In today’s issue:

  • The opening ceremony would’ve been called a freakshow
  • The Fed lives in a dreamworld of its own
  • The insiders take the money

The constant lying is not aimed at making the people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore. A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong. And such a people, deprived of the power to think and judge, is, without knowing and willing it, completely subjected to the rule of lies. With such a people, you can do whatever you want.” 

—Hannah Arendt 

Vladimir Putin argues that ‘the West’ has lost its bearings.

At the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics on Friday evening it looked as though he were right.

On a barge was what used to be called a ‘freakshow.’ The bearded lady! The dwarf acrobat! The whole world gawked and swallowed hard. Oddballs, weirdos… ’originals’ — people who dance to their own drummer — they will always be amongst us. They have their own crosses to bear… and deserve respect; plus, they make life interesting for the rest of us.

But we look for patterns. And what we thought we saw coming down the Seine in 2024 was not the spirit of the Spartan Olympics, put on by Greek city states three thousand years ago, but the depraved entertainments of the Roman Empire.

Suetonius commenting in his Twelve Caesars on Elagabalus:

Finally, he set aside a room in the palace and there committed his indecencies, always standing nude at the door of the room, as the harlots do, and shaking the curtain which hung from gold rings, while in a soft and melting voice he solicited the passers-by. There were, of course, men who had been specially instructed to play their part…

And think changing one’s sex is a new thing? On Nero:

He castrated the boy Sporus and actually tried to make a woman of him; and he married him with all the usual ceremonies, including a dowry and a bridal veil, took him to his house attended by a great throng, and treated him as his wife. 

One of the more disagreeable features of a late, degenerate empire is the way it depends so much on lies. People get used to them and hardly notice them anymore.

Men can act like women. They can look like women. But except perhaps for the mythical Greek character, Tiresias, no man has ever been turned into a real woman.

Still, the ‘trans’ fantasy is a minor one. More damaging are the delusions and lies in the political and financial sectors.

Joe Biden, last week, brought lies into focus:

“I’m the first president in this century to report to the American people that the United States is not at war anywhere in the world.”

At almost that very moment, US warplanes were bombing Yemen… US artillery shells were lobbed into Gaza. And US bombs were dropped on the Ukraine.

Both Biden and Trump claimed to have the ‘greatest economy ever.’ But it wasn’t true for either one. Real US growth rates… real final sales… real industrial productivity and output — all have deteriorated to the lowest levels since the Great Depression.

And, now, the whole tower of US capital is erected on a beach of $100 trillion in soft ‘credit dollars,’ ready to be washed away in the next storm.

The Fed itself lives in a dreamworld. It pretends to be working for the American people (it is owned by big banks). Jerome Powell implies that the hacks on the Federal Open Market Committee know what interest rates should be… how much inflation the US should have… what unemployment rate is tolerable… and when the economy is running at Full Capacity. Actually… they know none of those things, and merely bumble along, helping the rich get richer with artificially low interest rates.

In politics… for the last four years we’ve heard, over and over, about how eager the Democrats are to ‘protect American democracy.’ And yet, what democracy are they talking about?

Coming up is the first election in forty-eight years with no Bush, Clinton or Biden on the ticket. And where did Kamala come from? She was selected by party insiders, not by ‘the People.’ Like the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Democrats crown their own kings. Adam Tooze:

So monarchical is the American conception of the presidency that Biden is feted as a ruler who ‘gave up power’ in favor of an anointed successor rather than a vain politician who misjudged his sell-by date and had been belatedly persuaded to spare himself humiliation and give Dems a chance.

We have a Republican party too which has lost all interest in Republican ideals. Instead, it has come around to ‘national conservatism’ as its creed. Separation of powers, limited government, states’ rights and balanced budgets… the traditional Republican virtues… are out the window. Instead, the strongman leader is expected to lead his nation to glory (more likely, to disaster).

The USA democracy itself — which is supposedly so successful that we wish to implant it all over the world — is a fraud. The voters, largely ignorant of important policy issues, vote for representatives, also largely ignorant… who then take their places in Congress where they are given 1,000-page proposals… and told by lobbyists and party hacks which way to vote.

The president — a front man for his party, not a leader — then signs the bill, which he hasn’t read either… it becomes the law of the land…

… and the insiders take the money.

Regards,

Bill Bonner
Fortune & Freedom