Perhaps 95 percent of what the US government does every day does not comport with the Constitution. More remarkable still is that nobody seems to care. From Bill Bonner at bonnerandpartners.com:
All earthly empires die. Is this the end? Only God knows.
– St. Augustine, 413 AD
POITOU, FRANCE – Yesterday, in advance of the G7 pow-wow this weekend, Donald Trump tweeted his position on trade:
If we charge a country ZERO to sell their goods, and they charge us 25, 50 or even 100 percent to sell ours, it is UNFAIR and can no longer be tolerated. That is not Free or Fair Trade, it is Stupid Trade!
He’s got that nearly right. Trade barriers are certainly not free. And fairness has nothing to do with it. They are just stupid.
Empire Dies
We’re not going to tolerate this anymore, said the American president. If the foreigners do stupid things… well, by golly… we will, too! If they tax our stuff, we’ll tax theirs.
We are sneaking up on our prey, hiding in the tall grass until we get a good, clean shot.
Our target: the U.S. government and how it has changed. Since when, we wonder, did it care about how other nations abuse their citizens or mangle their economies?
Since when did the U.S. president – on his own say-so – get to decide how much we pay for our cars or our spaghetti?
We’ve been trying to understand how the federal government could be one thing – on paper – and an entirely different thing in reality.
Not that we have any particular fascination with government. But the feds now have immense powers that are nowhere granted in the Constitution… and they’re using them to wreck the economy… and put the U.S. into a nightmare of debt, inflation, depression, repression, war, and revolution.
Those are the kinds of things you get when an empire dies.
On paper, this Decline and Fall ought to be easily avoidable. A show of hands in Congress and you can balance the budget and bring the troops home.
But things ain’t necessarily what they seem. What is written on paper is not necessarily the same as what is.
And sometimes, people – individually and collectively – blow themselves up… and light the fuse with their own matches.
So… let’s have a look.
To continue reading: What Will Kill the American Empire?
