephen King horror movie, something very familiar changes into a strange and menacing place. Your neighborhood takes on a different light. People you thought you knew became malevolent strangers. Scapegoating, blame, and snitching become commonplace. Is this beginning to sound familiar, especially after Biden’s sick speech the other night? So, next time one of these sociopaths in our political class wants to spend a few trillion more to pay for a green new deal or a war with China or free college, remember Frau Eisenmenger’s story. IV. The Lessons for Today How do we apply this grim historical lesson from the Weimar period to America today? How do we tell this story? First, we explain inflationism in human terms, to personalize it and de-bamboozle it. Make monetary policy vital and immediate, not boring and dry and technocratic. Again, there are enormous moral and civilization components to monetary policy. Inflation not only harms our economy, it makes us worse people: profligate, shortsighted, lazy, and unconcerned with future generations. Professor Guido Hülsmann literally wrote the book on this. It’s called The Ethics of Money Production. This is maybe the greatest untold story in America today: the story of not only how the Fed fundamentally shifted our economy from one of production to consumption, but what it did to us as people. Don’t let them hide behind complex Fed speak the simple reality: monetary policy is nothing less than criminal theft from future generations, from savers, and from the poorest Americans, who are furthest from the money spigot. The idea that reasonably intelligent laypeople cannot understand monetary policy, that it is too important and complex for anyone but experts, is nonsense. We should expose it. Second, ridicule the absurd idea that “policy” can make us richer. More goods and services, produced more and more efficiently, thanks to capital—and thereby creating price deflation—make us richer. That’s the only way. Not by legislative or monetary fiat. So we should attack any notion of “public policy” and especially “monetary policy.” Inflationism creates a fake economy, a “make-believe” economy, as Axios recently put it. A fake economy depends on enormous levels of ongoing fiscal and monetary intervention. We call this “financialization,” but we all have a sense that our prosperity is borrowed. We all feel it. Capital markets are degraded: a lot of money moves around without creating any value for anyone. Companies don’t necessarily make profits or pay dividends; all that matters to shareholders is selling their stock for capital gains. It always requires a new Ponzi buyer. But we know intuitively this isn’t right: consider a restaurant or dry cleaner which operated without profit for years in the hope of selling for a gain years or decades later. Only the distorted incentives created by inflationism make this mindset possible. So down with “policy”—what we need is sound money! Finally, let us not fear being accused of hyperbole or alarmism. Let me ask you this: what happens if we’re wrong, and what happens if they’re wrong? What they are doing, meaning central bankers and national treasuries, is unprecedented. Fake money is infinite, real resources are not. Hyperinflation may not be around the corner or even years away; no one can predict such a thing. But at some point the US economy must create real organic growth if we hope to maintain living standards and avoid an ugly inflationary reality. No amount of monetary or fiscal engineering can take the place of capital accumulation and higher productivity. More money and credit is no substitute for more, better, and cheaper goods and services. Political money can’t work, and we should never be afraid to attack it root and branch. We need private money, the only money immune from the inescapable political incentive to vote for things now and pay for them later. If this is radical, so be it. History shows us how money dies. Yes, it can happen here. Only a fool thinks otherwise.

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