Spending Our Way to Prosperity

15 Jan

Spending Our Way to Prosperity

It’s a headline we are all too accustomed to seeing: “Federal Spending Sets Record.”

It seems that federal spending is always setting a new record.  This time the story was on the Drudge Report the other day.  It reported that the federal government spent a record breaking $1,163,090,000,000 in the first three months – October, November, December – of this new fiscal year, FY2020.

How fast is the debt climbing?  By about $100 billion a month!

But it gets worse as we go along.  By some projections we are looking at today’s $23 trillion in federal debt exploding to $43 trillion by the end of this decade.  

The satirical website The Babylon Bee also had a story the other day that we wanted to share.  A story about the most recent televised presidential debate:

“Warning: Gang Of Known Criminals Holds Meeting To Discuss How Much Of Your Money To Steal”

“DES MOINES, IA—Authorities are warning that a gang of known criminals is currently holding a meeting to debate various plots to steal your money.

“The criminals are debating exactly how much of your money to steal. Some are suggesting stealing all of your money, while others would just like to steal most of your money. Whatever the case, they all agree on two things: A.) you have money and B.) it must be stolen.”

It’s true, that when politicians want money, they will go to any lengths to get it.  Sometimes they borrow it (and then they have to tax you later to pay back their borrowing).  Sometimes they tax you right upfront.  But often the easiest way to get the money they want is to simply print it up.  Since most people don’t understands how money printing destroys the currency and their savings, it allows the “gang of criminals” to slink away undetected.  

That matters to us since every act of money printing makes gold’s allure shine even more brightly.  And of course, since gold can’t be printed, politicians really don’t like it very much.

Anyway, we’d like to wrap up today with the common-sense reminder that a country cannot spend its way to prosperity.

And as long as we’re at it, we’d like to add that the lowest interest rates in history cannot long co-exist with the biggest debts in history!