Inflation’s Impact: The Penny’s Plunge Into Irrelevance
It’s no surprise to readers of this site that metals are often worth more than fiat currency. Gold, silver, and other precious metals are known for their value. But sometimes fiat currency can’t even compete with zinc.
The US penny, which is primarily made of zinc, costs roughly three cents to produce and is only worth one cent according to the federal government. This is the opposite of what has happened historically. Generally, governments produce currency that is worth far more than the cost of producing it. Imagine printing a one hundred dollar bill which costs far less than a hundred dollars in materials and printing costs. The profit from this is called seigniorage. With pennies, the US government is practicing reverse seigniorage. This loss of money from producing pennies is one of the arguments for abolishing the US penny. There are other arguments against the penny such as the claim that it’s worth so little compared to the typical American wage that it makes no sense to denominate prices in pennies, would anyone argue that the United States needs a coin worth half a penny?
In fact, the United States used to have a half-cent coin which was abolished in 1857 for being worth too little. A half-cent in 1857 would be worth approximately 18 cents today. That of course is more valuable than not only the penny but the nickel and dime as well.
Of course, there are arguments in favor of retaining the penny. Perhaps the penny is worthwhile as it supports the zinc mining industry and its American employees. Perhaps we should be suspicious of moves by the government to phase out the penny as it might be the first step towards a cashless economy. Or perhaps ditching the penny would cause businesses to round prices up, hurting consumers.
Arguably more interesting than the debate about whether the penny should exist, is considering the political and cultural implications of abolishing the penny.
What would it say if the US government scrapped the penny now? What would it say if it followed the past practice of abolishing the half-cent coin and scrapped the nickel and the dime as well?
It would be an admission by the government that its monetary policies and the Federal Reserve have so devalued currency, that the majority of coins created by the federal government are worth so little they might as well not exist!
The rampant inflation since the start of the Biden inflation is so extreme that it’s impossible to ignore the toll it has inflicted on the American people. But many years when inflation is lower, it’s harder to notice. Coins are part of American culture from slot machines dishing out coins to elementary school students learning to add and subtract with pennies, nickels, and quarters.
When stores stop accepting coins, when banks stop stocking coin rolls, or when the federal government throws in the towel of pennies, will more Americans realize that the rest of fiat currency is following the same path of constant devaluation? People would only have to look through their spare change, their couches, and their pockets to get a visceral reminder of the reality of inflation.
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Berlin Rows Back on Daycare ‘Sex Rooms’ for Toddlers to Masturbate in Privacy
The local government in the German capital of Berlin has ruled out introducing “sex rooms” for toddlers in state-run daycare facilities despite the recommendation having been included in an unpublished draft of the city’s new educational program.
The U-turn was announced by State Secretary for Youth and Family Falko Liecke in a statement to Junge Freiheit on Monday.
“In Berlin daycare centers, there will expressly be no separate rooms for educational sexual explorations for children among themselves, nor any guided or free other sexual-educational concepts,” he told the news outlet.
“We are aware that the recommendations for action given to us from the scientific field represent a different perspective. However, we expressly do not share these views and will not include these recommendations in the Berlin educational program for daycare centers and daycare,” Liecke added.
In the draft of the new program, educational experts advising the local government had called for the establishment of sex rooms for three to six-year-olds to experience “feelings of pleasure” in privacy.
Several other states, including daycare centers in North Rhine-Westphalia, have already adopted the policy with at least two nurseries in the state entertaining the idea of safe spaces where young children can retreat to masturbate, or as one daycare center in Kerpen put it, “discover and satisfy themselves physically.”
The idea was to allow children to learn that “masturbation is something normal” and that sexual self-gratification is “of great importance.”
However, Berlin will not follow suit, at least for now, Liecke insisted.
“This concept was passed on at the specialist levels as part of a work process that had not yet been completed and has now been withdrawn.
“This does not correspond at all to our ideas about a child-friendly educational mandate,” he added.
