Author: konieczka14

Washington is the greatest American who has ever lived. He was a legend in his own day and thousands of years from now he will still be honored for his great virtue.

He is known as the American Cincinnatus, an ancient Roman who when Rome was threatened was implored to drop the plow and become dictator. After saving Rome, he relinquished power and returned to his farm. Washington imitated this superb example and to this day we take for granted that the civilian arm is superior to the military arm. Generals don’t just overthrow our elected government as they have throughout history across the globe.

The English Civil war ended in the dictatorship of Oliver Cromwell. The French Revolution with the crowning of Napoleon as Emperor – who would later write that he couldn’t be George Washington. Both started as republics that barely made it a few years. It was accepted at that time that republican government was utopian and that people could not be ruled by reflection and choice but only accident and force.

Throughout the war the British repeatedly tried to negotiate with him directly and he always deferred to congress. After the war he arrived in congress, surrendered his sword, resigned his commission and returned to his farm.  After two terms as President he resigned his office. Upon hearing this George III exclaimed that he truly was the greatest man in the world.

He was a vestryman, a delegate to the House of Burgesses, a member of Congress, commanding officer of the armed forces, president of the constitutional convention, twice elected unanimously in the electoral college, and never once asked for anyone to vote for him

A virtual prince in is own day; he was born into a slave owning family and inherited a massive 3000-acre plantation and 300 slaves. Upon his death he made provision in his will to free all of his slaves and gave them each land of their own.

Washington is an American hero who deserves our gratitude for the legacy he has handed on to us. It is truly a shame that he is being spit upon by mobs that could never dream to aspire to his greatness.

History shows that in the long run fiat money always fails. The temptation for politicians to simply inflate the money supply to pay the bills, instead of cutting spending, grows and becomes irresistible. 

Our rulers and their court economists tell us the reason the Fed exists is for your benefit citizen – why it stabilizes prices and regulates the economy! We need a printing press not to finance our nefarious activities, but for the well being of the people!

Since the end of the quasi-gold standard of Breton Woods in 1971, debt both public and private has exploded, US manufacturing has been shipped overseas, and income inequality has soared all directly related to monetary policy.

Federal debt has gone from $400 billion to $26 trillion; household debt $475B to $16.2T; corporate debt $180B to $6.7T. Since March the balance sheet has gone from $4T to $7T and the money supply from $17T to $21T. The deficit this year is $4T. Meanwhile savings are in the toilet while interest rates have been pegged at zero and, in an Orwellian fit,  $15 trillion of debt worldwide has a negative yield. What happens when interest rates go up?

All great nations come to an end when they spend beyond their means. Political radicalization gains steam in moments of economic turmoil. The US has had two national banks that came and went. It is long past due that we take the idea of sound money seriously and end the Fed before it’s too late.

Printed in the Leelanau Enterprise August 6th, 2020

From the beginning I have been skeptical, opposed and outraged about the corona hysteria.

When it broke in China my immediate reaction was that it was another Virus Scare (e.g. Swine, Bird, etc.). I predicted that it would be talked about on the news, sorta hyped, and that it would have no lasting impact on anything.      

Eat crow.

In my defense, virtually all politicians and investors, pundits and “experts” were in complete agreement. And no one, and I mean no one, saw this coming.

When Trump banned Europe and the market began to sell I was surprised not by the selling, but its timing. I didn’t foresee this as the Black Swan that would derail the market. After the panic was on I predicted that the Fed would lower rates to zero with minor QE at best as markets sold off 15% or so and that would be that.            

Eat crow.

I believed that the lockdowns would be relatively short term (over by Memorial Day) because Americans loved liberty and that the unpopularity of it would bring about the change. This would bring about the illusive V-shaped recovery and that the predictions of a prolonged economic recession were premature.

Eat crow.

After Memorial Day, it sank in that the States and populations of the Western World were willing to tolerate an inordinate amount of State intervention and the corresponding economic pain in order to combat the virus.

But I did get one thing right.

I predicted that this was not the Big One and that Austrians should be leery about saying so and that new all time highs were still coming. However, I thought this would come about because Fed intervention and a quick snapback in the economy. I got the Fed intervention driving markets higher right – although I underestimated the intervention – and missed on the quick comeback of a wounded but still growing economy, albeit at a noticeably lower rate.

On March 15th Dr. Fauci told ABC it was possible that 1.7 million Americans could die if we didn’t do what the government said. On March 31st the model put out by the IHME and used by the CDC predicted 240,000 deaths if we implemented social distancing and lockdown measures. On April 8th this was revised down 75% to 60,000 deaths. In the winter 2017-2018 the flu killed 80,000 and about 7,700 Americans die everyday according to the CDC.

Remember how the quarantine measures were said to be needed so the hospitals didn’t get overwhelmed? We had to flatten the curve?  On April 1st we were told 262,000 beds would be needed. Then 94,000. Now it’s 57,000 beds — and that was at the peak, which was on April 10th.

