QE for children

Once upon a time there was a village shop. The name over the window was "Ginger and Pickles." [And] although it was a small shop it sold nearly everything—except a few things that you want in a hurry—like bootlaces, hair-pins and mutton chops.

Tabitha Twitchit kept the only other shop in the village. She did not give credit.

Ginger and Pickles gave unlimited credit. ... Now the meaning of "credit" is this—when a customer buys a bar of soap, instead of the customer pulling out a purse and paying for it—she says she will pay another time. And Pickles makes a low bow and says, "With pleasure, madam," and it is written down in a book. The customers come again and again, and buy quantities, in spite of being afraid of Ginger and Pickles. But there is no money in what is called the "till."

The customers came in crowds every day and bought quantities, especially the toffee customers, [and] the sales were enormous, ten times as large as Tabitha Twitchit's. But there was always no money; [the customers] never paid for as much as a pennyworth of peppermints.

[After many days but still no money, Ginger and Pickles got a bill for] the rates and taxes of £3 19 11-3/4. "This is the last straw," said Pickles, "let us close the shop."

The closing of the shop caused great inconvenience. Tabitha Twitchit immediately raised the price of everything a half-penny; and she continued to refuse to give credit.
excerpts from The Tale of Ginger and Pickles by Beatrix Potter, 1909

From the mouths [and minds] of babes

Perhaps, the greatest sin of mankind was the 19th century English intellectuals' failure to read and remember Beatrix Potter's masterful 1909 "Tale of Ginger and Pickles" which would have allowed them to roundly condemn the nonsensical gibberish of JM Keynes' 1936 "General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money" ... and in so doing saved humanity from the ever lingering threat [by evil men] of central banking by depriving this fraudulent scheme of any "academic theory" which it needs to claim legitimacy ... even today.

If you have never read Potter's essential summary of market economics articulated in this wonderful tale so that even a child can understand, just click on this link and do so before you do ANYTHING else in your life.

Think deeply and carefully about what Potter is telling us.  For she is not relating some great cosmic mystery or complex sociological theory ... she is merely evoking in our minds and hearts what has always been there ... truths about moral virtue, human behavior and the natural laws that govern our universe [even when we think we can ignore them]. We ALWAYS knew these things ... we only needed to be reminded of them ... now WE must decide what WE will do with the knowledge. For as Socrates said to Xenophon concerning instruction in "household management" [oikos nomos - or "economics"]:

"You lead me through the field of my own knowledge, and then by pointing out analogies to what I know, persuade me that I really know some things which hitherto, as I believed, I had no knowledge of." THE ECONOMIST Xenophon 362 BC

Pretend to the end

"Ginger and Pickles" is a pretend-tale ... but worldwide quantitative easing [QE] ponzied upon us by a conspiracy of governments, central banks and global corporations is not.

A recent article from the Denver Post puts the American personal debt tsuanmi in quick relief ... but personal debt [as massive as it is] is only a small part of the problem. When you add and allocate corporate and government debt ... not to mention things like private and public unfunded liabilities for pensions, medicare and social security ... you quickly ask the obvious questions that [as even a child can see] need answering:

• where did all this "unlimited credit" come from ???
• who was ever able to save enough to extend unlimited credit ???
• will any of it [much less all of it] ever be repaid ???
• or will "the last straw" someday cause the entire enterprise to fold ???

Of course, we are no longer willing to face the obvious answers ... for we long ago passed the point of no return and are now resolved to pretend to the end. But in the end, this brief exchange between Potter's main characters in the privacy of their own consciences says what each of us already knows ... if we will only be honest enough to admit it to ourselves and to one another:

"[This] is very uncomfortable, I am afraid ..." said Pickles. "Let us send in the bill again to Samuel Whiskers, Ginger, he owes 22/9 for bacon."
"I do not believe that he intends to pay at all," replied Ginger.

And so it is. If it is too complex for a child to understand, it is probably a lie.