(Our modest Virginia snow and ice. More to come today. I could show you a picture of the truck-wreck, but I think this is illustrative enough, you know?)

Oh, I know things are not going to amount to much, but the icy rain in Texas contributed to dozens of accidents. The nice lady in Red on the television tells us it is a function of a Jetstream tracking further south than normal, bringing a taste of winter to climatic areas not used to it. People cannot be expected to drive well in relatively rare weather events.

Dallas Police Department spokeswoman Tamika Dameron described it to CNN. She said: “More than 300 accidents were reported overnight, with 103 major accidents, 133 major accidents on freeways, 86 minor accidents, four minor city equipment accidents, two major city equipment accidents, and one major city equipment accident on the freeway.” I am mature enough to not just blame the idiots in Texas for the inability to handle ice in their cars. I am waiting for icy-rain in central Virginia, and it will be the same deal for those who try to travel.

My old Dominion motto was this: “If it’s snowin’, I ain’t goin’.” No aspersions on the capabilities of drivers who are going out in it. I just do not plan to go out in the same weather they are in.

I have been feeling the same way. Not depressed, just a little bemused by the idea of what seems to be coming by intent to this lovely nation. It feels like a semi-tractor out of control and hurtling down an ice-covered road. Didn’t have to happen, and yet it is.

We are handling the pandemic pretty well, just one of several things in progress like a truck wreck. The one that has a certain direct interest is whether I have saved enough money to augment Social Security and survive whatever part of retirement I have left.

Here is the deal. The printers down at the Treasury Department must be working overtime to generate new Franklins. I am an old schooler, taught by Mom about some of the consequences of the Depression. So the hairs on the back of my neck go up when I hear what is going on here near The Swamp. I am not an economist, but did have an accidental association with producing government numbers assigned to routine operating activities. There is the usual annual Federal budget of about $3.5 Trillion dollars. We are going to double that due to ’emergency’ this year and have been at it awhile. The total is nearly eight trillion since 2019. That is about a third of the national debt that took 250 years to accumulate in 24 months.

It is hard to imagine that much money swirling around, and how many people expect direct benefit from it who have nothing to do with the ‘work’ to generate tax income to pay for it. It is all going to be borrowed. We are assured it is fine, just a normal function of government needs. I am mindful of these sorts of assurances, since I have also heard this from smart people in the economics trade:

“…every time a problem arises, a little more inflation seems the only easy way out.”

Seems reasonable, despite being in opposition to the usual sort of activity that governs how we live. There are other people who come from a different school than the people running our government. It goes like this:

“There are two points which cannot be stressed enough: first, it seems certain that we shall not stop the drift toward more and more state control unless we stop the inflationary trend; and, second, any continued rise in prices is dangerous because, once we begin to rely on its stimulating effect, we shall be committed to a course that will leave us no choice but that between more inflation, on the one hand, and paying for our mistake by a recession or depression, on the other. Even a very moderate degree of inflation is dangerous because it ties the hands of those responsible for policy by creating a situation in which, every time a problem arises, a little more inflation seems the only easy way out.”

It is sort of like highway ice. A little bit can have a huge impact, like a Texas ice-storm. I am wondering what something this vast is going to do?

Copyright 2021 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com