On March 10th, in a move that would make George III blush, the governor declared a state of emergency and locked down the state, outlawing an alarming array of American life. The penalty for violating this edict is a fine up to $1000. These measures were further strengthened in April. 

In the Land of the Free it is now illegal to go to church, have Easter dinner with your family, work without government permission, purchase ammunition, buy vegetable seeds, operate a boat with a motor whether alone or in a group, and many other things. Is this really necessary? Is anyone even following this?

Benjamin Franklin said those who give up liberty to purchase security deserve neither. Patrick Henry declared give me liberty or give me death. The Founders would be ashamed with what we’re putting up with.

Meanwhile the economy is tanking. The federal government has passed a $2.2 trillion bailout, which gives the Federal reserve the ability to print $4 trillion, on top of the $2 trillion they’ve printed since this all began. $8 trillion divided by 100 million American households is $80,000. Have you seen that money? The deficit this year is estimated to be a staggering $3.8 trillion.

It is time for the American people to stand up and demand that our leaders and their cadre of experts who have been wrong every step of the way, who ordered us to our homes, robbed us of our livelihoods, encouraged us to tell on our neighbors and stripped us of our liberty be held accountable for their complete incompetence in the handling of this deadly virus. It is time to try liberty.

Edited version printed in the Leelanau Enterprise April 16th, 2020

The strangest part of the events of the past week were not the riots and protests but the abrupt shift of the MSM and the Left concerning the coronavirus. We have been told for months that we must, by law, stay home to stay safe…or else. Governor Whitmer, by executive fiat, ordered all churches, businesses, and gatherings illegal putting the state on effective house arrest. All who disobeyed were unscientific misanthropes who were culpable in killing granny and probably racist to boot.

If you didn’t get the memo that’s all changed. Mass gatherings are completely legitimate and necessary if — and here’s the important part — they’re being done for the right reasons.

The CDC just came out with the infection mortality rate for the virus. It’s 0.26%. The seasonal flu is 0.12%. Not exactly ten times more deadly as Fauci claimed back on March 11th, scaring the American people into shredding the Constitution. But who cares, that’s all down the memory hole, we’re moving on.

We now know that roughly 42 percent of deaths around the country were in nursing homes. In Michigan, Whitmer ordered nursing homes to take in not only the elderly who tested positive but people of all ages; she used active nursing homes as quarantine facilities! But she won’t release the mortality data, probably because she has better things to do like violate her own order by marching shoulder to shoulder with protesters.

The hypocrisy is glaring and the consequences infuriating. What the hell is going on?

Printed in the Leelanau Enterprise June 18th, 2020

Throughout human history man has lived a drab and dreary existence; being born into poverty, living an uncomfortable and unforgiving life, and then dropping dead in their fifties (if they were lucky). It was a level of existence unimaginable – indeed never even though of – by modern man.

So how did we get here? How did we go from abject poverty for 99 percent of human beings to the society we live in today of unprecedented and unimiginable wealth? The answer lies in the scientifc and industrial revolutions that came out of western Europe.

By bringing these innovations to the world, western civilization is the greatest civilization that has ever existed.

Francesco Landini  (Trecento)

Johannes Ciconia (Ars Subtilior)

John Dunstaple (Renaissance)

Guillaume Dufay (Renaissance)(Burgundian School)

Johannes Ockeghem (Renaissance)

Jacob Obrecht (Renaissance)

Josquin des Prez (Renaissance)

Pierre de la Rue (Renaissance)

Thomas Tallis (Renaissance)

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (Renaissance)(Roman School)

Orlande de Lassus (Renaissance)

William Byrd (Renaissance)

Claudio Monteverdi (Renaissance/Baroque)

Heinrich Schutz (Baroque)

Johann Pachelbel (Baroque)

Henry Purcell (Baroque)

Antonio Vivaldi (Baroque)

Johann Sebastian Bach (Baroque)

Arcangelo Corelli (Baroque)

George Frideric Handel (Baroque)

Christoph Willibald Gluck (Classical)

Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach (Classical)

Joseph Haydn (Classical)

Luigi Boccherini (Classical)

Muzio Clementi (Classical)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Classical)

Ludwig Van Beethoven (Classical/Romantic)

Gioachino Rossini (Classical/Romantic)

Franz Schubert (Classical/Romantic)

Hector Berlioz (Romantic)

Frederic Chopin (Romantic)

Robert Schumann (Romance)

Franz Liszt (Romantic)

Richard Wagner (Romantic)

Giuseppe Verdi (Romantic)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Romantic)

Johannes Brahms (Romantic)

Gustav Mahler (Romantic/Modern)

Richard Strauss (Modern)

Claude Debussy (Modern)

Arnold Schoenberg (Modern)

Bela Bartok (Modern)

Anton Webern (Modern)

Igor Stravinsky (Modern)

Sergei Prokofiev (Modern)