Government Spending on Steroids

The American Revolution was fought to put an end to Great Britain’s tyrannical rule, particularly its policy of using the colonies as “cash cows” to fund its never-ending European wars. King George III and his parliament thought they could levy increasingly burdensome taxes on the colonists, lording over them politically and economically from “across the pond”, but the Sons of Liberty finally had enough. Mutually pledging their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor, 56 brave men signed the Declaration of Independence… and it was “Game On.”

The War of Independence officially ended on September 3, 1783, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. Five years later – on June 21, 1788 – the Constitution of the United States was ratified. When it took effect on March 4, 1789, it became the foundational document of the first nation in world history to be governed by “We the People”.

No king, queen, or other monarch. No despot or dictator… and certainly no authoritative ruling class.

Or so we thought.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, one of 12 such Federal Reserve Banks spread across America’s fruited plain, hosts dozens of central bankers, policymakers, academics, and economists from around the world at its annual economic policy symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The 2024 event, which marked the symposium’s 47th year, focused on the theme "Reassessing the Effectiveness and Transmission of Monetary Policy.”

Beginning in 1982, the symposium has been held at the Jackson Lake Lodge at Grand Teton National Park, which is located in Wyoming, one of the seven states served by the Tenth Federal Reserve District. Here is a description of the lodge, copied verbatim from its website…

“Breathtaking does not begin to describe the view at Jackson Lake Lodge. Here, our 60-foot floor to ceiling windows frame pristine Jackson Lake and the majestic Teton Range. For some, this view alone is reason enough for a visit.”

“Jackson Lake Lodge is located in the heart of Grand Teton National Park. A full-service, historic eco-hotel, the Lodge features 385 rooms including stunning suites, main lodge hotel rooms, and quiet cottages. The lodge also includes a variety of dining options, outdoor excursions, meeting and event spaces, retail shops, a swimming pool, and an interpretive exhibit featuring authentic Native American artifacts and Western art.”

Why Jackson Hole? In the early 1980s, the Kansas City Fed leaders learned that the best way to ensure that Fed chairman Paul Volcker would accept an invitation was to hold the event somewhere with good fly fishing in late August… and so, Jackson Hole it was.

The New York Times has described the symposium as “the world’s most exclusive economic get-together” and one attendee referred to it as “an economist’s version of a Taylor Swift concert.”

For you non-Swifties out there, tickets to see Taylor sing, prance, and preen on stage for a couple of hours range from $49 to $499 plus fees. However, those lower priced tickets for The Eras Tour are routinely snatched up by online brokers, who resell them for between $500 and $7,000 a pop… and there is no shortage of prospective buyers. According to CNBC, the average cost to see Jason Kelce’s main squeeze is $1,088.

That’s roughly three times the cost of a Beyonce concert… or twice the cheapest room at the Jackson Lake Lodge, where overnight stays run from $545 to $1,654 plus taxes and tips, not to mention meals. Dinner at the Mural Room, which offers sweeping views of the Teton Range from every table, will set you back at least five Jacksons, two Grants, or one Franklin.

Of course, if you want to add a Roasted Bone Marrow appetizer and a Smoked Idaho Trout Caesar salad to go along with your Elk Bolognese or Black Angus Filet Mignon, be prepared to pay a little more.

And then there’s the bar tab…

That’s right, my friends. Each year, we – America’s taxpayers – indirectly pony up big bucks through bank fees to house and feed 120 economists from around the world so they can dictate monetary policy to us poor peons. For that privilege, those global elitists get to hear Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell wax eloquently for a whopping 14 minutes at the 2023 symposium and an even more staggering eight minutes in 2022.

Call me naïve, but couldn’t that supposedly “critical” business be handled with a simple Zoom call or two?

Somehow, we have gone from paying homage to King George and the British Parliament to kowtowing to a bunch of bespectacled eggheads who think they are smarter than the rest of us. And this “overdose of opulence” is just one example of the mindboggling waste that the federal government is responsible for year in and year out.

If it were up to me, Congress would go back to meeting on a part-time basis like the first Session (six months) in 1789; the second Session (eight months) in 1790; and the third Session (three months) in 1791. Shutter half the office buildings in Washington D.C., and furlough 2/3 of all nonmilitary federal employees. Adopt a national sales tax and eliminate the IRS.

And when government officials absolutely have to meet off-site, how about staying at a Holiday Inn like the rest of us?