Berlin’s Department for Education insisted it had not been informed about the publication of the draft program with the controversial plans included.
However, Junge Freiheit noted that the paper bears the department’s logo.
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NYC Housing Rents Spike as Democrats Welcome Endless Line of Illegals
New Yorkers are grappling with skyrocketing housing rents despite rents across the nation slowing, if not reversing, in some cases. A lack of affordable housing is driving shelter costs higher in the progressive metro area plagued with elevated living costs, a migrant crisis, and a worsening violent crime wave.
With new data from the rental site Zudmper indicating that one-bedroom rentals in NYC surged 18% in February to a record high of $4,200, it’s puzzling to consider who would choose to live there. Additionally, even median rents in Jersey City, located across the Hudson River from Manhattan, rose 5.4% to $3,140.
Meanwhile, rents across the country have decreased by .7% this month compared to last year, primarily due to a surge in the construction of new rental units. February represented the fifth straight month of flat or declining year-over-year rent changes nationwide. Yet, this trend of cooling rental prices does not apply to NYC, where a housing shortage continues.
Source: Bloomberg
Perhaps the housing shortage in NYC has been made worse by the surge of 200,000 illegals bussed into the metro area from the open southern border in the last 18 months.
Protest break out in Harlem after residents found out NYC was turning a luxury building into a shelter for illegal migrants.
How far to the left will NYC go before it’s completely destroyed?
? … ??? pic.twitter.com/tihL1FTdrO— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) February 17, 2024
Ahead of the November elections, Democrats have stuffed the illegals in schools, hotels, and community centers and have even wanted to give them debit cards pre-loaded with tax-payer funds. One can only assume that the government placing these migrants into apartments across the city will only make the housing affordability crisis worse.
New York continues to bang nails into its own coffin.
— Old School Eddie (@Old_SchoolEddie) February 21, 2024
Leftist New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a leftover from the corrupt Cuomo regime, quietly changed the state’s “Safety Net Assistance” program eligibility regulations to allow illegal migrants to receive benefits, making thousands… pic.twitter.com/Feb2cG3d2s
Given all this, who in their right mind would want to live in a city with record-high shelter costs and out-of-control crime?
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Macron Stands by Remarks on NATO Troops In Ukraine
French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday stood by his controversial remarks on Monday about the prospects of deploying troops to Ukraine, which have caused uproar among some NATO members, and has insisted his words were well thought out.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a visit to inspect the 2024 Olympics village near Paris, Macron refused to backtrack on his statements despite a flurry of criticism from some fellow members of the US-led bloc.
“These are sufficiently serious issues; every one of the words that I say on this issue is weighed, thought-through and measured,” Macron claimed.
The French president triggered the political furore on Monday while speaking to reporters after hosting a meeting of European leaders in Paris. Macron insisted that the West should stop at nothing to prevent Russia from getting the upper hand in the conflict, saying the deployment of troops by NATO and other Western countries to Ukraine could not be ruled out.
“There’s no consensus today to send, in an official manner, troops on the ground,” he said. “In terms of dynamics, we cannot exclude anything. We will do everything necessary to prevent Russia from winning this war.”
The statement prompted a wave of denial from NATO members, with multiple major members of the bloc, including the US, the UK and Germany insisting they harbor no such plans. Some lesser members of the bloc, however, namely Estonia and Lithuania, appeared to back Macron, suggesting that sending troops to Ukraine should not be ruled out.
“We shouldn’t be afraid of our own power. Russia is saying this or that step is escalation, but defense is not escalation,” the Prime Minister of Estonia Kaja Kallas told Sky on Wednesday. “I’m saying we should have all options on the table. What more can we do in order to really help Ukraine win?”
Moscow has strongly condemned Macron’s remarks, cautioning the US-led bloc against taking further hostile moves. Should NATO troops actually be deployed to Ukraine, a direct confrontation between the alliance and Russia will become not only “possible” but actually “inevitable,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned.
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