The Shrinking Hegemon: a fourth turning reality

Dr. Shanon Brooks

August 28, 2021

In 1944, the allied “soon-to-be-victor” nations met in Bretton Woods, NH for the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference. At that time, the world economy was very shaky, and the allies met to discuss the prevailing issues that plagued currency exchange. The Bretton Woods Agreement which resulted from the meeting, set the stage for all global economic systems for the next 75 years. 

Bretton Woods Inn, New Hampshire

This new global economy was based on the gold standard and the US dollar as the world reserve currency. All other currencies were then based on the dollar. World Reserve Currency is the currency chosen to provide stability for global economics. To explain this further I have included a few excerpts from an article written by Kathy Jones of the Charles Schwab Financial Group on March 19, 2021: 

We are often asked if the U.S. dollar will lose its status as the world’s reserve currency. Investors are concerned that the Federal Reserve’s easy monetary policy, combined with rising budget deficits, will undermine confidence in the dollar. The recent drop in the dollar over the past year has heightened these concerns. While we agree that there can be unforeseen consequences from the current policy mix, we believe the dollar’s role as the dominant global currency looks secure. 

What are Reserve Currencies?

Reserve currencies are typically issued by large, developed countries with records of financial stability. To be held in reserve by a foreign central bank, a currency typically needs to:
• be freely convertible (not pegged by the government)
• have a large and liquid debt market that foreign investors can access
• have an independent central bank
• and be widely used in trade and global transactions 

In addition to the U.S. dollar, the euro, the Japanese yen, British pound, Swiss franc, Australian dollar, and Chinese renminbi are all held in reserve. However, the dollar is by far the most widely held currency at 60% based on 2020 data from the IMF. 

The U.S. dollar is also used in about 40% of global trade and nearly 80% of all global cross-border transactions. Most commodities and many other goods are traded in U.S. dollars—oil, copper, and agricultural goods—to name a few. Investors need to hold dollars to trade in these goods and services, and need to have a large and liquid bond market to in which to invest those dollars. 

Having the world’s reserve currency affords the U.S. some privileges. It means there is underlying demand for U.S. bonds from foreign central banks and other large investors looking for a safe market in which to invest. That allows the U.S. to borrow at lower rates than would otherwise be possible. Many years ago, former French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing used the phrase “exorbitant privilege” to describe the benefits accruing to the U.S. from having the world’s reserve currency. It’s still the case today.   https://www.schwab.com/resource-center/insights/content/will-us-dollar-lose-its-reserve-status 

In short, this means that most foreign governments hold a large supply of US dollars (considered the most stable currency) in reserve to ensure they can purchase vital international goods such as food, industrial products, and crude oil. 

This unique status afforded the US in 1944 was primarily based on its performance during WWII, or more clearly, US military hegemony—we were the biggest, baddest, toughest guys on the block and as such, it is reasoned, we had the respect or fear of all other countries. Until two weeks ago, we had for the most part retained that image—that image is beginning to crack. 

What happens to a country’s economy that has been at the top of the game for 75 years and then suddenly is no longer “king of the hill?” How does loosing world reserve status effect a national economy and the standard of living of the millions of people who live there? Does the loss of such status change how our allies and enemies see us?

For the first time since WWII, US allies are scratching their heads and beginning to rethink relationships. The current Afghanistan debacle is changing the way the US is being viewed around the world and US allies are beginning to wonder if the US can continue to be counted on as the protector of democracy and western values. If this perception changes, if our allies loose confidence in US military might and our enemies no longer fear us, the US world reserve currency status will begin to erode and eventually crumble.* When that happens, the once robust US economy will fail and our lives will change forever. 

Afghans cling to military flight out of Kabul

Thinking men and women can clearly see that legislation that adds trillions of dollars to our national debt, an executive administration that is ordering new pandemic lockdowns, and a continued nationwide social breakdown can only serve to weaken us as a nation.  The utter failure of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan not only adds to our decline, but will have decades of negative impact for the region and potential adverse effects on global events for the foreseeable future. 

This is such a profound concept that I think I need to restate it in greater detail. This change has the potential to reset the US economy to “second world” conditions (economically if not politically) in a short period of time. This will mean for the most part, the abolishment of the Welfare State (this immediately impacts roughly 1/2 of the American population). This change will lead to economic convulsions and civil unrest beyond anything experienced during the Great Depression.

