Oh our leaders know how to produce. No one beats us in producing studies, reports, collations, reviews, codes, laws, forms, rules, regulations, suits, counter sets of suits, counter-counter suits, appeals, pleading, reforms, programs, plans ….We could do even more if the last few holdouts would put down their engineering degrees and the last few loyal manufacturers quits being the kulaks of the Information Age .... Leisler
Well said! We are turning out communications/business degreed graduates from our colleges in record numbers, and our mechanical/civil/electrical/nuclear engineering, science, and higher mathematics classrooms are slowly finding themselves overrun with cobwebs. We have become a nation of paper-pushers (and paper requirers). When it comes to designing/making useful, nuts-and-bolts necessities, we leave that to the less elite cultures. What our myopia has failed to realize is that, when push comes to shove (i.e., when a few more 9/11’s are under our belt), all the paper, and all the red tape, in the world isn’t going to be useful in heating our homes, and moving from place to place, and keeping our food fresh, and providing shelter …. And when we are at the rest of the world’s mercy for all of those things, God help us.
Re: this article ….
It hardly pays to save in this country anymore. What investment exists that retains its growth potential outside of the potential for government economic interference? If one spends a significant amount of his time researching investment options and then places his money in what he believes to be a strong, reliable, reasonable-yield, long-term investment, odds are that, somewhere along the way, government interference (be it in the form of punitive capital gains taxation, fed money policy, etc.) will declare such individual, personal research and decision-making pretty much irrelevant. It’s called artificial manipulation of a free economy. So investing has devolved from a science to a crap shoot.
In that most insidious way, the government has robbed its citizens of the ability to enjoy financial stability, and (even more abhorrent) the ability to function as an individual on a level financial playing field. Bottom line: we are at the mercy of Congress and the Fed -- one of which is a rogue branch of government, and the other a completely unconstitutional one. And their powers (economically-intrusive legislation, taxation and the implementation of ‘monetary policy’) are two of the most liberty-erosive domestic forces at work in our society.
Two fascinatingly idiotic excerpts from this eye-opening article:
Deflation is not necessarily a bad thing. The world economy has enjoyed booms while prices were falling, during the 1920’s for example .... thirteen Fed staff economists
Chickens always come home to roost. Have these ‘thirteen economists’ ever studied what occurred in this country in the 1930’s? (helpful hint: 30’s follow 20’s)
The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press .... that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost .... sufficient injections of money will always reverse deflation .... Fed Governor Bernanke
We should all sleep real well tonight knowing that among our fed governors are those who possess the same mindset as the proverbial ditzy woman who believes that, as long as she doesn’t run out of checks in her checkbook, she can still keep spending (Keynes would be proud).
Two of the most corrosive (individual/private, as opposed to government) economic traits which have emerged in American society over the past decade have been (1) the enormous increase in personal debt, and (2) the sad fact that the financial markets are now ruled by a ‘casino mindset’ as opposed to an ‘investment mindset.’ (Pseudo) government monetary policy and lawmaking has encouraged both sad (fatal?) characteristics.
On a national level, the best way to return to economic sanity: demand economic rationality and accountability from Congress, abolish the Fed, and return to the gold standard.
On a personal level, the best way to avoid being pushed around like cattle in a pen in such an economic climate: get out of debt, and invest in precious metals.