We’re in Trouble… Thanks to Too Many Free Lunches

Andy Snyder|September 7, 2022

It’s weaning season here on the farm… time to separate the takers from the makers.

After this week, there will be no more free lunches.

We’re sending invitations to the world’s financial leaders to come see how it’s done.

Sheep will eventually wean themselves naturally, but the result is rarely good. The ewe will get thin and gaunt, while her lamb will get fat and lazy. In nature, it wouldn’t be allowed to happen. The young and the old would be forced to separate at a much younger age.

But on our coddled little pasture, nobody is prey. There’s no need to spread out and head to the hills.

The suckling can continue.

By the end of the week, we’ll round up the young and the old. They’ll have one last hoorah in the corral.

Then there will be a day or two of bawling and maybe even some fence jumping.

It’s always tough. We surely violate a noise ordinance or two.

But it’s all for the best. The sheep would suffer if our shepherd’s hook didn’t grab a few lambs around the neck.

It’s why we’d love to invite a few leaders to the ol’ place this week. Perhaps they’d learn a thing or two.

Trouble

The story unfolding in Europe is one of disaster. The flock is being led to a cliff.

The continent has grown up with a free meal in its belly. It’s gotten its energy from a dirty teat. But now the old ewe has said “No more.” She’s got a fight on her hands and has gotten quite picky about who she’ll give her energy to.

You’ve seen the carnage.

Prices are soaring. Businesses are closing. And the shepherd is preparing for an uproar.

Left alone, of course, the hungry lambs would figure it out on their own. There’s green grass right beneath their feet. They just have to find the gumption to bend over and eat it.

But all the fuss… the bawling… the fence jumping… It’s enough to driver a farmer mad. The neighbors start to get fussy.

So the farmer puts out a pile of grain. Then another the next day. And another the day after.

One free lunch is replaced by another.

The lamb turns to mutton… fat and lazy.

Student loan relief. Green energy handouts. Price caps. Stimmies in the mail. Subsidies for you… subsidies for me.

Do or Die

The folks in charge of the euro are ready for a 75-basis-point hike. It’ll tighten things up and tamp down demand. But the folks who get paid in votes… They’re ready to spend. In Germany, they’re looking to hand out another $65 billion in the name of cutting inflation.

The sheep need to live on a leaner diet… but the shepherd keeps a full pail of corn by the gate.

In America, we’re paying folks to buy cars that run off the grid. We’re also warning folks that the grid will fail.

Drink our milk, they say. But beware… It could kill you.

It’s trouble. Global trouble.

It’s time to wean.

There will be bellows from the hollow. But it’s that… or the slaughterhouse.

It’s a fine time to be independent.