“You’ll Be Poor and Like It, Beggar!”

• The Bank of England’s Chief Economist tells the English peasantry they must accept being worse off.
• Another BoE economist then tries to deflect the blame of inflation creation from the BoE’s profligate money printing to the supply chain.
• Luckily, the English don’t seem to be taking to their new orders very well.

Happy Thursday!

Friday, October 4, 2024, marks the day I will have spent half my life outside the United States. It’s over a year away, but I can’t believe how close it is.

I remember when I first left, I calculated that date, never for a minute thinking I’d approach it while still living outside America.

Yet here I am, in sunny Italy.

But before that, there was rainy London.

On October 3, 1999, I flew from JFK to London Heathrow (landing on the 4^th, as it was the red eye).

I was just over two months away from my 25^th birthday. So I was still impressionable, but not completely. And I thank heavens for that.

Because Europe, England, and London, had an enormous influence on me in every way. But luckily, I never caught the disease of socialism.

Let me put this out there: because Americans know the founders of their country fought a war for their freedom, they look at the world in a way no one else anyway does.

• Singaporeans were granted their independence against their will.
• Australians and Kiwis were given their independence, over time, with no argument from The Crown.
• The Irish almost managed it, then had The Troubles… but will almost certainly get it done soon.
• The Scots were offered a vote on their independence… and then voted “No!”

Only the United States declared independence and then managed to win a war (thanks to French help, merci beaucoup!) to settle the issue.

Basking in that reflected glory is one of the main reasons non-Americans can’t stand Americans. But seriously, how else are Yanks supposed to feel?

Yes, our forefathers picked up a gun and said, “King George, take your 2% tax and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine!” Just hearing it involuntarily puffs out the chest.

Obviously, our fathers have done nothing over the 39.8% top rate of income tax except, perhaps, polish their guns. But that’s a different story entirely.

It’s for this reason I’m so grateful to have been born in America. History teaches Americans a fundamental truth: if you really want something, violence pays.

Think that’s the wrong lesson? I don’t.

Because when that violence was, and still is, a threat, governments are held in check.

Somewhat.

Unfortunately, the English surrendered their guns and their pride a long time ago. Now, they are going through what I’ll call “Empire Regret.”

Empire Regret is when a people are sorry for their past aggression and begin a period of prolonged, and obnoxiously unnecessary, self-loathing.

The British Empire wasn’t perfect; no empire could possibly be. By nature, empires take more than they give.

Just ask India.

But there’s not a single person alive in England today who’s responsible for any imperial aggression.

And yet, the young and impressionable English are tearing down statues (learned from their American cousins), rewriting Dahl and ignoring Kipling, and denying Clive, Rhodes, and old Queen Vic their rightful places in history.

As a British citizen, it drives me batty.

Because unlike most Yanks who move to London, I didn’t try to terraform the place into New America.

I loved the weather, food, and barely being able to stand up straight after a night out.

I started to watch football (not soccer!), rugby, and cricket.

I learned to hate Australians for beating us at cricket, the Kiwis for beating us at rugby, and the French… for being French.

But how I learned more Shakespeare in Hasbrouck Heights Junior-Senior High School than most of my English friends did on The Sceptred Isle baffled me.

That they didn’t teach Alfred the Great, the Battle of Agincourt, and sinking of the Spanish Armada annoyed me.

Now I know it’s because, for some reason, England is ashamed of its history.

I learned that the English liked their limits. Their monarchy limited them. Their government limited them. Their socialism limited them.

But it seems, finally, thankfully, the English may have had enough.

If you’re an American, strap yourself in for this one.

Take One for The Team, Peasant!

Huw Pill, Chief Economist of the Bank of England, said that the people of England need to lump it when it comes to inflation.

From The Times of London:

Speaking on the Beyond Unprecedented podcast, Pill said: “If the cost of what you’re buying has gone up compared to what you’re selling, you’re going to be worse off.

“So, somehow in the UK, someone needs to accept that they’re worse off and stop trying to maintain their real spending power by bidding up prices whether through higher wages or passing energy costs on to customers.

“What we’re facing now is that reluctance to accept that yes, we’re all worse off and we all have to take our share.”

Yes, what Pill is intimating, if not outright commanding, is that while the Bank of England can print up trillions of British Pounds to finance things like lockdowns, the English people must eat the resulting price rises.

The British elite love throwing around the term “fair share,” as if they ever take it themselves. No one has ever been able to specifically define what a “fair share” is.

What it means colloquially, of course, is that “if you make money, you pay more.” And that’s because the numbskulls in the Bank of England haven’t been held accountable for the sharp rise in UK inflation…

Nearly 1 of every 3 British Pounds was printed in the last three years.

But according to another Bank of England economist, the resulting inflation isn’t the bank’s fault.

From the Obnoxious to the Incompetent

Ben Broadbent rejected criticism money created by central banks since the 2008 financial crisis and the pandemic caused the rise in prices.

On the face of it, this is an asinine assertion. Like Milton “Uncle Miltie” Friedman said, “Inflation is everywhere and always a monetary phenomenon.”

Broadbent went on to say supply-chain problems caused by the pandemic and the surge in energy prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are clearer causes of inflation.

Broadbent said:

It’s always possible, at least with the benefit of hindsight, to construct an alternative path for monetary policy over the past that would have kept inflation on target, even in the face of these subsequent shocks. But that’s not the same thing as saying that the actual policy was ‘inevitably’ going to result in excessive inflation.

I don’t mean to put words in Broadbent’s mouth, but he basically admitted the Bank got caught out.

They didn’t render their policy safe enough not to be shocked into high inflation.

Look at this chart…

It’s been roughly double digits since July 2022.

Does this central bank look like it knows what it’s doing?

But whatever its level of incompetence, the people are supposed to “accept their lot” and “pay their fair share.”

Piss off, mate. That’s what I say to these “economists.”

The issue these economists don’t understand is that we’re not saying the increases in money supply caused inflation. It’s that an increase in money supply is inflation.

Sure, besides the central bank screwing up, the government lent it a hand.

Her Majesty’s Government stupidly shutdown the country during the plandemic causing some and adding to other supply chain problems. And its folly following America by uselessly sanctioning Russia added to the surge in energy prices, for which they are still dearly paying.

But ultimately, increasing the money supply is inflating it. And inflating the money supply usually leads to increases in price levels.

Boo! Hiss! These Economists Don’t Know Sh*t!

Well, some English peeps had this to say:

“It feels like people don’t live in the real world. They need to come and spend a day here and see what’s going on. How can people ‘accept’ the fact they can barely afford a loaf of bread? People are in real poverty.”

“Unless they’ve seen that person walk through our door in floods of tears, embarrassed to be here, and it’s taken them up to an hour to calm down enough tell you what their situation is, they’ll never understand.”

“In the last few weeks it has been absolute mayhem with the food parcels, the amount of people needing them. It’s been worse than normal. People are suffering, it’s hard out there.

“It’s all right for people to say, ‘it’s OK, you can survive’, but unless you see and hear it yourself, you can’t understand what people are going through.”

Bill Gates once said, “Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.”

Maybe… but some nerds really need a good ass-kicking.

Let’s hope England regrows its pair forthwith.

Have a lovely rest of your week!

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