Don’t Look Now, Never Mind the Debt
There are some people who view the whole Covid-19 pandemic fiasco as part of a much bigger story that is more rooted in the financial system than being simply about an over-hyped medical issue and an opportunity for the pharmaceutical industry to reap massive profits, and permit other interests such as Amazon to be able to capitalise on the results of the interventions such as the imposed lockdowns.
For example, Michael Bryant writing in Off Guardian suggested “The COVID phenomenon cannot be understood without understanding the un-televised 2019-2020 unprecedented financial collapse threatening the entire global financial system.
The Covid-19 Pandemic story makes little sense when viewed through the lens of health, safety and science. Viewed through the lens of money, power, control, and wealth transfer, however, then all of it makes perfect sense.
He goes on to cite some of the financial indicators that lead to his viewpoint such as the in the Repo markets: The timing of the COVID fraud became necessary as world markets were faced with an emergency debt crisis in the Fall of 2019 which popped up in formerly mostly liquid markets: Repo Markets, Money Markets and Foreign Exchange Markets.
Western governments began a rush to salvage this decaying system, stem this cataclysmic landslide, bail out large scale investors and proactively install a security infrastructure to control the inevitable social disorder resulting from this collapse. This would be followed by a global financial reset, after a period of hyperinflation, destroying both the value of debt and the corresponding paper claims.
He further suggests that the Covid operation was a “Trojan Horse to usher in a New World Order” He further lists a number of objectives that were part of this scenario, such as the “Acceleration of the largest upwards transfer of wealth in human history.”
He suggests that it was less of a widespread emergency and more of “a money laundering scheme, a massive psychological operation and a smoke screen for a complete overhaul and restructuring of the current social and economic world order.”
Peter St. Onge, in an article posted with the Brownstone Institute, reveals how the treasury was issuing debt at “pandemic levels” and suggests “It’s worth noting the pandemic record was double the previous record, which had stood for 231 years.” He gives the figures: “In raw numbers, the latest numbers for Q4 2023 show Treasury issued $7 trillion in new debt. For the entire year, it came to $23 trillion.”
He mentions how the bloated treasury market is roughly up six-fold since the 2008 collapse and that federal debt is rising by $1 trillion every 90 days, and on top of that that US government spending as a percentage of GDP is at “World War Two levels” He further poses the question “Given we’re not in a World War — in theory — nor are we in a pandemic, why so much debt?”
He answers his own question, “Easy: it’s buying growth.”
He further laments that “Every fiscal trend is in the wrong direction. We’re already at a $2 trillion deficit, it will soar by trillions when recession hits… At this point there is nothing standing between us and fiscal collapse. The only question is when.”
Cheap Money Spending Spree
Wolf Richter informs us that US Government debt spiked by $1 trillion in just 15 weeks to $34 trillion. He notes that in the seven months since the debt ceiling was lifted the national debt spiked by $2.5 trillion. Just so we don’t lose track of the figures involved he emphasizes,
“Since the beginning of 2016, the total debt has spiked by $15 trillion, or by 80%! This stuff is just breathtaking.
These are huge gigantic numbers that are piling up as a result of the incredible hard-to-fathom daredevil reckless shake-your-head deficit spending by Congress. Congratulations, America! We made it, $34 trillion!”
One of the issues facing the ballooning government debt is servicing the debt. In a separate article Richter discusses this: “So the average interest rate that the government is paying on all its interest-bearing debt – much of it issued years ago with much lower coupon interest rates than now – has been rising from the historic low of 1.57% in February 2022 to 3.05% in October, according to data from the Treasury Dept.”
In a period of rising inflation, interest rates rise. This can significantly impact government policy options.
Richter is highly critical of the Federal Reserve in this matter, “The Fed’s role in this fiasco. With its reckless interest-rate repression from 2008 through 2021, via near-0% policy rates and trillions of dollars in QE, the Fed has encouraged Congress to go on an epic deficit-spending binge because the debt doesn’t really matter when the cost of borrowing is near zero. Now it suddenly matters, and it will matter a lot more going forward.” [my emphasis].
This is not just a situation affecting the USA, although no other country is allowed to have such massive external debts like the USA—many are faced with the same problems with regard to their own debt—even more so following the reckless massive spending during the pandemic and the even more reckless destruction of the economy following the lockdowns and restrictions on trade and industry that led to so many bankruptcies and layoffs.
Winners and Losers
With such a debt backdrop, it’s easy to see why many might see that the whole Covid crisis if not a well-designed smokescreen for the economic problems we are facing, was a very convenient opportunity to take advantage of. For those who believe that it was all about Big Pharma making massive profits for their shareholders, there were large profits made indeed.
Pfizer sales for its vaccine Comirnaty in 2021 were $37.8 billion for the year, in 2022 sales were in excess of $36.7 billion, earning the company more than $74 billion in sales for just two years.
