The devil is in the details, folks. I appreciate the nod (and from you, mushu) but the stone cold reality is that the U.S. economy has rarely been unhealthier, Smokey.
Look, all indicators are heading the wrong direction simultaneously. Credit writedowns are in the billions, the housing collapse (which is actually the credit collapse) is only about a third finished, securities are left on auction shelves at astounding rates, local municipalities are in bankruptcy, the money supply is going exponential, gold has tripled in half a decade, oil has as well, there’s been runs on UK banks, we’re widely talking bailouts as entire neighborhoods stand fallow and major banks reel.
We have a national debt of nine trillion dollars and since all money is debt, we’ll literally never pay it back, much less the interest.
Look, folks, this isn’t rocket science (Galbraith prefers the respectability of astrology over that of economics).
We’ve been printing cash on thin air. We’ve been living on the bubbles. We don’t produce. When we start flatlining, we print more. Today we’re at only 3% over zero interest and still the addiction burns.
Nobody knows where this ends although very important financial managers are scared witless, to be sure. By now more of us should know that cheering the largely naked economy emperor because, you know, Republicans are pro-free markets, is simply nuts.
We are junkies.
Fiscal responsibility, not exactly a contemporary “conservative” virtue, simply requires monetary responsibility, a decidedly conservative principle. So where’s ours?
