“Things Are Going To Hell Faster Than When That Son-of-a-bitch Roosevelt Was In Charge.”
By Syndicated columnist William F. George is very excited about a Republican hack about to be trounced in a Senate election. Why? His exciting old ideas:
Because Bell speaks incessantly about the dangers of fiat money and the wisdom of the gold standard, some people dismiss him as a one-issue candidate whose issue is an anachronism. He calls this “chronological snobbery”: The gold standard is a bad idea because it is an old idea and because the economics profession opposes it. Besides, his supposed single issue (actually, he has many) is the declining value of money, which affects everything.
His audiences, he says, are not just disgusted by today’s feeble economy, they are puzzled by it. So he explains that Wall Street “has been having a party” paid for by near-zero interest rates, which have had their intended effect of driving liquidity into stocks in search of higher yields, a bonanza for the 10 percent of Americans who own 80 percent of the directly owned stocks. This “wealth effect” is supposed to prompt spending and investing that will trickle down to the 90 percent. Meanwhile, near-zero interest rates punish savers.
Bell wants to alert the nation before the government again has to pay 4 percent interest on its borrowing, thereby adding, he estimates, $400 billion to the deficit. He is running because “something substantive ought to be offered before the 2016 cycle.”
Shorter Jeff Bell: “After a period of extended unemployment, government policy should make unemployment worse while punishing debtors. We therefore need interest rates to go up before interest rates go up — it’s totally going to happen any year now — and add to the deficit. GOLD!!!!!!!!! I am not a crackpot.”
Kramer: “Hmm! Oh! Yeah. I’ll tell you who is an attractive man; George Will.”
Jerry: “Really!”
Kramer: “Yeah! He has clean looks, scrubbed and shampooed and….”
Elaine: “He’s smart….”
Kramer: “No, no I don’t find him all that bright.”