Scott talks to David Stockman about his latest article on the economic fallout from the coronavirus lockdowns. Stockman begins by pointing out a startling fact: though the stock market has now returned to all-time highs, the American job numbers are back down to where they were in the year 2000. This economic bloodbath, he insists, is not the effect of the virus at all—it is simply the result of a forced shutdown that never needed to happen. Why, then, are financial markets doing so well? Only because the Federal Reserve has printed nearly $3 trillion in new money in under three months, says Stockman, which they’ve used to directly monetize debt. As usual, this kind of heavy-handed intervention in the economy can delay the inevitable crash for a little while, but it is sure to make it more painful when it eventually comes around.

David Stockman is the ultimate Washington insider turned iconoclast. He began his career in Washington as a young man and quickly rose through the ranks of the Republican Party to become the Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan. After leaving the White House, Stockman had a 20-year career on Wall Street. He is the author of Trumped!, The Triumph of Politics, and his history of the financial crisis, The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

Podcast (thescotthortonshow): Play in new window | Download