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by Adrian Sobers
“Why should we be so concerned with one good, money, among the many present in a modern economy? […] because of the centrality of money to the socioeconomic order.” – (Steven Horwitz, Monetary Evolution)
In the common-good conservatism debate, The New Criterion (January 2022), Victor Hanson mentioned the $1.7 trillion aggregate college debt owed by middle-class and poor students that has “indentured an entire generation without providing them in return the civic education and common skills and knowledge so necessary for active and vigilant citizenship.”
If there was ever a time we needed active and vigilant citizenship it is now. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal about the inflation outlook, economist Nela Richardson was asked if people are right to worry about inflation remaining high, “Yes, they are. I like to reassure, and I generally believe that things do correct themselves. But people don’t live in the future — they live now. What they see at the grocery store is reality.” This reality is not only reflected at supermarkets but general price increases.
If living through this pandemic can be likened to being in a science fiction movie, the currency crisis is another film, namely, The Monetary Matrix. Our monetary (policy) magicians seem to be competing with sorcerers in another movie: Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Having consulted the Dark Arts of Modern Monetary Theory, they have built a false economy, a Multiverse of Economic Madness.
Before setting up shop in the Metaverse, our leaders would do well to address the economic madness in the Multiverse. Mr. Hanson also made the point that “all democracies and republics eventually suffer the appropriation of power by the unelected in the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government.”
Eventually? How about now? For well over a decade, we have been in the throes of elected officials (Presidents and Prime Ministers) hiding behind unelected power (central bankers) who, seemingly oblivious to the limits of their craft (and acquiescing to political pressure), have caused record levels of inflation.
Dr. Strange tampered with the stability of space-time, our monetary magicians tampered with the yield curve, yielding the same outcome: a Multiverse of Madness. Consumers navigating multi-decade inflation highs are seeing why Dr. Strange was warned his tampering was “a desecration of reality that won’t go unpunished”.
Roman generals soaking in the accolades from a triumph always had a slave standing beside them in their chariot whispering, “Remember you are mortal, remember this cannot last.” A similar message seems to have reached the ears of our Supreme Sorcerers as the inflation chickens come home to roost.
In December 2021, Richard Byles, Governor of the Bank of Jamaica, singled out inflation as the worst enemy of Jamaican businesses and promised that the Bank of Jamaica would “fight” it.
One commenter was surprised it was not crime or corruption, but currency (certainly not climate change.)
Another person demanded answers.
“The Governor must tell us who or what caused inflation.
The origins of this enemy must be known.” Indeed it must.
In the letters section of The Wall Street Journal (June 24, 2021), economist Judy Shelton put it this way, “Who’s in charge of inflation these days? Or perhaps better stated: Who’s to blame?” She went on to make the point that this “hurts the poor the most”, and, for this reason alone, inflation cannot be an academic exercise.
Fernanda Pirie (The Rule of Laws) reveals that Roman law began as a practical system but developed into “an academic exercise” where learned men “conducted debates […] insulated from the social and political pressures of Roman life as it unfolded.” The last thing persons most affected need is a lecture about better budgeting. Should we quote them 1 Timothy 6:6-8 or Philippians 4:12–13? God forbid. This is, as Ms. Shelton put it, an “expropriation of wealth”. In a word: theft.
Are we so ethically and logically bankrupt that we budget for theft instead of holding thieves accountable?
The subject of another story, “Skyrocketing prices caused by COVID-19 creating working paupers across the region” revealed the socioeconomic pressures of these policies.
We read about the itinerant Trinidadian geriatric nurse who was brought to tears as she spoke about not knowing where “the food coming from.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren, and others at home, would have us believe that general price increases are the fault of “greedy” businesses or nefarious free market forces. Others point to supply chain bottlenecks caused by the pandemic.
Their logic is emotionally satisfying but completely wrong. I give them the benefit of the doubt (surely they know better); and suspect that they suffer, not from a poverty of understanding, but a paralysis of political will.
In any event, it is a textbook case of mistaking catalyst for cause. The “working paupers” of the region deserve better. They deserve better than the ethically and logically bankrupt narratives (outright lies in some cases); and they certainly deserve better than an increasingly worthless fiat currency. So, what are the origins of this enemy? It is to that we turn to next.
Adrian Sobers is a prolific letter writer and commentator on social issues. This column was offered as a Letter to the Editor.