This change would mean sudden denial of nearly all personal credit, forcing almost all Americans to live within their means, which for the vast majority would be far below their current standard of living. Nearly 70% of Americans have little to no emergency fund.** This kind of change will make the housing collapse of 2008 look like a Sunday picnic, not 6 million American families displaced from their homes, rather tens of millions of defaulted mortgages and evictions. 

There are of course other reasons for a decline in global dominance; internal social decay, a loss of national identity, greed and avarice, poor governance, natural disasters, etc. and this has been the case for every other major historical power; the Egyptian Empire, The Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, Chinese Dynasties, just to name a few. Now it seems to be  our turn.

Those who are proactive to this coming change can actually benefit or at least not suffer from it. Those who rely on Normalcy Bias***, will lose most of what they have and struggle for decades. 

Solutions

In 2009 Oliver DeMille and I published the book Thomas Jefferson Education for Teens as a way to alert the youth to what was coming and how to engage it, particularly focused in chapter 7 “Success in the Next Twenty Years.” Offered as a solution to our current predicament, here is an excerpt from that chapter: 

History runs in cycles, and there is a pattern of four seasons repeated over and over, each about 20 to 25 years long. Like the seasons of the year, one naturally follows another and each feels different, and accomplishes a different purpose for the grand scheme of things. In their book, The Fourth Turning, authors Strauss and Howe call these four seasons “turnings,” like phases of a cycle. We strongly recommend you purchase and read this important book. The four seasons are: 

1st: Founding. New institutions are built up to solve the great problems that culminated in the last cycle. Like the United Nations, Social Security, World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), NATO, and other organizations created right after the Great Depression and World War II. Lots of businesses flourished in this period also. 

2nd: Awakening. Youth grow up and challenge the old establishments, like the counter- culture movement of the 1960s at Woodstock, or the Civil Rights Movement iconically lead by Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. among others, and strong pushes for Feminism and Environmentalism, etc. 

3rd: Unraveling. Two (or more) big viewpoints and political parties fight for power, and everything seems like it is coming apart. Economies boom. The last unravelling happened between 1984 and 2001, and the one before that in the “Roaring 1920s.” 

4th: Crisis. Big problems come. Actually, crisis seasons usually consist of three crises in a row, sometimes overlapped. First, is the wake-up crisis that shakes everyone, like the Boston Tea Party, the election of Abraham Lincoln, or the 1929 stock market crash, which started the Great Depression. In recent times it appears that the 2008 housing crisis was likely such an event. 

Second, comes as a major economic crisis, and then third, usually a major war, pandemic or a mixture of these and other calamitous elements all at the same time. The last several crisis seasons included,The Revolutionary War and subsequent Depression, The Civil War and Depression, and The Great Depression and World War II. Sounds bad, huh? 

Good News, Bad News                                                                                                            The bad news, which is also the biggest challenge in all this, is that when the crisis comes, almost everyone over thirsty years of age is totally immersed in the rules, conventions, and patterns for success of the last phase. This means that even though the economic boom times and long periods of peace are apparently over for a time, most people keep making choices that reflect what used to work—even though now all the rules have changed. 

They make a lot of ineffective choices, because they don’t realize that the rules have changed. For example, parents educated in 2nd or 3rd seasons often think their kids should see education as job training. For 4th and 1st seasons, however, that is a big mistake. In these seasons, teens need to be prepared for entrepreneurship and initiative much more than job-specific skills. There are many other differences between seasons. 

Here are the leading rules of success in each turning. In each season, success is found in:
2nd and 3rd: Big institutions, Professional Careers, Investment, Credentials and Resume, Leisure and Entertainment. 

4th and 1st: Family and Community Relations, Entrepreneurial Ability, Initiative and Leadership Skills. 

The way to fail in 4th and 1st seasons is to try to live by the rules of the previous seasons. The way to succeed is to engage the new reality.

Those who will thrive in times of recession, depression, slow-growth economies, even war, and other major crises are the ones who focus on home, community, and entrepreneurship. 

As for real life from now through the 2030s, 2040s, and maybe into 2050s, it is time to get real! Success now, and for most of your life, will be determined according to the rules of the 4th and 1st Seasons. The new 4th turning society and economy is here, and the realities with it. These new realities need all your idealism and enthusiasm, but they can’t and won’t be the past, which too many adults are desperately trying to cling to, or just beginning to mourn over. Those days are gone. 

The Long View                                                                                                                  

Another key of leadership is to focus on what’s next, not on the past or even the challenges of now. Overcoming current challenges is important, but the focus should be on what’s ahead. 

