All Together Now (NYT Friedman: World Economy)

HOLD onto your hats and your wallets. Since the end of the cold war, the global system has been held together to a large degree by four critical ruling bargains. Today all four are coming unstuck at once and will need to be rebuilt. Whether and how that rebuilding happens — beginning in the U.S. — will determine a lot about what’s in your wallet and whether your hat flies off.

Now let me say that in English: the European Union is cracking up. The Arab world is cracking up. China’s growth model is under pressure and America’s credit-driven capitalist model has suffered a warning heart attack and needs a total rethink. Recasting any one of these alone would be huge. Doing all four at once — when the world has never been more interconnected — is mind-boggling. We are again “present at the creation” — but of what?

When the world is experiencing so many wrenching changes at once — with already high unemployment and weak economies — the need for America, the most important pillar of all, to be rock solid is greater than ever. If we don’t get our act together — which will require collective action normally reserved for wartime — we are not going to just be prolonging an American crisis, but feeding a global one.

We are again “present at the creation” — but of what?

Once again, Friedman demonstrates the liberal desire to play God. And as to the answer to his question, the "what" will be another of their endless experiments at creating utopia, and thanks to his cherished "interconnectedness," even more likely to end in tyranny, bloodshed, and the death of millions.

Good luck with that, Tommy.

— which will require collective action normally reserved for wartime —

This is the mating call of all collectivists -- the socialists, the communists, the fascists.

They all say: "these are extradordinary times so you need to give us extraordinary power over you."

This is how they work. This is what everyone from top government to mainstream jounalists to lowley "community organizers" do.

I have never lived through a time of greater peril in our nation's history. Everything is at risk. Vote accordingly!

and the only way to dig out now is a new, hybrid politics that mixes spending cuts, tax increases, tax reform and investments in infrastructure, education, research and production. But that mix is not the agenda of either party. Either our two parties find a way to collaborate in the center around this new hybrid politics, or a third party is going to emerge — or we’re stuck and the pain will just get worse.

Like many liberals, Friedman does a decent job of identifying the problems, but when he tries to suggest solutions, especially for the US, he fails miserably.

The EU as presently constructed cannot be maintained, the status quo or tweaks cannot solve the problems. Deconstruction of the union in an orderly way is difficult if unlikely, if it comes apart in a catastrophic manner, then the entire world will suffer.

The Arab/Muslim desire for self-rule is a joke. Look at history when countries move from autocratic dictators to some form of self rule and you can see what is in store. Russia, Germany, and France suffered greatly during the fall of the Tsar, the Kaiser and the King. How exactly should we expect the Arabs/Muslims to do better?

China's mercantilism policies are great for a while, we get cheap stuff, they get to build a country. Unfortunately the credit card is maxed out, people have lost their jobs and businesses relocated to China. War is the normal result when the people get angry due to default and loss of livelihood.

America has the best chance of emerging without massive pain, but we are unwilling/unable to do what is necessary. We are hopelessly deadlocked and paralyzed by inaction. Our ability to rally will be based upon leaders and ideas that have little support from our major institutions, media, education, and government. Discrediting these institutions and their ideas is the first step, but requires them to recognize their failure and reduce their influence and power. Yea sure.

The future is not bright.

schu

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