(A routine mostly peaceful parade in the PACNORWEST on Inauguration Day. It is like the weather.)

Here, it is a lovely day in Virginia’s Piedmont: bright sun, rich blue sky and just the chill of the persistent winter to envelope us. On clear days like this as darkness washes over, we watch what appear to be UAVs that take up station over the large disputed property to the east of us.

We have no idea what they are looking at, or whether apparent changes in altitude actually reflect them approaching closer to the east side of Refuge Farm’s pastures.

I had hoped to get The Daily out this morning with some short and useful stuff. I ran across a fact-sheet from our new President’s people about the seventeen Executive Orders signed on his first afternoon in office. It is useful, handy and upbeat. I had hoped to balance yesterday’s observation about one of them with the whole list to assist in planning and compliance.

That is where I ran into trouble. Part of the amazing stuff that is already happening deals with the strange business of stimulus funding. That naturally drew me into a look at what 20 years of budget formation have brought us. In the process I ran into a bi-partisan effort that has increased the national debt from a little less than $6 trillion bucks in 2000CE to what is going to be $30 trillion before this year is over.

That is a five-fold increase over the tenure of both parties in the White House and variously in control of Congress. This is not a partisan rant. Everyone is part of this, and despite my reverence for our institutions and traditions, it struck me as a little crazy. That led to a quick review of Modern Monetary Theory to ensure I understood the heterodox macroeconomic framework and am qualified to live in 2021.

That, in turn, progressed into the concept that large economies that publish their own cash can determine the value of it without consequence, and things like the debt don’t really matter.

You can see my problem building. That produced an analysis of the basic change in how we are governed, debt management, continuation of policy and the associated role of the Continuing Resolution in restructuring how Congress works.

You can see how the hilarity was building, but it was almost time for a regular Zoom call our group uses to share our support for the Government. A couple old pals now live in suburbs of Portland and Seattle, and that was something I wanted to ask about, since the riots on Inauguration Day got a lot of play back here to contrast with the Really Big Riot on the Hill on January 6th.

Both pals paused and looked up before responding. “It is recognized, like a story they save for the late local news. It has the same urgency as the weather report. The riots are just something that is.”

So, with everything else going on, I realized that this system might just keep cranking along until one of the heterodox theories breaks down. It is going to seem a lot like normal right up until it isn’t.

You are lucky this didn’t catch me in the morning before the call. I had to draft a new Footnote- Number 4- to post on the website to show my continued support to things that seem a little nuts until you look at the facts. Then it gets really nuts.

Copyright 2021 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com