Because of cycles and seasons, some of the most important classics to study as a teen are those written during 4th and 1st seasons by authors who lived through them. 

One of the best of these, with a focus on family and entrepreneurship, is Our Home by C.E. Sargent. Sargent lived through the 4th turning of the Civil War period and built his career and family in the 1st turning that followed. Here are a few of the “rules” for financial success, family leadership, and overall happiness in 4th and 1st seasons as thought by C.E. Sargent: 

1 – Embrace the new and the now.
2 – Articulate and write down your personal rules for life. Live them.
3 – Make meaning a central focus of your learning, conversations, and thinking. Be grateful, look for the silver lining.
4 – Make marriage the central focus of your life. 5 – Embrace entrepreneurship, the only path to stability in uncertain times.
6 – Develop creativity and inventiveness. Figure things out.
7 – Dig Deep and find your inner resiliency. Stay optimistic and enthusiastic.

If any of these ideas create a desire to know more, read the entire 7th chapter of Thomas Jefferson Education for Teens.

Finally, consider our campus solution called the “New Economy.” We are training students to see the world differently and to consider the viability and value of: 

  • Getting a world class liber education
  • Building a home without a mortgage
  • Learning to live with off-grid energy
  • Growing all of one’s own food
  • Starting one’s own business

This idea is discussed in detail in my latest book AMERICAN: Killing the American Dream.

There can be no doubt that things are changing. All students of history know that society tends to be fluid, not fixed and rigid. Those who can’t change with the times are doomed to suffer the consequences. Emerson said it well: 

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark. 

We are past the point of speculation, the writing is on the wall, the proof is in the pudding. If you have made it to this closing paragraph, it is likely that we share this view. 

My question then is, are you prepared? Have you already implemented these kinds of changes in your life? If your answer is yes, Thank God for your foresight, now please go help others. 

If your answer is no, what in the world are you waiting for? 

*The gold based Chinese renminbi (Chinese money) is positioning to replace the US dollar as the new world reserve currency, and being used even now regional as such.

**https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/20/about-57-million-americans-have-no-emergency-savings.html

*** Normalcy bias is a cognitive bias which leads people to disbelieve or minimize threat warnings. Consequently, individuals underestimate the likelihood of a disaster, when it might affect them, and its potential adverse effects.

The Depth of the Swamp

The following is adapted from a talk delivered on February 20, 2020, at the Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in Naples, Florida by Adam Andrzejewski CEO & Founder of OpenTheBooks.com and Author, Operation: Drain The Swamp, an Encounter Broadside publication.

The Ivy League and the federal government might sound like strange bedfellows. However, I know of no other connection that more powerfully illustrates the depth of the swamp in D.C. In 2017, our organization at OpenTheBooks.com investigated and found that during a six-year period, the eight colleges of the Ivy League reaped $42 billion in U.S. taxpayer subsidies, special tax breaks, and federal payments on contracts and grants. 
 
It’s no wonder the Ivy League has been called “a hedge fund with classes.”
 
In fact, the Ivy League’s federal contracting business exceeded its educational mission. School officials collected $25 billion in federal grants and contracts and only $22 billion in undergraduate student tuition. 
 
To make matters worse, many of the Ivy League grants were loaded with taxpayer abuse. Cornell University received $1 million for a study titled, “Where It Hurts the Most to Be Stung by a Bee.” Columbia University received $5.6 million to create fake voicemails from the future describing the world after it’s been decimated by climate change. The Ivy League received so much federal money for these kinds of projects that it out-ranked 16 states on the direct receipt of federal funds. 

The Ivies don’t need taxpayer help. Their collective $120 billion endowment is more than enough to function without money from working- and middle-class taxpayers.
 
Swampy politicians don’t just live in D.C. I’m from Illinois or, as I like to call it, the Super Bowl of Corruption. Illinois is so corrupt that recently four of nine governors were convicted and sent to federal prison. In 2013, two Illinois governors found themselves in jail at the same time – one from each party: Republican George Ryan and Democrat Rod Blagojevich.
 
It doesn’t get much better at the local level. 
 
In 2011, Rahm Emanuel ran for mayor and promised to end the historic pay-to-play system in City Hall by which contractors acquire lucrative deals by providing campaign cash to politicians. When he was elected, Emanuel issued an executive order: city contractors were prohibited from giving him campaign cash. 
 
