Well, here we are… finally having to confront the next economic phase of this slow moving Corona Chaos entitled “Life After Magic Money Quantitive Easing – Brutal Austerity or Universal Debt Forgiveness?”. Did you enjoy the $600 per week unemployment/self-employment assistance? I know I did, even though I seem to have fallen through EDD/PUA recertification cracks at the beginning of May. And all my fellow vintage vendors, ie, my fellow canaries at the bottom of the discretionary spending economic coal mine; those who had applied for and received the corona benefits, they all seem to be happy, thankful campers. Regularly paying quarterly taxes probably helped, but sadly, this is a very rare example of when our government seems to be serving “We the Self-Employed”, let alone, “We the People”.

But now that the party is officially over and Mitch McConnell and his right wing/neo-liberal globalist cohorts (who’d a thunk?!) appear to be hell bent on burning our social safety net and forcing brutal austerity on all us working folks, all us small business Main Street/flea market folks… we now get to ponder how to make ends meet with (much) less money as our local, state and global health “experts” and “authorities” get to decide how and when to fully re-open our economy while the never ending  24/7 corporate media narrative of, “This Deadly Disease!!”, continues to bombard our senses and  psyches. At least until cognitive dissonance plays catch up. Not to worry, it will. I find it fascinating that at least 98 to 99% of the people who do test positive for covid 19, don’t die… about the same amount of “deadly” as the last global “pandemic”, the 1968 Hong Kong Flu (sorry, pre-PC), but without the global economic shutdown and mandatory “distancing and masks”.

It seems the consequences of our economic over-reaction have hit us hard in the face mask. But, what do I know… the drama is still unfolding, the smoke is still far from clearing and the unprecedented amount of data is still being (selectively?) digested by all the Big Data gathering entities who are fine tuning our profiles as we speak. Only time will tell if the next Imperial College/Neil Ferguson computer “model” is as over exaggerated and fear inducing as their early 2020 “two million people will die just in America!!” Faulty Tower covid forecast that (intentionally?) panicked the world and got this possibly premeditated ball rolling. I can hear it now… “Ok… Big Pharma, Big Tech, Bill and Melinda… hey, you jokers over at One World Government… WHO, CDC, AMA, World Economic Forum… got yer ducks all lined up? (Quack!) Ok, Let’s get it right this time, damnit!!… ‘Global Fear of Deadly Pandemic’, Take Four… ACTION!!”

But, I digress… 

Massive Debt Forgiveness (MDF)… once upon a biblical/post-biblical time, communal debt forgiveness was a semi-regular practice… a “Jubilee”, a way of resetting those ancient societies to well being after the effects of drought, famine, war, disease, etc had made social/economic obligations… personal and social debt, an impossible burden. Even before covid hit America between the eyes last March, an arguably unmanageable amount of corporate debt had accrued just begging to be humbled partly due to previous quantitative easing proceeds going into historic levels of stock buy-backs. Opps. Darn virus pops bubble, large parts of corporate America deflates, fiscal Dr. Fed administers round five (6, 7…9?) of Quantitative Easing temporarily reviving critical parts of corporate and Main Street America, keeping it on current life support, and now the world awaits the next “next” as the unemployment benefits to workers expire just before banks and landlords can start demanding their money this October. 

What’s that? Off in the distance… a chorus collusion of central bankers hoping and praying that an increasingly tenuous “trust” in the monetary system (and their friggin luck!!) doesn’t run out any time soon. Quantitatively creating the Magic Money Supply (MMS) is one thing, but can they also quantitatively support the foundation of “trust” in an increasingly diluted “reserve currency” (currencies)? Maybe it’s a good thing all the central bankers are playing the same game. The illusion seems to be buying them/us some time.

To many of my vintage swap clientele, the unemployed and sole proprietors who still have no job or business to go back to, who still have rents/mortgage obligations to pay, families and pets to feed, vinyl addictions to maintain, this next “next” seems to have a hint of free fall and bouquet of great, stress inducing uncertainty in every other dark thought. Time seems to be of the essence. Concerning MDF, the economist James Galbraith emphasized last May, “…contracts will have to be suspended, and the debts cleared away, or there will be a confrontation on a vast scale.” “Confrontation on a Vast Scale??!!” Oh my. “But we were only doing what the health and elected officials ordered! It all happened so fast. No one said anything about long lasting economic disruption!!”, sayeth those now caught in the economic crosshairs. Mr. Ferguson, Mr. Fauci and Mr. Fear Mongering Murdoch and Co. may want to sit this next “next” out. Continued Mr. Galbraith, “You don’t do that to people. It’s a very basic question of fairness”. (and a shameless segue to my previous post, “A Question of Flea Market Values”!)

A “Question of Fairness”?! How quaint. A relic of a bygone FDR/Eisenhower era? Or just maybe something we must now seriously consider aspiring to… the “Jubilee Train” the roots rock Blasters once sung about getting on board as all the churches and bars raise their spirits to full occupancy and shout “Hallelujah!!”, when all covid restrictions have finally been lifted. Now that the vicious cycle of an unregulated free market meets quantitatively eased debt appears to have run it’s course, the challenge now, the fork in the road; to try to salvage the remaining integrity of our neo-capitalist economic system or create a new regenerative economic system out of the chaos. We appear to be approaching the end of our debt rope, kids. Do we now hang ourselves with brutal austerity measures as Tdump, McConnell and their Koch allies (heh heh heh) would prefer, cutting as many social safety nets as possible… you know, Social Security, the Post Office, Obama Care, Vets Administration, your kids education, infrastructure, etc etc… all those annoying government administrative functions they insist would be better “privatized”? Or do we press the green “reset” button and start from economic scratch, working toward finally creating economic equality for all by enacting a last resort measure, massive global debt forgiveness? At bare minimum for personal and business debts incurred during the time the “shelter in place” lockdowns began till the day all Corona Chaos economic restrictions are lifted. Decisions, decisions. Oh, and by the way, no debt forgiveness for the Wall Street investment banks that helped enable this economic crisis/bubble, nor for the exploitive third world/developing nations vulture funds. Let them eat re-instituted Glass-Steagall cake. Or maybe they could get a bailout of faux generosity from ulterior motivated Bill and Melinda and their covert proprietary “foundation” to cover their losses! Right. About as likely as a 100% PROVEN safe and effective, double-blind tested, Gates approved covid Savior Vaccination being available by early 2021. I mean, why stop at exploiting fear when you can also exploit hope! Ca-Ching!!!

 “… and if a free society could not help a starving man, it would be very difficult to remain free very long”.  Oh Oh!! Milton Friedman from 1980’s “Free to Choose” TV/YouTube series. 

Hang on to your hats my fellow flea marketeers! This next “next” is going to be so interesting.

Keepin it Juicy, “Dismal Dave” Lancon © August 2, 2020