Whether they toss around this propaganda because they are toweringly ignorant about economics, or they do so in order to provide cover for themselves, for Joe Biden, and for the immoral, economically destructive system of central bank-issued fiat currency they force on us, one may never know, but one thing is demonstrably certain: Senator Liz Warren (D-MA) and many of her cohorts on Capitol Hill again have exposed their contemptuous dismissal of reality.
This latest foray into untruth comes to us by way of their bluster about high prices, and it shows us how disconnected these collectivist elitists are from actual economics.
On May 13, Warren and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) led 40 other Senators and Congress members (all Democrats) in “sending a letter” (i.e. engaging in a publicity stunt) calling on Biden to “exercise your executive authority” to “take action to address rising food prices without Congressional action.”
It’s a “letter” that requires anyone who appreciates honesty to mention, working back-to-front, that Congress has no power to take “action” over prices except to stop doing most of the things they are doing.
They could STOP spending so much that they need a Federal Reserve money-pump to buy US debt, they could STOP burdening business owners, workers, and consumers (economists understand that the terms are interchangeable, regardless of the popular slots in which politicians place them) via regulations and taxes and tariffs (which also are taxes on imported goods), and they could stop blocking energy from places such as Russia. Additionally, Warren's idea that the President has some kind of constitutional “executive power” to “take action to address rising food prices” is as fantastical as her claim to be an American Indian.
Ms. Warren might want to remember that the President of the United States has very limited "powers." They are listed in the US Constitution, and they don’t include the magical ability to impose “price controls” or any other “emergency” mandate.
But, in the same manner as hallucinating AI bots, these 42 Democrats seem to “think” (one uses that term quite loosely) that both they and the Executive Branch can become the new Supreme Soviet, and dictate prices and supplies of things that only markets can provide.
To cap it off, they think they can lie to us about the reason prices are rising.
“Americans are facing sky-high food prices, caused by excessive price gouging by food and grocery giants. A small group of players dominate those industries: four grocery retailers account for over a third of national grocery sales and four food companies control more than 60 percent of sales in most grocery categories. As a result, consumers are spending more of their income on food than they have in the past 30 years.”
Their cause-effect nexus is more than a bit off. In fact, their push to blame sellers (or “grocery giants”) for higher prices, akin to Joe Biden spinning his “shrinkflation” yarns, is the kind of dumb deflection and denial of economic truth that even children’s books such as “Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?” debunk.
Lengthy scholarship and tiresome econometric theories are not necessary for anyone to grasp the fundamental difference between what free market competition does and what fiat (government mandated) currencies do to prices.
As a service to Liz and the other grand-standing Dems, here’s a quick review:
First, we have individual uniqueness and peaceful interaction. Those led even cavemen divided their labor, and, upon doing so, they were able to see people concentrate on what they did best – be it hunting, weaving, spear-making, etc. That division of labor led to surplus and to people recognizing the law of diminishing returns, by which they realize that more effort making more of something leads to less and less value for each new item. As a result, people engage in trade, allowing them to continue concentrating on what they do best and to trade with others who also have surplus thanks to their good skills. Of course, this can be conducted through barter, but third and fourth-party barter can be difficult. What if the spear-maker doesn’t want your fish? You have to find someone who wants fish and who also might have something you can take in exchange, then trade to the spear-maker. As a result, people eventually find commodities that tend to be widely used and accepted in trades. Those become forms of currency.
A naturally-created money system is an extension of free trade. In such a natural market, even “banks” can exist to facilitate easy storage of the currency, or to issue “redemption slips” for gold or silver that a bank might store. Those “slips” also could be used as currency to make for easier portability, but people would not accept the “slips” unless they knew that, if they approached the bank to redeem them, the bank had 100 percent of the coins in stock.
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If the bank did not, that would be called “fractional reserve banking,” and no one would accept a redemption slip from such a bank, or from a person trying to offer such a slip, eventually driving that “bank” money out of circulation.
This powerful combination of free trade, market competition, and sound money that is not artificially increased, leads to lower prices, as people’s productivity and competition for consumer interest constantly trends towards better use of resources, less waste, and more value for every purchase.
This process also allows for natural savings, which can be leveraged to help fund new businesses and new jobs.
But Biden, Warren, and their ilk will not be shaken from their command-and-control money and regulation insanity. Theirs is the twisted mentality that the government is not a parasite, that the government is compassionate and can “create” jobs, and that its association with a central banking cartel that invents new money to buy government debt is fine, and economically wise.
It is not. The inflation of the money supply that their mentality inspires leads to price inflation, and the problem is not the fault of people trying to sell to us in the market.
Sellers try to serve their customers, because customers will go elsewhere if they are not satisfied.
But government captures us in its web of deceit, debt, and assumptive control over the market. Take a look at what they want Biden to do, via the already offensive mountain of unconstitutional bureaucracies under his control:
- Encourage the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to prohibit exclusionary contracting by dominant firms in the food industry.
- Encourage the FTC to issue guidance on potential violations of the Robinson Patman Act and Section 5 of the FTC Act within the food industry, and investigate and take enforcement action where merited.
- Work with USDA to increase the number of government contract recipients that are very small businesses.
- Work with USDA to ensure that technical factors reflect the long-term costs of food sector consolidation.
- Urge the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FTC to scrutinize, and where appropriate, block mergers and acquisitions in the food and agricultural sectors.
- Encourage the DOJ to prosecute actors in the agricultural and food sectors for price fixing and other anticompetitive behavior.
- Direct the CFTC and FTC to form a joint task force to investigate food price manipulation throughout the supply chain.
US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the central bank, itself, all exist in utter contempt of the original wording and intent of the US Constitution. They are thuggish extensions of the Warren-esque mentality that the government can tell people how to live and peacefully engage in trade.
And now, these politicians want to promote the canard that it’s the competitive market, not their inflated money system, that is driving UP prices, even as they claim more power over the very market they destroy.
It’s at times such as this that the stark difference between market freedom and political force become quite evident. Their rhetoric cannot hide the disastrous results of the political pressures on our wallets. Even cavemen understood how lives are bettered.
They are bettered by individuals being able to freely decide for themselves how to trade, and what money they will use.
The world in which Warren and her comrades exist is one that drives up our prices and makes it harder for us to live. But, perhaps this is the plan. After all, each time they claim an “emergency” they take more of our liberty, to the point that, now, Warren wants a totally digital central bank “currency” that the government can turn on and off at will.
It’s high time to get away from them and their mentality, and to learn the lessons of history.
Economically and morally, this is of the utmost importance, and no “letter” from Warren and the Democrats will change the coming economic abyss that only freedom can avoid.
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