In 2015, Rahm ran for re-election, and I got a call from Emmy Award winning journalist John Stossel. Stossel asked if we could fact check Emanuel’s campaign promises. I agreed, and we found that 600 city vendors gave Emanuel $7 million in campaign cash and received $2 billion in city payments.
 
In God we trust; our politicians we must audit.
 
In America, the citizen is sovereign. We have been given a gift unique in the last 5,000 years of human history: a constitution that secures inalienable rights for each citizen – rights that come from God and not government. In order to hold government accountable, our founders enshrined the right to transparency in our founding document. 

Article I, Section 9 of the United States Constitution states, “… a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.” Today, in the age of the Internet and big data, there’s a clear interpretation of this clause: post ‘Every Dime. Online. In Real Time.’ 
 
In other words, Open The Books!
 
I founded the nonpartisan, public charity, OpenTheBooks.com on that vision: to capture and post online, every dime, taxed and spent at every level of government, federal, state, and local. We aspire to empower citizens with the information to hold the political class accountable for tax and spend decisions. Our Hon. Chairman is Dr. Tom Coburn, the legendary former U.S. Senator from Oklahoma. In 2013, Time listed Coburn as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and we are privileged to fight alongside a man of his stature and integrity.
 
We have built the world’s largest private database of public-sector expenditures. We’ve captured all federal spending since the year 2001 along with 49 out of 50 state checkbooks. Last year, for the first time in U.S. history, we captured the salary and pension records of virtually every public employee at every level of government.
 
In 2017, our organization launched an oversight report called, “Mapping The Swamp, A Study of the Administrative State.”
 
We found that the federal bureaucracy costs taxpayers $1 million per minute and $500 million per day. In the 78 largest agencies, the average salary exceeds $100,000, and 400,000 federal bureaucrats “earn” six-figure salaries. Thirty thousand civil service employees out-earned every state governor. One million federal bureaucrats received $1.1 billion in performance bonuses due to the fact that 99.6 percent of all federal bureaucrats are rated “fully successful.”
 
I’ll let you judge whether that rating sounds reasonable.
 
We also found serious transparency problems. Performance bonuses are shielded from disclosure by the union contracts. Federal retiree pension payouts are also shielded, even though taxpayers help fund and guarantee them. In 2016, the Obama administration redacted 3,500 names from the federal payroll. In 2017, 255,000 names were redacted, and the 2018 payroll has 350,000 names redacted. All of these redactions mean that approximately $30 billion in salary and bonuses is hidden in the swamp.
 
Bottom line? We have a lot of work to do.


But there’s more bad news: the biggest swamps are in our own back yards. State and local governments dwarf the federal swamp. Of the two million public employees earning more than $100,000 per year, 1.6 million are employed by state and local governments.
 
In Florida, a city attorney in Dania Beach out-earns the president of the United States with annual compensation of $436,000. In Chicago, the tree trimmers make more than $100,000. In New York City, the school district janitors out-earn the principals at up to $200,000, and In LA County, the lifeguards make up to $365,000. There are 10,000 employees within California higher education making more than $200,000.
 
It’s time to hold our local officials accountable for tax and spend decisions. And we made it easy. Our Open The Books app is free for Apple and Android and allows anyone to see what their tax dollars are funding. 
 
We can’t complain about Washington, D.C., if we can’t hold our local officials accountable. It’s time to fact check our politicians and their promises, and that’s exactly what we’ve been doing.
 
In San Francisco, Mayor London Breed promised to solve her city’s homelessness and public defecation disaster. After her first year in office, we mapped the San Francisco human waste challenge by placing a brown colored pin in each location where human waste had been reported. We found a brownout in the Bay Area. In 2011, there were 5,500 reports. In 2015, that number increased to 13,326. In 2017, there were 20,668 reports, and in 2019 there were 31,000. Over this nine-year period, there were 140,000 reports – a human health catastrophe.

Each year in all 50 states we file a Freedom of Information Act request for state checkbooks. In 49 states, we get line-by-line state expenditures. Only California Controller Betty Yee rejected our request. She claimed (incredibly) that she couldn’t locate any of the transactions. Yee admits to paying 49 million individual bills last year and spending $320 billion, yet she won’t provide a single transaction record. So, last month, we sued California to begin the process of forcing open state expenditures.
 
This isn’t our first rodeo. In 2013, we sued Illinois Republican Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka for state spending. Nine months later, we had compelled the state to disclose seven years of line-by-line state checkbook transactions.
 
In 2018, Wyoming Republican State Auditor Cynthia Cloud said it would take years and years to produce a state checkbook. We sued, and ten months later we had six years of line-by-line state spending.
 
