The May 15th blogpost of this series introduced the moral basis of sound money and its relationship with objective law. The attributes of sound money were summarized, the examples of gold and Bitcoin were highlighted, and their greatest proponents, Satoshi Nakamoto and Francisco d’Anconia, were featured. Another interesting trait these two share is their mysterious identity.
While Nakamoto is the pseudonym for the ingenious creator(s) of blockchain technology, d’Anconia was the dramatic creation of Ayn Rand in her epic novel, Atlas Shrugged. Francisco is also the novel’s most enigmatic character. His public persona was that of a politically connected billionaire, and crony corporatist of the highest order whose biggest personal deficit was womanizing.
For d’Anconia, and – in today’s political economy – Michael Bloomberg, money was no object to buy influence and power. Merely three months ago, Bloomberg declared,
Let’s just go on the record. They talk about 40 Democrats. Twenty-one of those I spent a hundred million dollars to help elect. All of the new Democrats that came in and put Nancy Pelosi in charge and gave the Congress the ability to control this president, I bought them.
Regarding the Non Disclosure Agreements he paid for to protect him from sexual harassment claims,
I’ve done a lot of reflecting on this issue over the past few days and I’ve decided that for as long as I’m running the company, we won’t offer confidentiality agreements to resolve claims of sexual harassment or misconduct going forward.
Michael Bloomberg built an information technology empire that uniquely served the needs of global financial markets. The eponymous Bloomberg terminal became an essential tool, is evidence of his immense talent and determination, and launched Bloomberg into one of the wealthiest men in the world. As is all too often the case, despite his success and the nature of his chosen industry, Bloomberg never held strong principles about the nature of wealth.
For example, according to Politico, during Bloomberg’s extremely brief 2020 run for the Democratic party presidential nomination, he spent about $1 billion, $10 million per day, to win 43 delegates. At least Bloomberg knows the nature of soft money.
In the hierarchy of central banking, money center banks are the first to launder the Greenbacks. During the California gold rush, it was the merchants selling equipment to the miners that made the biggest profits. Bloomberg is that merchant. In turn, he happily spread the wealth to the parasites of the political way, his campaign consultants.
Do you perceive a contradiction? For Francisco d’Anconia, the moral basis of money is a high order value, and Michael Bloomberg consumes wealth in exchange for people and power, yet they both leverage money for its appeal to the base instincts of looters. As d’Anconia explains to Henry Readen in Atlas Shrugged,
Mr. Rearden, do you know where most of those new aristocrats keep their hidden money? Do you know where most of the fair-share vultures have invested their profits? In d’Anconia Copper stock. Safely out of the way and out of the country.
It was safe, so they thought, for the influence peddlers in Atlas Shrugged to invest their unearned fortune out of the way of their own regulations, for the same reason that Bloomberg finances renewable energy and the Obama administration financed Brazilian oil exploration. As the Wall Street Journal reported in 2009,
You read that headline correctly. The Obama Administration is financing oil exploration off Brazil. The U.S. Export-Import Bank tells us it has issued a “preliminary commitment” letter to Petrobras in the amount of $2 billion.
In 2015, Paul Driessen wrote in his Town Hall article titled Climate Crisis, Inc.
Michael Bloomberg and Chesapeake Energy gave the Sierra Club $105 million to wage war on coal, before the Club waged war on Chesapeake Energy, what some see as Poetic Justice. Warren Buffett and Vladimir Putin cronies also give endless millions to Big Green.
According to the Bloomberg news service, “Investment in new renewable energy is on course to total $2.6 trillion in the years from 2010 through the end of 2019, according to a study by BloombergNEF for the United Nations Environment Program.” Investment? Solar and wind comprise almost all of it, yet the report doesn’t disclose its minuscule share of global power generation, massive costs, and environmental devastation.
Never mind the fact that the term “renewable energy” is ridiculous – energy is constant, it only changes form, much like “social justice” – all justice is social. Not coincidentally, the purveyors of renewable energy and social justice are also champions of another anti-concept, the “common good.”
The common good is the new profit of the new investment of the new capital in the new power. To clear things up, this perversion of economics is explained by the Danish Wind Industry Association, “We do not look at financing or taxation. These items vary enormously from one country to the other, but they do not make any nation richer or poorer: They only serve to redistribute income.” Phew! Crony industrialist Orren Boyle explains the new income of the new money to James Taggart, CEO of Taggart Transcontinental in Atlas Shrugged,
I’ve got my own friends in Washington that money can’t buy. The ones you buy aren’t really worth a damn because somebody can always offer them more. Its just like old-fashioned competition again. One’s got to trade something.
At the same time, d’Anconia asks Rearden,
What single point did they miss? Accidents do happen in the world. You know what they say, man is only a helpless plaything at the mercy of nature’s disasters. There was a fire at the d’Anconia ore docks tomorrow morning.
Integral to d’Anconia’s deception was his philandering. After all, womanizing is a vice to be celebrated in the world of Mediocrity Worship, and the virtues of money, profits, and capitalism are to be punished. For proof, consider the popularity of Bloomberg supported Environmental, Social Justice, and Governance (ESG) investing, and its use as the moral justification for their New Capitalism.
Like the Fair Share Law and the Anti-Dog Eat Dog Rule in Atlas Shrugged, ESG investing is backed by threats of lawsuits and public humiliation. While waiting for this house of cards to collapse, consider the fun of spreading the truth that d’Anconia Copper was in trouble, and being asked “Is there something wrong, Senor d’Anconia?
For God’s sake, keep quiet! You don’t happen to own any d’Anconia Copper stock, do you? Give me your word of honor. You don’t want to create a panic. Sell as fast as you can!
“They saw the wake of his passage spreading through the room, the sudden cuts splitting the crowd, not by a human touch, but by the impersonal breath of terror. When Taggart approached, “Why, James. What’s the matter? Why do you seem upset? Money is the root of all evil – so I just got tired of being evil.”
Moments earlier in the novel, “Watch, said Francisco turning to Rearden. The triumphant rise of Francisco’s voice merged with a matching sound: Rearden burst out laughing.”
