The commercials for Pringles chips have the jingle “once you pop, you just don’t stop.” It is an effective marketing strategy, but it is also the truth about money printing, because as I have noted, once serious money printing starts, it CANNOT stop because if the flow of money stops, it would cause a reckoning with debts, at which point since there is no way to pay said debts, it forces mass bankruptcy or in most cases, a disowning of the debt. Either option would cause mass economic chaos, but it would actually stop the system, at the expense of a political disaster.
Printing money is always, always a political act, and it is historically done for the same reasons- to get political absolution at the cost of the public’s dollar. It never ends well, but many time, it is the ONLY way to force a reckoning with debts that an irresponsible government or public refuses to pay.
As such, it is interesting that the Washington Post reports, as the government is discussing the issuance of a third check between $1400 and $2000 per person, that now a fourth check is being discussed that may take the form of a UBI based on how many children a person has, totaling between $3000 to $3600 per year.
Under one draft of the plan being discussed, the IRS would be tasked with depositing checks worth $300 every month per child younger than 6, as well as $250 every month per child aged 6 to 17. That would amount to $3,600 over the course of the year for young children, as well as $3,000 a year for older children, the officials said.
Unlike the stimulus checks, the Biden administration and Democratic lawmakers are hoping to make these child benefits a permanent government program that would continue in future years, according to three senior Democratic officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning. The current proposal only calls for the expanded benefit to be enacted for one year, after which Democrats widely hope political pressure will force Congress to extend them. The benefit would be phased out for affluent Americans, though the precise income level has not been determined.
The benefit could prove costly, increasing the federal deficit by as much as $120 billion for one year, according to estimates by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group. But it could curb child poverty in the U.S. by more than 50 percent, researchers at Columbia University have found.
Congressional Republicans are expected to oppose the measure based on its price-tag. Similar plans have enjoyed pockets of Republican support, however, with Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) among the GOP lawmakers who have pushed for dramatically increasing the child tax credit. All but one Senate Democrat endorsed legislation to expand the child tax credit in the previous Congress.
Biden earlier this month announced his intention to push for an expansion of the child tax credit as part of his $1.9 trillion economic relief package, and congressional Democratic staff have made significant headway in drafting the legislation.
Under the plan, the IRS would send these payments automatically to American families, similar to how the $1,200 stimulus payments were disbursed last year. This approach would not require taxpayers to wait until they file their taxes to receive the credit. Families would receive the monthly benefits even if they owe the government more in taxes than the value of the credit. (source)
This is in concept exactly what I said was coming.
Once the government starts printing, unless they want to deal with a political catastrophe- which would be the better thing -the cannot and will not stop printing until the value of the money returns to the value of the paper on which it is printed, and the whole thing is political.
There is no happy answer to the current problems, and given the behavior of the American public and the politicians, who are reflections of the people, the only real answer is going to be more money printing because that is the only thing that will force a debt reckoning.
For now, it is best for the common man to think, prepare, and get ready, since the future is going to be very interesting.
But yes, once the can has been opened, there is no closing it, and the country is already preparing for a fourth money printing while the third one gets ready to be printed, and one can expect more money printing until the currency becomes worthless.
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