We’ve never lost a state checkbook transparency fight, and when we open the books in California, we’ll start by cross-referencing Governor Galvin Newsome’s campaign donor disclosures with the state checkbook vendor list.
 
We did this in Oregon and discovered that Governor Kate Brown solicited 557 state vendors for $2.6 million in campaign cash—and those vendors reaped $4.4 billion in state payments.
 
We also investigated New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and found that he solicited 337 state vendors for $4.6 million in campaign cash—and those vendors reaped $6.3 billion in state payments. We’ll release our full findings soon.
 
We believe that transparency is revolutionizing U.S. public policy and politics, and there’s no more pressing need for transparency than in our federal programs. We’ve investigated some of the nation’s largest programs and discovered an inexcusable pattern of waste, fraud, and abuse.
 
Farm Subsidies: Tens of millions of dollars in farm subsidies flow into urban areas where there are no farms: Chicago, Washington, D.C., and New York City. For example, Minister Louis Farrakhan received $317,000 in farm subsidies mailed directly to his home in Hyde Park, Chicago, over a 17-year period.
 
Small Business Administration (SBA): The SBA is supposed to lend to mom-and-pop businesses on Main Street. But in a five-year period, $117 million flowed to Beverly Hills, CA: a French wine importer secured a $1.75 million loan, their limousine company received $2.1 million, a designer eyewear company secured $2.2 million, and an exclusive diamond broker received $3.9 million. Since 2007, we found that $280 million in SBA loans flowed to country clubs, golf clubs, swim clubs, beach clubs, and yacht clubs across America. Over $12 billion went to Wall Street, not Main Street.
 
We should never demonize success in America, but we shouldn’t use taxpayer money to subsidize it, either.

Veterans Affairs (VA): The 2014 VA scandal left up to 1,000 veterans dead while waiting to see a doctor due to a shortage of physicians. The scandal started in Phoenix at a facility where there were 3,100 employees but only 226 doctors.
 
Since then, Congress has thrown billions of dollars at the VA and added 36,000 new positions. However, only 3,000 of those positions were doctors, and veterans are still waiting more than 70 days to see a physician.
 
This can’t be the end of the story. Our veterans deserve basic healthcare. They fought for us and we must fight for them.
 
An OpenTheBooks.com forensic audit revealed that during the 2014 scandal, the VA spent $20 million on a high-end, luxury art portfolio, $21,000 on 27-foot Christmas trees, and $700,000 on two fancy sculptures for a facility serving blind veterans. 
 
After Good Morning America and ABC World News Tonight reported our findings, U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley wrote a scathing oversight letter to then-VA Secretary Robert McDonald. Thirty-four days later, McDonald apologized for the purchases and issued new rules to stop the practice on a go-forward basis.
 
We’ll never make America great if we can’t make it accountable—accountable both to this generation as well as future generations.
 
The national debt exceeds $23 trillion. We’re adding $1 trillion in budget deficits each year and $4 billion each day. President Donald Trump has signed three budgets adding another $4.6 trillion to our national debt, but appropriations bills start in the Congress. Too many times, patronage Republicans in Congress joined Democrats to drain the U.S. Treasury and rob our children and grandchildren before they even start paying taxes.
 
So, we investigated Congress. Last fall, we launched our oversight report, “Congressional Favor Factory.”
 
We found eight powerful members of Congress – four Democrats and four Republicans – soliciting campaign donations from federal contractors based in their district.
 
Here’s one example. Tennessee Congressman Jim Cooper sits on the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Budget Committee. His top donors are the University of Vanderbilt’s executives, VIP’s, and employees, who donated $135,261 to his campaign. Vanderbilt is based in Cooper’s district, and the university has received $2.6 billion from the U.S. Treasury over the last five years. Vanderbilt also employed Cooper as an adjunct professor for a twelve-year period and paid him a total of $250,000.
 
It’s perfectly legal for a large federal contractor based in a congressman’s district to fund the congressman’s campaigns, employ the congressman, and reap billions of federal dollars from the treasury. But just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s right. Congress needs to end these taxpayer-funded conflicts of interest. Today.
 
Clearly, we have a problem. OpentheBooks.com has a solution, but it will require bold leadership from Washington. 
 
President Donald Trump has vowed that America will never be a socialist country, and here’s how the president can lead on government spending.

