The Military & The Monetary

Bond yields have been dropping for nearly 3 decades. Below is a chart of the 10-year note. From 1984, the end of then Fed Chair Paul Volcker’s war on inflation, to 2019 just before the pandemic, the price the U.S. government had to pay on interest dropped consistently. ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ October 11, 2023  |  [View Online]( |  [Sign Up]( The Military & The Monetary “That war only made billionaires out of millionaires. Today's war is making trillionaires out of billionaires. Now I call that progress.” — Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without A Country Dear , “WOW, MR. W!” Basil G., a frequent correspondent, wrote minutes after we hit send yesterday. “Wow!! Thanks… I guess.” Given the tumult in our inbox the past several weeks, we weren’t sure what to make of the response—or the ALL CAPS! So, we asked Basil to expound a little. “I was just floored by what you wrote,” Basil said. “None of this is on the average Joe’s dashboard. It wasn't on ‘this’ Joe’s dashboard.” “You should’ve thrown Eisenhower’s Farewell warning into the mix,” Basil concluded. “The military and the monetary, because we are there.” CONTINUED BELOW... POWERED BY DIGITAL CURRENCY SUMMIT BREAKTHROUGH Live Event… "The most connected man in crypto" is inviting you to a special LIVE event. Putting this breakthrough event together was no easy task. Over two dozen of the BEST — and most inaccessible — financial minds in the world are coming together and giving away their top picks, strategies, and secrets for a successful crypto portfolio in 2024. [Click here to reserve your free seat now>>]( CONTINUED... We took Basil’s lead. We read Eisenhower’s farewell. On January 17, 1961, in a speech of less than ten minutes, the old soldier warned of the dangers of the “military-industrial complex”: A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction. . . . American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. . . . This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. . . .Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. . . . In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We had already been mulling over The Great Bond Rout of 2023 and what it means for you while you’re trying to manage your own money. Bond yields have been dropping for nearly 3 decades. Below is a chart of the 10-year note. From 1984, the end of then Fed Chair Paul Volcker’s war on inflation, to 2019 just before the pandemic, the price the U.S. government had to pay on interest dropped consistently and predictably. Coincidentally, those three decades just happen to be the longest and most aggressive “peacetime” accumulation of debt in the nation’s history. Only the closing years of World War II outpaced our current debt accumulation trajectory. “Yeah,” you might say, “we had to go into debt because of the pandemic.” Perhaps. But regardless of your political ideology, increasing the debt at such a rapid pace during “peacetime” leaves the US ill-prepared for new crises like a multi-front war in Ukraine and Israel. “Crises there will continue to be,” Eisenhower less famously warned in the same speech. “In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties.” Even before Hamas invaded Israel this week… even before the kerfuffle in the House blocked additional aid to Ukraine… the U.S. balance sheet was already on a dangerous path. At the current pace, without additional spending for war, the “end of cheap debt” will mean that by 2030 the Treasury will have to cough up more in interest payments on existing debt than the entire defense budget. That is if we don’t find even more ways to puff up defense spending between now and then. Is it ironic? We stumbled on this conversation during the week the Navy is considering deploying the USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean in support of the USS Gerald Ford, which is already heading to the region. CONTINUED BELOW... POWERED BY DEMISE OF THE DOLLAR CONTINUED... “Yesterday,” a tweet from Robert F Kennedy Jr read this morning, “I announced my exit from the Democratic Party to run as an independent candidate for President.” The first group of supplicants on the government teat Kennedy “called out” in his declaration of independence were defense contractors. “Because I am independent of the military contractors,” he declared, “I will be able to pursue a foreign policy of peace and diplomacy.” Will he? We wonder. Kennedy goes on to declare independence from wealthy donors, Wall Street banks, big polluters and corporations who have captured the federal agencies of the executive branch of government. By not being beholden to any monied interests, Kennedy promises to be able to close corporate “loopholes and giveaways”; “rescue debtors instead of banks”; “clean up the soil, air and water”; and “enact bold policies that are outside the partisan conversation.” “[W]e declare independence from the two political parties,” he said at a rally in Philadelphia yesterday, “and the corrupt interests that dominate them and the entire rigged system of ranchor, of rage, of corruption, of lies that have turned government officials into indentured servants for the corporate bosses.” We’re confident the populist rhetoric will resonate with a sizeable block of disgruntled middle and working class voters. But will it be enough to win the White House? Will it be enough to actually enact “bold policies” were some flick of Harry Potter’s wand to make him president? Of that, we’re not so confident. First things first, he has to win over his own family. “Minutes after their brother’s announcement,” a local newsfeed in Baltimore relates, Bobby’s sister Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who is the former first lady of Maryland, announced alongside three of her siblings that they were opposing their brother’s candidacy. “The decision of our brother Bobby to run as a third party candidate against Joe Biden is dangerous to our country,” the four wrote in a statement. “Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgment. Today’s announcement is deeply saddening for us. We denounce his candidacy and believe it to be perilous for our country.” Perilous for the country. Hmn… More perilous than condoning, supporting, advocating and debt-financing forever wars? So it goes, Addison Wiggin P.S. Mounting debt, overseas wars and the political peril the U.S. is already in only comprise one of three major trends I see that will make the year 2024 the most tumultuous, globally, since World War II. Join me this evening at 8pm when we premier our video project The Great American Shell Game for the first time.  Don’t miss out… keep one eye on your inbox! (8pm EST/7Central.) POWERED BY ZIP TRADER Innovative firm at forefront of AI could boom What are the biggest stock market opportunities today? We reveal them in our Free ZipTrader Market Reports. In our newest issue we discuss a tiny AI stock that could corner various markets in no time…you'll find out what this company is, its ticker, and the latest AI project it's working on that could drive share prices to record highs. [Get the next free issue here>>]( The Daily Missive from The Wiggin Sessions is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We do not rent or share your email address. 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