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Unleash Prosperity Hotline
Issue #885
10/26/2023
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1) Japan’s Experiment in Modern Monetary Theory Crashes and Burns

If there is any country in the world that has rolled the dice on Modern Monetary Theory (more than the Biden government here at home), it's Japan. Once the paragon of fiscal restraint and balanced budgets, Tokyo abandoned that strategy in the 1990s in favor of a Keynesian plan of “stimulating” the economy with massive government spending and borrowing.  

Over the last 30 years Tokyo has run up its gross debt from a manageable 50% of GDP to more than 200% of GDP today. Japan has by far the largest debt burden of all advanced economies.
 
Japanese Government Debt as a Share of GDP 

How is this working out for them? It's true that this tidal wave of debt has NOT caused much inflation of the Yen. But what it has coincided with is a flatlining of the Japanese Nikkei stock market index. Malaise.
 


Here is the latest depressing news flash on the state of Japan’s economy from Nikkei Asia:

“Germany’s nominal gross domestic product is likely to overtake Japan’s this year, with Japan's nominal GDP falling 0.2% year-on-year while Germany’s expands 8.4%. In 2000, “Japan's economy was the second-largest in the world, at $4.96 trillion, which is larger than it is today. At the time, its economy was 2.5 times bigger than that of Germany and 4.1 times bigger than China's.” (Nikkei Asia)  Now it is smaller than both.”

Japan’s three-decade long stagnation is a cautionary reminder that government spending doesn’t stimulate growth and runaway government borrowing is no path to prosperity. Someone tell the White House before it is too late.
 

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2) Now the Biden Administration Wants to Forgive Up to $60 Billion in Unpaid PPP and SBA Disaster Loans

You would think the U.S. were running a $2 trillion budget SURPLUS, not a deficit, the way Biden is passing out free money. 

Biden has attempted to write off more than $500 billion of unpaid student loans (before he got shot down by the Supreme Court), but that wasn’t after he forgave $107 billion of these repayments. Then, earlier this month he ignored the courts and wrote off another $9 billion of unpaid student debt. 

Now we learn from Rep. Roger Williams of Texas — the Small Business Committee chairman — that Biden’s Small Business Administration wants to unilaterally forgive virtually all unpaid Covid business relief loans of up to $100,000.

The SBA has declared that the agency will not try to collect the money owed to taxpayers. According to the Congressional Oversight Committee, “these loans were never meant to be forgiven” and “there were $62 billion of these loans that are past due, delinquent, in liquidation, or charged off” (as of the end of March 2023).

Does Biden think that 2023 is a Year of Jubilee where loans can be forgiven and never repaid? He sure is generous with other people's money.
 
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3) Who Is Mike Johnson? 
He is the new Speaker of the House after finally winning a unanimous vote of his conference. We don’t know him well, but we recommend reading this profile of Johnson by CTUP political analyst John Fund in today's New York Post.

But one thing we REALLY like about Mike Johnson is that he has boldly taken on the teacher unions. 

When union president Randi Weingarten dictated terms to the corrupt Biden CDC and their "school opening" guidance actually called for more school closures, it was Rep. Mike Johnson who organized 58 members of Congress to send this letter slamming them and demanding that schools open their doors immediately.
 

BRAVO! Now that is gutsy leadership.
 
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4) “Brain Freeze” Bowman Finally Charged for Fire Alarm Stunt
That’s the good news. But, U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves is charging Jamaal Bowman only with a misdemeanor for pulling a false fire alarm – not his January 6 favorite of "obstruction of an official proceeding,” a felony. Those felony sentences are, of course, outrageously reserved for January 6th protesters who never entered the Capitol building. We suspect that Bowman will get a slap on the wrist given the state of our justice system. 

We got a good laugh out of Bowman’s latest defense, which is that he had a “brain freeze.” Seems to us, that these Democrats (and many Republicans too) have a brain freeze every time they vote on the House floor.
 
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5) Quote of the Day: Rand Paul Skewers AARP/United Health Unholy Marriage
AARP, once known as the American Association of Retired Persons, is still mistakenly perceived by many as a seniors group, despite its significant transformation in recent years. In fact, the organization no longer represents anything substantial, as its original purpose and commitment to advancing the interests of seniors have seemingly vanished.

Today, AARP primarily functions as a marketing and advocacy tool for United Health, the largest health insurance company in the United States. Rather than prioritizing the well-being of seniors, AARP appears to be more focused on promoting the interests of this corporate entity. Furthermore, it is disheartening to observe that AARP's revenue is channeled into supporting Democratic candidates and causes, further blurring the lines between its supposed mission and partisan politics...

AARP strategically invests hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising and events that cleverly stop short of openly endorsing specific candidates. However, these activities consistently align with the Democratic Party's policy priorities, subtly influencing voting preferences. This reveals a growing tendency for AARP to prioritize its association with UnitedHealth over the interests of senior citizens.

 
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6) We Just KNEW, KNEW, KNEW This Headline Was Coming from the NYT
Just to be clear: this is NOT a parody, it just reads like one:
 

Global efforts to address climate change are already clouded by bitterness and distrust among countries of the world.

Now a widening gyre of conflict in the Middle East threatens to fracture an already divided world, raise oil and gas prices at a time of persistently high global inflation and direct financial resources to the business of fighting wars instead of the business of slowing down climate change.

 

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