Six times in The Wall Street Journal and USA Today, our organization published an Open Letter To President Donald Trump accompanied by 100 examples of outrageous taxpayer abuse. We encouraged the president as commander-in-chief to embrace the Transparency Revolution, wage War on Waste, and defend the American taxpayer by cutting waste, fraud, corruption, and taxpayer abuse.
 
We outlined a simple, four-point strategy: 1) Open and audit the books; 2) Declare war on waste; 3) incentivize every government employee to blow the whistle on government waste; and 4) report the progress to the American people.
 
Cutting waste is what’s known in the military as a “target-rich environment.” For example:
 
1. Federal grants – these are subsidies and giveaways. Last year the federal government spent over $700 billion on grants. We published an oversight report called “Where’s the Pork?” and here’s what we found: 

  • $200,000 funded a mobile app to teach Chinese children how to cross busy streets. 
  • $700,000 funded tai chi classes at a senior center outside Boston, MA.
  • $1 million was spent by NASA to “prepare the nations religions for the discovery of extra-terrestrial life.”
  • $1.4 million went from Health & Human Services to fund sex education for California prostitutes.
  • $20 million in grants from the Department of Transportation went to the airport at Martha’s Vineyard—the playground of the east coast moneyed elites and the Hollywood stars.

2. Improper and Mistaken Payments – Improper and mistaken payments either went to the wrong person, were cut for the wrong amount, or were provided under the wrong rule:

  • Federal agencies admitted to paying $1 billion last year to people with death certificates on file.
  • Social Security admitted to $10 billion in overpayments last year. There are six million active social security numbers for people over the age of 112, but there are only 40 people in the world over the age of 112.
  • Medicare and Medicaid admitted to overpayments of $67 billion in 2018. 
  • Last year, the Internal Revenue Service admitted that $1 of every $4 paid out on the Earned Income Tax Program was improperly or mistakenly paid to a tune of $18.4 billion.
  • Since 2004, the 20 largest federal agencies admit to mistaken and improper payments of $1.4 trillion.

This government is not run by technocrats. It’s institutionalized bureaucratic incompetence with tenure. 
 
3.  Use-It-Or-Lose-It Year-End Spending Spree: Each September, federal agencies spend the remainder of their budgets (rather than saving taxpayer money) so that Congress will appropriate the same or more money next year. In 2018, 67 federal agencies spent nearly $100 billion in the final 30 days of the fiscal year. Here are some of those expenditures:

  • $750,000 on golf carts. 
  • $300 million on cars, trucks, motorcycles, motor scooters, and snowmobiles. 
  • $460 million on furniture and redecorating.
  • $500 million on public relations, promotion, marketing, and advertising. (In other words, federal agencies spent taxpayer money to convince taxpayers to spend more taxpayer money to increase the size and scope of federal agencies.)
  • $62 billion by the Department of Defense on (among other things) a $9,300 club leather chair, a $1 million sponsorship of the Professional Bull Riders Association, and a $4.6 million order of lobster tail and snow crab. 

In the final month of the year, the DOD spent roughly 25% of its contract dollars for the entire year.

However, the defense agency can’t pass an audit. Recently, 1,200 auditors spent 12 months and $400 million auditing the Pentagon, and they flunked. Here’s yet another example of military waste: $350,000 spent on coffee cups costing $1,200 each. We published this finding in The Wall Street Journal and U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley got the program stopped.
 
Last week, the White House called me. It was the Executive Office of the President – Office of Management and Budget, and they told me that, for the first time in history, the President’s Budget To Congress included a chapter targeting “Wasteful Spending.” Our oversight was an inspiration for the chapter.
 
The president recognized: “a bloated Federal government with duplicative programs and wasteful spending is a threat to America’s future.”
 
We called for a Transparency Revolution, and the president committed to more oversight in all federal program. We called for a War on Waste, and the president declared war on waste. We called for a five percent cut to spending in the agencies, and the president’s budget adopted that cut. We called on the President to stop improper and mistaken payments, and the president adopted that goal. We called for an end to the Use-It-Or-Lose-It Year-End Spending Spree, and the President’s budget cited OpenTheBooks.com by name, bullet-pointed our findings, and provided a hyperlink to our report.
 
We believe that transparency is revolutionizing U.S. public policy and politics, but we can’t do it alone. Visit OpentheBooks.com to join us and support the Transparency Revolution!

 Adam Andrzejewski is the CEO of OpenTheBooks.com, a public charity he founded. Today, OpenTheBooks.com is the world’s largest private repository of public-sector expenditures. He is a senior policy contributor at Forbes and his works have been featured at Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Drudge Report, and many other media. Recently, his work was cited in the President’s Budget to Congress. He is a graduate of Northern Illinois University and has run the Chicago Marathon seven times.

