Press "Enter" to skip to content

The Dollars And Deaths Of COVID-19

The Dollars And Deaths Of COVID-19
The Dollars And Deaths Of COVID-19

By Bill Sardi – May 29, 2020

Key Points

  • The U.S. economy has used phony numbers for a long time. The U.S. Gross Domestic Product has been falling for some time.
  • Cuts in government-funded services, including Social Security and Medicare were already in the works before the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.
  • President Trump offered reduced taxes for U.S. companies doing business overseas as incentive to bring their profits home. Some $465 billion of U.S. dollars were repatriated.  But CEOs of U.S. companies bought back shares from their small stockholders and enriched themselves, double-crossing Trump’s plans to “make America great again.”  Now President Trump has control as the federal government has a 3% stake in these companies via the COVID-19 bailout money.  Now they have to start new ventures and hire Americans.
  • “Medicare For All” is a rallying cry for social equality. But not only can’t America afford Medicare any longer, hospitals receive higher reimbursement from private insurance than what Medicare pays.  If everything is Medicare, then it will cost the federal government more, not less, to provide healthcare for all.
  • The COVID-19 coronavirus “death numbers” reported by news sources may just be normal deaths reported in an average year. Many people are alleged to have died with but not of COVID-19 coronavirus.  Except for a brief period over the past 5 months, excess deaths have not been reported.
  • The politics of an epidemic cannot be ignored. Deaths in States with Democrat Party governors that are still in lockdown have far more reported deaths than States with Republican Party governors that have re-opened.

The timely arrival of the COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic has served as cover for a collapsing economy.  I have been saying, based on all the investigation I have done, that the U.S. economy was a false economy to begin with.  U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the broadest measure of total goods and services, has been in minus territory for some time now but hidden from view because of imputed (imagined) GDP growth.

The largest imputation in GDP accounts is owner-occupied housing.  But owner occupiers do not receive rent.  Yet rent is counted as part of GDP if you own housing.  Those who count up the nation’s productivity have resorted to tricks to maintain US GDP growth (artificially).

It was Monty Pelerin, writing a decade ago at www.economicnoise.com, who calculated if 15% of the GDP is eliminated as nothing but imputed (imagined) and then all of the federal government’s unfunded future liabilities are added to the general fund according to Generally Accepted Accounting Practices, then government spending is 79% of the economy!

Social Security was on the cusp of having to announce cuts of $64 billion (largely disability cuts) based on $20.5 trillion of future obligations and the Social Security Trust Fund holding a bunch of U.S. Treasury Notes (IOUs) plus whatever is collected in the bi-weekly FICA payroll deductions, which is now less ~40 million workers who are unemployed.  The full tax burden now shifts to those who have maintained employment.

Pre-planned Social Security cuts are also in process, that started in 2017 for everyone who will turn 62, with cuts growing to 7% for everyone now under age 60.

The Federal Reserve was essentially giving away free money to the financial classes to produce perpetual economic bubbles (Wall Street, real estate, etc.), and when Generally Accepted Accounting Practices are used and the general fund is merged with Social Security and Medicare budgets, the U.S. was actually collecting $3.2 trillion taxes and spending $6 trillion (if you can believe).  The U.S. has simply been printing electronic money to make up the difference.

So, Americans have a false living standard that will surely decline by 50% or more.  President Trump was touting low unemployment numbers because he has to
 he is cheerleader in chief.  The real unemployment numbers were always ~20% and are now an astounding 39.6% according to economist John Williams at Shadowstats.com.

To fully comprehend the predicament of these low-income army of workers faces, if these same workers were earning $20,000 a year in 2008 when the economy collapsed in the housing bubble, due to inflation of ~6% (not the advertised 2% target inflation quoted by the Federal Reserve Bank), these same workers would have to earn $56,850 to have the same purchasing power in 2020.  Of course, this is how we get demands for minimum wage, but pay raises increase the cost of goods beyond affordability.  When minimum wage reform appeared impossible, guaranteed income came into discussion.

Unlimited money

It’s true, the U.S. is pouring unlimited money into corporate bailouts (more about this below) and public assistance, trillions of dollars coming out of nowhere.  So, the U.S. is awash in money.  But mostly for the large corporations, and there is a reason why. Here is my take on what happened.

Stock buybacks

While President Trump’s predecessor felt American companies should pay their fair share of taxes.  A 35% tax on overseas profits was crippling American companies in their battle to compete with foreign businesses.  Trump was reportedly able to repatriate $465 billion with a tax of 15.5%.

When President Trump offered a tax reduction for American companies to bring their overseas profits back home, the intent was to get those companies to start new ventures and hire more American workers.

Original Content Link

Read More Coronavirus News

CTM Shop Ad

Breaking News: