Posted on 12/31/2009 6:02:29 AM PST by rabscuttle385
In its recent look back on the first ten years of the century, Time Magazine proclaimed the period to be "the decade from hell." The editors made their case based on what they saw as the signature events of the last ten years, notably the ravages of terrorism, failed wars, and a global financial crisis. Taken together, these factors produced an era that Time is convinced will be remembered as one of the low points in our history.
As the media hates to dwell on the negative, the commentary was rife with notes of optimism about pending recovery. It could hardly be accidental that in the very next issue, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke was named "Man of the Year" for his supposedly Herculean efforts to keep the economy afloat as we departed the Naughty Aughties. Although Time takes pains that to point out that the "Person of the Year" honor reflects impact rather than adulation, its profile of the Chairman was triumphant.
Even if you believe the "survived the worst/turned the corner" narrative offered by Time, it still should strike anyone as ironic that Chairman Bernanke, a chief architect of the economic problems that surfaced in 2007, should be held in such high esteem.
Apart from its misplaced reverence for the Fed Chairman, I would take issue with Time's entire characterization of what has now become history.
Under no circumstances could the past ten years be described as "the decade from hell." In fact, in terms of economic good fortune, the period shares parallels with the Roaring Twenties. I would describe this as a decade of sin that paved the way to hell.
Yes, we had spectacular problems like September 11th and the invasion of Iraq -- which were horrific for those who were directly affected -- but for most Americans, it was a time of unexpected wealth and unearned prosperity. Up to the days of the stock market crash, the economics of the decade will be remembered for cash-out refinancing for millions of homeowners, no-doc liar loans, no-money-down car purchases, eight-figure Wall Street bonuses, cheap Chinese imports, and trample-to-death holiday sales. In other words, the decade now closing gave us the biggest and most irresponsible spending orgy in U.S. history. The past decade was the party; the one ahead will be the hangover.
The fact that Time completely ignored these issues shows how poorly the mainstream media understands the forces bearing down on our economy. Yes, they were able to identify some of the adverse consequences we experienced this decade. That's the easy part. But as far as seeing the causes behind the effects, they haven't a clue. As a result, Time has no ability to see the underlying pattern and will happily encourage our leaders to repeat the mistakes of the past on a grander scale.
For now, Congress and the President remain as clueless as Time. To show its resolve to 'get to the bottom of things,' the Obama Administration has impaneled a commission to investigate the causes of the financial crisis. Do not expect the proceedings, which are just getting underway, to come up with anything but the most politically useful explanations.
Blame will be laid at the feet of 'ineffective regulators' who failed to 'get tough' with industry, banks, and corporate leaders who held the 'public good' hostage to their 'personal greed.' There is no hope that anyone who actually saw the crisis coming will actually be asked to testify. If they called me, I would be happy to give them an earful. Unfortunately, the only way my views will ever be heard by the powers-that-be is if I am elected to the Senate -- which is exactly what I plan to do next fall in my home state of Connecticut.
My sincere hope for the coming decade is that I can help our leaders see what Time cannot: we need to stop committing the economic sins that are leading us to hell, so that our stay down there will be as brief as possible. We need everyone to stop spending more than they earn. That is true not just for individuals, but for our government as well. Just this week, the Treasury Department removed its internal caps on bailout funds to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Meanwhile, another bailout was proffered to ailing GMAC. If we continue the same bad behavior, it might not just be one decade from hell, but several.
However, if we can confess our sins, and vow to reform our ways, perhaps this will merely be a decade in purgatory. Perhaps we can turn it into the decade of hope, hard work, individual liberty, savings, production, investment, sound money, de-regulation, exports, budget surpluses, capitalism, limited government, and respect for the Constitution. These traits will harden us to withstand the fallout from our reckless past.
As of yet, our troubles continue to snowball -- and I don't like a snowball's chances if we have a real decade from hell.
Copyright © 2009 Euro Pacific Capital
fyi
BUT, I can't imagine the years 1940-1950 for my parents...where I was totally shielded (loved) from the bad things of the world.
Shield them but also teach them TRUTH when you see they're being told otherwise.
Funny...people always thought that the Millennium would bring the end of the world as if it would happen overnight...I always figured it would be a slow burn...maybe I was right?
Hate to say it but next decade will be rougher IMHO.
The decade for me was a very good decade, with exception of this past year. I believe the next decade will be the one from hell.