The Dark Age of Education

By Andrew Palmer – May 2020

This essay is part of a student essay series showcasing student work.

The average college or university today professes to follow the ancient scholastic method. In practice however, it has forsaken the philosophical intent of that methodology. Modern university educations have the same purpose as that of trade school educations, the only difference being that university educations are tailored to train students for different vocations than their so named counterparts. We must stop educating in the same way that reigned only one other time in history: the Dark Ages. 

Educators from Aristotle to Augustine have had surprisingly similar philosophies of education. They agreed that the purpose of education was to instill virtue in the learner. Their methodologies, though varied, followed a similar format: Teach by example, give the learner liberty to choose their own curriculum, ask questions, and lead the learner to discover truth through critical thinking. This critical thinking was the soul of education. A student would learn to ponder, question, and challenge current paradigms. Throughout history we see great debates of thought on science, economy, law, governance, and education itself… until the Dark Ages.

It may surprise you to learn that there was widespread education during the Dark Ages. The new educational philosophy of universities, the scholastic model, became the dominant voice in the western world. Initially, it was a diverse system of teaching and scholarly interaction. Gradually, lecture began to replace debate as the primary format of higher education. Now, instead of debating, students had prewritten debates read to them. Moral absolutes were promoted to moral relatives in the name of free thinking. Of the three ancient pillars of education literacy, morality, and critical thinking, only the first remained.

The humanists were first to speak out in favor of returning to thought-based education. Soon, the reformation swept Europe, in large part, because people, despite being educated in the style of the later dark ages, gathered on their own time for discussion and debate. Martin Luther, Wesley, William of Orange and so many others, served as the flint and steel that lit the powder keg of the inquisition and religious oppression. Amidst the chaos and bloodshed of the reformation, education was widely restored to its previous purposes and methodologies.

In the nineteenth century, Prussia developed what was considered a new form of education. Essentially, they re-adopted the pre-renaissance approach to education by favoring math and science over philosophy and debate. Then, after losing two world wars, Germany’s “new and improved” education system caught on. Why? According to John Taylor Gatto, a nation with Prussian education is better at warfare. Though they lost, the Germans inflicted staggering casualties, due to their superior technologies, tactics, and discipline. Russia adopted the Prussian education system and created the first orbital satellite. In response, the U.S. adopted this type of education to compete with the communist bloc. Thus, American education fell to fear. And what do we have to show for it?

Prussian Primary Education

America’s temple of Janus has not closed its doors within the living memory of all but its oldest inhabitants. Her citizens and politicians argue about policies of lesser import. They discuss how to manage the foreign wars, never the morality of waging foreign wars in the first place. They discuss whether to have a planned economy, but never discuss the dangers of a fiat currency. They discuss making new laws and provisions to provide greater prosperity, but never consider decreasing the oppressive number of complex laws already in place that we as a nation must hire specialists (lawyers) to interpret. 

The general population of the U.S. has lost the ability to question their paradigm. Moral relativism reigns supreme. If the solution is in fact education, like everyone says, then we are doing it wrong.

We must return to our original pillars of education. The U.S. as a nation is a lost cause as far as I’m concerned. But you individually can get educated, educate your children, and have real debates about topics that matter. Be like the flint and steel that ignited Europe. Re-forge your family’s educational methodology’s and help give birth to a new renaissance. 

Dialog of A House Divided

I consider Julie to be a friend. We have sparred in a friendly manner over the years, and have found plenty to disagree on, but she is a professional, intelligent, and truly caring person.

She commented on my Jan. 6 blog post and I thought that we could all gain something from examining our exchange:

Julie from Oregon: (in reply to “A House Divided”) What exactly is the grievance here? A police officer put his knee on George Floyd’s neck for eight minutes, resulting in his death, even as he, and onlookers, begged for help. Here? Donald Trump lost the election. A free and fair election in the tradition of American elections. The fact that he will not accept that doesn’t change the facts. The courts have spoken, the regulatory bodies have spoken, journalists and fact finders who are subject to journalistic standards have spoken. There is no grievance here.

What we have is a culture of grievance that has supplanted the values that once lay at the heart of our conservative tradition, fed by conspiracy theories, exploiting and poisoning the minds of many well-meaning people. What we have now, in the place of conservatism, is populism with fascist overtones, a cult of an individual who is patently and profoundly unwell. That has been demonstrated time and again, and never more clearly than when Donald Trump violated the most sacred of our norms — after a norm shattering presidency — the peaceful transfer of power.

