For all his stumbling, Joe Biden managed to successfully spin two narratives.

To paraphrase Murray Rothbard from his text, “Anatomy of the State”, the State is the organization of the political means; it is the systemization of the predatory process over a given territory. It is born, as Justice Marshall noted in Johnson & Graham’s Lessee v. McIntosh, in conquest and exploitation.

The President, as chief executive, has as his primary power the capacity to persuade. He spins a narrative that if persuasive enough can move the electorate and the Congress to grant him his bidding. He bids the electorate to support his agenda with a vote sometime in the future while asking the Congress to pass legislation codifying his agenda a little closer in the present.

Today, U.S. president Joe Biden did that as the symbolic head of state during remarks made in Largo, Maryland.

I say, “stumbling”, based on the written transcript of his remarks made earlier this afternoon. Some pundits opine that some factions of Mr Biden’s party are ready to throw the President under the bus and his remarks probably provided more fodder for critics who argue that his age and apparent cloudiness of brain are enough reasons to push Mr Biden into the sunset and a well-earned rest.

While I would tend to agree with the critical assessment, I was able to listen more and hear less and identify the two messages the Executive should be able to entwine at all times. One face fronting narrative for the electorate and one subtle message from the State.

The face fronting narrative to the electorate was designed to create the “you can get with this, or you can get with that” (Shout out to Black Sheep) Mr Biden created much separation between his Bidenomics and the MAGAnomics of the Republican far right. He argued that while his economic agenda would grow jobs, reduce health care costs, and protect social security retirement benefits, the GOP budget plan would reduce Medicare and grant more tax cuts to America’s uber affluent one percent.

In short, middle America, my plan takes care of you. Their plan does not.

The subtle message from the State is that lower, middle, and upper income tax payers will remain the portfolio that supports the bond markets. Mr Biden likely recognizes that receipts from these classes that are transferred to the bond markets keep the real American economy afloat. Most Americans do not wish to go through the intellectual exercise of defining the transactional economy that is juiced by credit issuance with a Treasury bond backdrop.

Mr Biden has been skilled enough to not promise tax relief for the middle or lower classes; only that the upper class, who are more likely to make their incomes from securities and other asset holdings, will be on the hook for more taxes.

The State relies on the political means of extracting financial energy. The political means are based in coercion, a coercion that combines police power with the narratives produced from executive orders and rules; court opinions, and legislation from Congress. Mr Biden, as America’s chief political officer thus chief architect of the political means, was able enough not to weaken this narrative.

Mr Biden’s remarks, fumbling speech and all, was a smart one.

Alton Drew

15 September 2023

For more of my thoughts on political economy, purchase my book at amazon.com/author/altondrew.