Slow down. 1 more year to go in this decade.
bump
I think the Time analysis has more to do with blaming Bush for everything bad and failing to recognize any good.
After all, the DUmmies won in 2006 by proclaiming that the Bush economy was the worst (Stocks were 13,000 plus)
The wars were lost bla bla blah.
Turns out the decade was pretty good for most of us who didn’t buy into the class warfare charges of Marxism, and the abstract of hope and change a Marxist promised.
The Marxist promise for the next decade, your hard work pays your neighbors way, or economic justice for all.
Interesting, it was probably my BEST decacde. I have seen others have it not so good, but for many of them it was there own bad choices. The younger generation that is now hurting have learned a valuable lesson in delayed gratification - save money to make purchases instead of over-using the credit cards.
You are correct of course, but it is like beating a dead horse trying to convice your average person of this fact.
Plenty of good stuff happened in the decade.
Reject the axiom of “two failed wars”. Iraq was, all told, a smashing success, with 29 million fairly civilized and educated people no longer living under a monstrous mass murderer-dictator, their society turned into a reasonable facsimile of a democracy. And it was done with a fraction of the, still tragic, casualties that such conflicts usually cost.
Credit to the US military, and kudos to the CIA, for once, and even the State Department and the civilian contractors who worked very hard to give the Iraqi people a future. And credit likewise to George W. Bush who oversaw it.
Special notice goes to Donald Rumsfeld, who not only oversaw much of the war and occupation, but also conducted a US military force modernization program that totally changed the character of our military, despite the obstinate objections and inertia of a large handful top generals and admirals.
George W. Bush’s real presidential errors were first, to try and restore much of the power of the US congress that had been gravitating to the president over many years. Unfortunately, the Republican congress proved itself a failure with self-discipline, and ruined the idea.
Second, he overused the unconstitutional presidential signing statements, which eventually will lead to a major showdown at the Supreme Court.
But all told, the decade was not too bad. New Orleans was punished for wasting decades and money they could have used to defend themselves. It was truly their own fault that Katrina flooded them, and they have likely not learned their lesson.
The stock market hasn’t yet had a catastrophic failure. That remains for likely next year.
Rabs posted this Schiff article and pinged me to it. Sadly the Republican party has their brand name on the decade, deserve it (all) or not.
'genetic homophobe' told me to tell you that Walter Williams is subbing for Rush today New Years Eve(he is on now) . We were listening to Walter Williams talk about free markets long before Peter Schiff was on TV.
Schiff Bump!
“The past decade was the party; the one ahead will be the hangover.”
For a lot of people, yes. For those of us that paid attention; not so much. ;)
...Agreed, one more year to go, but, it’s been a hell of a year, and turned out good for me, in many ways. I’ll be positive and optimistic tonight. Tomorrow will take care of itself. ‘Appy New Year to yer, et al...
WW was on yd as well. He had some good quotes from James Madison — the one we’ve heard many times about “I fail to find this authority to dole out money in the Constitution” (not exact), and, one that is very important for the current healthcare debate, where he explicitly protests that the “general welfare” phrase is NOT to be taken literally.
Eh, or computer engineers. They tend to start “counting” at zero.
I don't know whether this is quibbling or irony, because I cannot believe that Schiff's argument with Time is seriously intended.
For those of us who never believed that unexpected wealth and unearned prosperity are anything other than ephemeral steps on the path to hell, the decade has been hell. It has simply made no sense. The incompetence to think that it is ok to run the printing presses and hand out the moola and you won't have to pay for it was stunning. Well the incompetence of Bush and Greenspan and Lott gave us the greater incompetence of Obama and Bernanke and Frank and Dodd. But many did not understand the incompetence of the former, and that was hell. The incompetence of the latter is now self-evident.
For those who think that you earn your way to prosperity by competently providing goods and services that others are willing to pay for in free market transactions - where the other party has the power to withhold his participation or seek other sources of supply - the decade has been shear and utter hell indeed.
So like one of those Zen jokes about heaven and hell, understanding that the world made no sense and had departed any sustainable course was hell. That it has crashed and gone the way of all false economies, is, if not heaven, at least some gratification that the universe makes some sense and the copybook in heaven is ultimately brought into balance. That Obama is failing is not hell. We comprehend why he is failing. If he were succeeding while doing all the wrong things, that would be hell.
You will fail the pattern recognition part of any IQ test. Which is the odd one out:
01, 02,03,04,05,06,07,08,09,10.
We say ought-one, or ought-nine, but not ought ten.
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