And yet you seek to dignify this, to lay the blame elsewhere, to normalize it — enabling the very culture that has led to this travesty. You consider yourself a patriot, dedicated to citizen self-rule, which can only exist in an environment of honesty and accountability. So please, call a spade a spade.

My Response:

JAN 7, 2021 

Ok Julie, if this is a serious question, I will give a serious answer:

the manner of treatment that led to George Floyd’s death was wrong, a million times wrong—and rightly so, Derek Chauvin was arrested, disgraced, charged with second degree murder, and is going thru the legal process.I don’t know anyone who agreed with Derek’s actions, why are you still bringing this up?  

The Floyd scenario is no more an isolated event than this election. I am still processing the Trump rally and the subsequent events that followed, but those few rioters who actually broke into the Capitol building were not acting for the masses assembled lawfully there. They did not and do not represent the vast majority of Americans who are sitting in their homes feeling serious discontent.    

What I don’t understand is the months and months of riots around the country using Floyd as their poster child. Months and months of destruction of property, months and months of violation of human rights of people of all races. I am strongly disturbed by the actions of a few rioters at the Capitol, but they clearly do not represent the hundreds of thousands of peaceful protesters that were there at the same time. While those actions were disgusting and 100% wrong, it was a tiny minority with only 50 people being arrested, and I hope they are held accountable for 4 deaths related to this event.

But the remaining hundreds of thousands of protestors were there because they feel divided from their representatives and government, they feel disenfranchised and they believe themselves to be victims of fraud.Let me remind you of a document that is often quoted by such citizens of all colors, who are feeling unrepresented in a supposed representative Republic:   

“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.” 

This is the real issue and will be the end of the Republic if not seriously addressed and changes made.

The primary reason I share this exchange is to highlight the fact that this happens much too infrequently. Informed dialog, debate, and reasoned discourse are the hallmarks of a Democratic Republic. When the dialog stops, the violence begins. Sometimes the violence is used in the beginning to create class division, this too can be minimized with honest and open discourse.

Please engage in informed discussion with all parties to find solutions (by the way, Facebook is not a valid source of truth, just say’in). Sitting at home being disgruntled and angry will only lead to misunderstanding, prejudice, “us versus them” feelings, and eventually violence in its many morbid forms.

A House Divided

I don’t think anyone would disagree when I say that the events of January 6, 2021 at the nation’s Capitol were disconcerting. When people breach the halls of government and in a attitude of desecration invade spaces and disrupt the workings of government, it is frightening, it is distasteful, and uncouth, but it is also a signal of something far more sinister. It is a signal, it is a symptom of something much deeper and much more destructive. In Abraham Lincoln’s 1858 senate acceptance speech, what in fact, proved to be a foreboding harbinger of national crisis, he instructed us that “a house divided against itself cannot stand,” that is the great challenge of our time.

 Yes it is disturbing, yes it is unnerving to have a group of people force their way into the Senate and House chambers, even Nancy Pelosi‘s office—but this will pass, what will not pass is the division we face, if that divide is not healed, the events of today will appear as mere child’s play compared to what may be coming in the not too distant future.

In Washington’s Farewell Address of 1796, he gave us the recipe for political success and national happiness: Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connexions with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

Part of the concept of religious obligation must be the idea of the respect and honor we should hold for each other as human beings, even when we disagree. When we lower our standards to no longer maintaining “national morality, ” we open the door for widespread disregard and objectifying.

Lawlessness breeds lawlessness. A year of rioting in cities all over America, with few repercussions, can easily explain why this happened at the Capitol today, regardless whether it is justified or not. You can’t have a double standard. As a Republic, the same rules must apply to all. We abandoned law and order last year, for months Americans watched riot after riot destroy personal property, injure and take lives, and damage faith in the belief in “law and order” while local mayors and governors stood by, and in fact, ordered the local police to do nothing.

I don’t want to downplay what happened on Jan. 6th, but I see the bigger problem as a lack of leadership. I plead with the leaders of both parties to stand up and lead in the protection of human rights, lead in securing private property, reputation, and the life of every citizen. If there is no excuse for the actions at the Capitol today, then there is absolutely no justification for allowing the months of riots across the nation during 2020. Actions and ideas have consequences. And if we are not extremely careful, those consequences just might be our undoing.