Clueless Idiots Are in Charge... And It's Terrifying

Jared Bernstein, MMT, and "Free Everything"

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”

~ Albert Einstein

The U.S. money supply has doubled in just 10 years. Here’s a visual to remind you of what that looks like.

Between 2014 and 2024, the Fed's broad measure of the money supply, M2, shot up by an astonishing $10 trillion, with the bulk of this increase occurring in 2021 and 2022.

If you're baffled by how the government prints so much money, don't worry — at least you're not as clueless about it as Jared Bernstein of the Council of Economic Advisors.

The Inmates Are Running the Asylum

No, I'm not just trying to flatter you. Here’s a recent clip of Jared Bernstein that's gone absolutely viral.

Bernstein kicks things off with a gem: "The U.S. government can't go bankrupt because we can print our own money." Yep, that's a facepalm moment right there. But then, when the journalist asks why they borrow at all if they can just print money, Bernstein dives into a pool of cluelessness so deep, he needs a lifeguard. It probably won't make any more sense typed out than it did on screen, but here's the quote if you're ready to sacrifice a few brain cells.

Jared Bernstein: Well, um, so the, I mean, again, some of this stuff gets, some of the language, that the, some of the language and concepts are just confusing. I mean, the government definitely prints money and it definitely lends that money, which is why the government definitely prints money and then it lends that money by selling bonds. Is that what they do? They, they, um, they, yeah, they, they, um, they sell bonds. Yeah, they sell bonds, right, because they sell bonds and people buy the bonds and lend them the money, yeah.

So, a lot of times, at least in my year with MMT, the, the language and the concepts can be kind of unnecessarily confusing. But there is no question that the government prints money and then it uses that money to, um, uh, uh, so, um, yeah, I guess I'm just, I don't, I can't really talk. I don't, I don't get it. I don't know what they're talking about, like, 'cause it's like... the government clearly prints money, it does it all the time, and it clearly borrows, otherwise we wouldn't be having this debt and deficit conversation. So, I don't think there's anything confusing there. I don't think there's anything confusing there.

Good sir, you're clearly as confused as they come.

Now, this wouldn't be of much concern if Bernstein weren't literally the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, the main agency advising Biden on economic policy.

That’s why, to me, this is probably one of the most unsettling clips I've seen in a while about on the people in charge of the U.S. economy.

Even Doug Casey, who's typically unfazed by governmental stupidity in all its forms, was left in awe by Bernstein’s “insights:”

I don't think that he's on any kind of drug or controlled substance. This guy is just abysmally ignorant. He knows nothing about economics, and yet he's the head of the Council of Economic Advisors to Biden. This actually beggars belief. It's like this guy is trying to qualify for Saturday Night Live to do a skit, because that's what it is. This is nuts.

Yeah, that about sums it up.

Mind you, this wasn't just an academic mistake that Bernstein made. He wasn't just wrong on a concept or two. No, he was completely and utterly clueless on everything he's supposed to be an expert on.

It's official now. The inmates are running the asylum.

Yeah, Why Not...

Now, in case you missed it, buried beneath all the incoherent mumbling from Jared Bernstein in the interview, was a three-letter word that actually meant something: Modern Monetary Theory, or MMT.

Here's Doug Casey to break it down for us:

What is MMT? Well, it's basically an economic philosophy where the government prints up money and injects it wherever it sees fit. And then, if there's too much inflation, how do you get the money out of society? You selectively tax other areas that you don't favor. So, other than a regime of pure communism, this is perhaps the worst possible economic solution to any problems. The government prints up money, hands it to those it likes, and if there's too much money in circulation causing inflation, they fix it by taxing other people they don't like. That's the essence of MMT.

MMT suggests that since the U.S. government can borrow in its own currency, it can just print money to cover its spending. It's exactly what the journalist in the video was getting at with Jared Bernstein.

Simply put, MMT promises “free everything,” all funded by the government's printing presses, supposedly without any repercussions for the average American.

Forget about debt ceiling, forget about fiscal responsibility, or any kind of checks or balances (yeah, I know, eye roll), it's as if Uncle Sam has an endless ATM in the backyard.

And forget about all those countries where these exact types of policies brought utter misery — Argentina, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and many others.

It may sound crazy, yes, but many left-leaning U.S. economists and politicians are taking it seriously. They see it as a sort of “Quantitative Easing (QE) for the people.” To them, it’s a logical extension from QE for banks.

Never mind that Former Fed chair Bernanke assured Congress that the QE money printing programs (which we first saw in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis) were supposed to be temporary emergency measures.

The exact opposite turned out to be true. We saw this clearly during the pandemic when the Fed abandoned all semblance of sanity, doling out cash to banks left and right.

The outcome? Inflation hit 9% in June 2022, the highest in the nation in 40 years. And that's going by the government's own figures. If we calculate it all, inflation was probably in the double digits.

So, yeah, why not MMT? Especially when clueless idiots like Jared Bernstein, who have the President's ear, are openly advocating for it.

Regards,

Lau Vegys

P.S. There’s no better safeguard against the Fed's reckless money printing and various crises than gold. Its track record speaks for itself. This is why Doug always recommends holding gold in your long-term investment portfolio. And if you're after some leverage, we have several precious metal stock picks — ones that Doug himself owns — to capitalize on in our Crisis Investing portfolio.