This is better than Pfizer’s best-selling cholesterol drug Lipitor hauled in at its peak. Its vaccine reputedly was returning between a 60% to 80% profit margin. Not bad earnings when they didn’t even have the cost of expensive advertising, as the governments were lining up to buy their vaccines and with the emergency use authorisation purportedly limiting any liability at all—it was a win, win situation as long as the pandemic lasted.
Aside from the vaccine manufacturers heaping in big rewards, at least nine new billionaires were created on the backs of these excessive profits and the monopolies they created. Between them, the nine new billionaires have a combined net wealth in excess of $19 billion.
Topping the list of the new billionaires who have cashed in on the success of Covid are the CEOs of Moderna and BioNTech each with wealth of more than $4 billion each. The list also includes two of Moderna’s founding investors and the company’s chair. This this huge windfall for Moderna’s executives and, we assume, shareholders—this is despite the fact that the vast majority of funding for Moderna vaccines came from the taxpayers. It’s not just the executives of the vaccine makers that were able to reap the rewards from this windfall, in addition, eight existing billionaires who had extensive investments in the vaccine pharmaceutical companies—have seen their combined wealth increase by $32 billion. This provoked Anna Marriot, Oxfam’s Health Policy Manager to say:
“These billionaires are the human face of the huge profits many pharmaceutical corporations are making from the monopoly they hold on these vaccines. These vaccines were funded by public money and should be first and foremost a global public good, not a private profit opportunity.”
Thin Line Between Servicing Debt and Bankruptcy
Public debt levels are often given as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which gives some idea of the ability of the country to be able to service the debt, i.e., be able to keep up with the interest payments. Public debt compares the cumulative total of all government borrowings less repayments that are denominated in a country’s home currency.
Whilst America has very high levels of debt, it is ranked 15th in its exposure to debt compared to GDP with debts of 115.7% of GDP. The United Kingdom, in contrast is ranked 3rd with debts of 185.35 % of GDP. Greece leads the indebted with debts of 237.35% of GDP (followed by Japan at number two with debts running at 216.36 % of GDP).
Public debt should not be confused with external debt. Whereas public debt compares the cumulative total of all government borrowings less repayments that are denominated in a country’s home currency, external debt compares the total public and private debt owed to non-residents repayable in foreign currency, goods, or services. The USA tops the bill with external debts of $20.27 trillion. The UK follows next with $8.72 Trillion (France next with $6.35 trillion, and Germany next with $5.67 trillion).
Hopefully, if I have not lost you already with mesmerising debt figures—is perhaps the realisation that the higher the debt levels and the ability to service them the more precarious the position of the country. The USA, however, is in a more powerful position with regards to its debt than any other country due to a number of reasons. The main one being that most countries carry American dollars in their bank reserves and support America’s currency by doing this.
The Economic Fallout of the Pandemic
Other countries are not so lucky and have to keep their debt levels at a more manageable level. As you can see from the above, the UK is not in a very healthy state with regards to its debt levels. If the interest rates were to rise significantly their ability to service the debt would be seriously challenged. This being the case, some would consider it incredulous that the current UK Government (Conservative) has blown an estimated £400 billion on the pandemic measures that they orchestrated. This leaves the country in a situation where finances are extremely stretched and the ability to even maintain the county’s infrastructure is imperilled. Currently the roads in the UK, for example, are criticised as being in the poorest state in living memory with potholes and fissures and tarmac being in very poor state.
There are numerous items that could be added to the casualties of the financial squeeze due to the high levels of debt, such as the general collapse in services as shown by the current UK Government—some of which we will discuss in later articles. What is a great tragedy is that it was all so unnecessary. Whether you look at it with regard to the so-called Covid “pandemic” that we now have realised was over-hyped and led to measures that history will probably judge as mostly ill-advised in many countries—or whether we bother to question the elephant in the room—the fact that we fail to acknowledge that it is insane to pay interest on money that does not really exist to private corporate interests. We effectively borrow ‘money’ by issuing bonds to private people, organisations and other banks that promises to pay interest on the ‘loans’ for a specified time period at a specific rate. The insanity of doing this is reflected in the insurmountable debts that are accumulated over time. Theses debts are so huge that aside from the fact that they can never and will never be paid off, the interest payable alone is virtually bankrupting all major economies. The evidence for this can be seen in the collapsing infrastructure in most economies and the failure of most governments to be able to adequately fund basic social needs. It is beyond the scope of this article to fully discuss this debt creation nightmare, it is more fully discussed in my book Hijacked—How the Banking Industry, Finance, and Corporate Interests Have Hijacked our Economy and Corrupted Democracy.
The fallout from this madness has, however, led to very significant consequences to people’s health and well-being, and with huge economic and social consequences aside from the massive addition to the country’s debts.
History will judge the response to what we now know was a man-made virus funded by the US NIAID in the so-called “extension of function” experiments, in a much more critical manner than has so far been dealt with—being that any possible alternative therapy or action that deviates from what may be regarded as the official narrative—has been almost totally neglected by the mainstream media. The legacy of which we are leaving our children with, is, in my view, totally unnecessary and utterly shameful.
What do you think?