As we sat here patiently waiting to see if Joke Biden was a breathing corpse or a dead one, I received this comment in the mailbag I must address.

Shame on you, Sean.

Your grasp of economics alone tells you most headline events have a time lag from their causes.

Case in point: saying "Biden caused massive inflation" when it simply came to a head on his watch; one cause was the lockdowns Trump initiated. Biden just made it worse.

Your cohorts at Paradigm have been warning about low rates and "helicopter" money printing since the 2007/2008 mess, and the hammer finally dropped.

The rest of that list is as follows: The Keystone XL pipeline was only popular with oil companies. Environmentalists—and Sioux who had it forced onto their land—were fighting it for years. Canadian oil, sent to Louisiana to be processed by multinational firms for sale overseas, did not profit anyone else.

The $85B in gear was abandoned because Biden did not want to break the word of a US President (Trump) who agreed to a sudden pullout.

The southern border 'mess' is decades old, numbers and issues are exaggerated, and don't forget Trump ordered the bipartisan bill killed for election politics.

"Lawfare" is a vague accusation -- it may just be a lot of individuals jumping on the opportunity to "finally nail that slippery sucker".

Europe and Ukraine -- I agree the US has always been too involved in the affairs of a continent determined to screw itself. The American people are mostly isolationist/libertarian, but the neo-cons who profit from war have always been good at waving the flag and crying wolf.

Damon C.

Damon, I will take each of these in turn because I think you’ve got the wrong end of the stick on most of them.

Biden’s inflation: You’re right to point out that most Austrian, Classical, and Monetarist school economists have been warning about inflation since the Fed started to print money to “save the economy” in 2008. All of us were wrong because the kind of inflation we had was asset price inflation, not consumer price inflation. That’s because our big banks would redeposit their excess reserves at the Fed for 25 basis points overnight and not lend them to questionable credit risks in the economy. That is, money never comes into the hands of the US consumer.

As you can see from the chart below, we didn’t get out-of-control consumer price inflation until Biden was president. But that’s not because of a magical 12-year time lag. That’s because the stupid old goat printed stimulus checks like they were going out of style. The direct dumping of money into the hands of the US consumer almost certainly caused that insane spike in consumer price inflation in recent years.

The Keystone XL pipeline: Environmentalists are against everything. Capitalism provides them with something to be against. Biden scored cheap political points for a green lobby that holds the Democrats to ransom.

Without pipelines, oil transportation relies more on rail and trucks, which can be less efficient and pose environmental risks. Of course, no one mentions that. It costs much less to transport oil by pipeline—about $5 per barrel, compared to $10 to $15 for rail transport. The U.S. State Department's final review in 2014 estimated that the pipeline would create around 42,100 direct and indirect jobs during the two-year construction period and 35 permanent positions for maintenance afterward. I guess the Sioux didn’t want any of those jobs.

And yes, oil companies would profit. That’s what we want them to do when they ship energy more cheaply. Who else would you like to have profited from this? It also strained US-Canadian relations because of all the jobs lost north of the border.

As Thomas Sowell once said, “There are no solutions, only trade-offs.”

The $85 billion in equipment in Afghanistan: Stop it. What president cares about a promise a previous president made? That’s weak sauce. Biden botched the pullout because he can’t organize a party at an amusement park. Here’s Trump calling Mark Milley a f*cking idiot at Mar-a-Largo over it. Here’s a CBC article outlining the mistakes.

The Southern Border: my parents lived not far from there in Texas, and I’m so glad they’re nowhere near it anymore. There are degrees for everything. It’s true, the southern border has always been porous. But 11 million people porous? That’s plainly absurd. Biden opened the gates without even making the enemy build a horse.

Lawfare: Here’s Andrew Cuomo commenting on Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York.

That case, the Attorney General's case in New York, frankly should have never been brought. And if his name was not Donald Trump, and if he wasn't running for president from the former AG in New York, I'm telling you that case would have never been brought. And that's what is offensive to people. And it should be. Because if there's anything left, it's belief in the justice system.

Here’s the video if you need further proof. And here’s Byron King’s excellent Rude contribution titled, you guessed it, Lawfare.

Europe and Ukraine: I largely agree with you on that one.

Bankers’ Notes

Your recent Rude prompts me to do something I have thought of many times over the several years Sean has been the driver of The Rude === asking if there is any way to purchase his lecture notes used in training fledgling bankers. --------- Yes or no?

Guy S.

Thanks for writing, Guy! Alas, the notes I use belong to my training company, so I can’t. However, if you’re really interested in me doing an equivalent lecture series or live online teaching events, please badger Dustin Weisbecker at feedback@rudeawakening.info. I’d consider it an honor to teach you and put something like that together.

America Dodged a Bullet

One of the best, most informed articles Sean Ring has produced. I wish I could tell you directly, but I don’t use Twitter or X. In total agreement, Charles C. (Regarding your America Dodged a Bullet article) 

Thank you for the kind words, Charles!

Piemontese Wines

Sean,

You've mentioned this wine as one of your favorites. I had never heard of it. We recently visited our local Total Wine store and picked up a bottle of Tesoro Della Regina Barolo. Drank it last night, and it was excellent. Thanks for the tip.

Tom C. (I think the wine you mentioned was Barolo)

Awesome, Tom! I love Barolo. It’s full-bodied and delicious. If you want something a touch lighter, try Barbaresco. I also love Nebbiolo and Barbera. There are so many good wines up North in Italy.

No Idea

Before spewing information about the law, get your facts straight first. It’s obvious you didn’t. I suspect most of your “Rude Awakening” is similar to other Dem/Pelosi talking points. Remove me from your email blasts. You have no idea what’s been in the law for over 240 years do you?

Chuck M

Chuck, I posted this so everyone else who reads the Rude can laugh at you. That is all.

Wrap Up

Many wrote in wondering why I excluded “impeachment” from Presidential punishments. I did that because impeachment is brought by The House and tried in The Senate. It has nothing to do with our present lawfare dilemma. That’s the only reason.

Thanks again for writing in. Continue to do so at feedback@rudeawakening.info.