ValueSide

Earlier this week, Nippon Steel of Japan announced that it would acquire US Steel for $14.9 Billion (USD). America had lost its last great, fully self-sufficient steel maker. Here's the story of how it happened:

It's one of those special memories that I look back upon and cherish, with just a hint of mystery. The year was 2001, and we were visiting my old hometown, Santa Barbara. After attending Mass at Mission Santa Barbara, we headed to the Four Seasons, renowned for its Sunday Brunch. It was the perfect place for the family to enjoy a bite to eat.

For the past couple of years, we've been told this is a robust and vibrant economy and that the recovery from the COVID Lockdown is complete. Inevitably, these Pollyannas point to the strong labor market as their proof.

If you were asked: "what's inflation?" it's likely that you might give a couple of different answers. On the one hand, you might say: "It's when prices rise." Or, on the other hand, you may respond: "It's when things cost more." Both answers would be correct. But there's a mile's worth of difference between the two.

We're the United States of America for God's sake, the most powerful nation in the history-- not in the world, in the history of the world. The history of the world. We can take care of both of these (Ukraine and Israel) and still maintain our overall international defense. President Biden on CBS 60 Minutes October 15, 2023

Joe Biden put all that on the line when he announced that the international trade and commerce (SWIFT) standard would be subject to US approval. No longer impartial and objective, SWIFT was to be subject to American control. It was a pure power play, one that Biden lost. And with it, Biden lost America's Commercial Crown Jewel: the US Dollar's Status as the World's Reserve Currency.

It's the story of a finely tuned economic machine that is as delicate and precise as a Swiss watch. It's the American Economy and perhaps the most complicated social organization ever created.

"I have directed the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group to begin moving into the Eastern Mediterranean," with those words, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin signaled that the full power and might of the United States would come to the support of Israel, in its hostilities with Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement.

Let's be clear: this strategy of raising interest rates works because it depresses overall commercial activity. As rates rise, industries cut back on investment, consumers curtail the amount they purchase, and eventually, prices stabilize, but in a much weaker overall economy. That's why when these rate hike strategies begin, they're almost always followed by a Recession (a more fragile economy).

In the 78 years since the end of World War II, this country has had 13 Economic Recessions, or an average of a recession every six years. Perhaps the strangest of all these downturns was when a President had a heart attack.

However, there was one way in which this tragedy differed from all the others. In the Floyd protests, people took to the streets. There is nothing new about that. Americans have been doing that for a couple of hundred years. But this time, the sheer scope of the protests was staggering. Every state in the country experienced protests. The country's 200 largest cities had demonstrations, and 64,000 national guardsmen were mobilized to control the crowds. Sixty foreign countries sent notices of support. Together, 26 million Americans took to the street.

The Ukraine War is showing us different times. A time before the American Revolution, back to the Middle Ages. It was a time when feudal lords, with their private soldiers, fought for supremacy.

Today, there is a growing consensus in the country that in reacting to the Pandemic, our political leaders overstepped their authority. Many of the ad hoc solutions created more issues than they solved. Fortunately, we still have the capability of self-correction. Properly applied reform could be as effective today as it was 90 years ago after the Great Depression.

What today is beginning to crest as a significant political tsunami began just a few months ago as a little pebble tossed into the European pond by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel.