Cabbage

Twenty years ago, I was devoting four solid days a week to writing a Civil War novel that I never finished.

The novel was set in 1861, the first year of the war.

Two hundred pages in, I was deep into a scene in which the characters (civilians all) conversed over a sumptuous lunch, when I suddenly realized I didn't know how they'd pay for it.

So I dug into the topic of cash in the 19th century.

I learned that in 1861 people used banknotes, issued by local banks, to pay for most purchases.

Until the following year, the only form of legal tender in circulation was the federally issued coin.

Federally issued scrip—later known as the "greenback"—didn't exist. 

If you wanted to use paper for purchases, you used banknotes. 

Banknotes were convenient, but had a serious downside.

If you carried them, instead of coins, you ran the real risk they'd become worthless overnight, should the issuing bank fail. 

And banks failed all the time, especially during financial "panics," which occurred like clockwork every 20 years and whenever a blip in the economy occurred.

China this week put the kibosh on 2021's version of banknotes by banning all transactions that rely on cryptocurrencies. 

China's crypto crackdown is based on the premise that cryptocurrencies, by being unregulated, foster illegal transactions.

That may be true.

But even if it's not, I'm troubled by cryptocurrencies, myself, perhaps because their fans—who are avid—remind me of the people who advised me in the early 1980s to invest all my savings in Cabbage Patch Kids (and a decade later, in Beanie Babies.)

Cryptocurrencies are supposed to be money; but money for the past century has been printed by governments, which control its supply and, more importantly, guarantee its worth.

No reliable entities backstop cryptocurrencies.

Money, moreover, allows us to make purchases of any amount at lighting speed, with no extra fees and relative anonymity. 

Cryptocurrencies allow none of those conveniences and, in addition, are easier to steal.

So what's the allure?

Beats me.

I'll stick to cold, hard cabbage.

Keynes Reigns

The rich, to be blunt, are shitting bricks.

Democrats' American Rescue Plan will jazz the economy by putting $2 trillion into the hands of peasants.

The rich aren't used to such unfair treatment. Pish posh.

What's it mean? 

Reaganomics is dead. Keynes again reigns.

Keynes claimed spending—by households, businesses, and the government—is the driver of the economy. That's spending, not siphoning, accumulating, banking, or hoarding. When households and businesses don't spend, government must.

Prepare for the brainless lackeys of the rich—the GOP—to begin recycling their three foundational cracker-barrel wisdoms:

• The government is a family. Families must not deficit-spend. Just think what would have happened had June spent more than Ward's salary. Wally and the Beaver would have lived their entire adult lives in poverty. (Don't bring up the fact that the Cleavers couldn't print money, set interest rates, or levy taxes.)
  
  
• Government only builds "bridges to nowhere." All government spending is wasteful. (Don't you dare mention the national highway system, space exploration, or the Internet. They were fake news!)
  
  
• Peasants are your moral inferiors. The rich shoulder the weight of the whole world, while peasants just loot from them. Handouts will only incent the latter to laze all day, sipping wine, texting, and birthing more brown babies. (Don't remind us the Kardashians do those things, too.)

Don't listen to the GOP's stale and quite stupid malarkey. 

Celebrate, instead, the triumphant return from exile of John Maynard Keynes.

Just Jake

America was going on the greatest, gaudiest spree in history.

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

Astute economists predict we're on the brink of another Roaring '20s, according to Axios.

"The economy may be close to consolidating years of technological advances—and ready to take off in a burst of productivity growth," Axios says. Those advances include digitization, AI, robotics, remote work, solar, and biomedicine.

A spree is overdue.

Although World War II drove three decades of productivity gains, that growth all but stopped in the 1970s. Despite a blip in the 1990s—attributable to computers—productivity has stagnated ever since.

But businesses have been investing in the new technologies over the past decade, and are mastering their use, Axios says. As a result, they're situated at the very bottom of a "productivity J-curve." 

They are ready to skyrocket. A survey by the World Economic Forum reveals 80% of businesses are accelerating digitization; 80%, remote work; and 50%, job automation. A big productivity leap is right around the corner.

That's just jake, as they would have said in the 1920's.