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The ending in the U.S. will be similar to that in Greece [and France]. It is
assured for the same reasons. The Democrats will lose the 2012 election…and the Republicans will control government for the next two years. Whatever enthusiasm initially exists, however, will dissipate as soon as the polls show how unpopular austerity is. If they try to cut spending, they will suffer the same fate as the European Austerians. [Let me explain.] Words: 1116
So says ”Monty Pelerin” (a pseudonym derived from The Monty Pelerin Society) in edited excerpts from his original article* as posted at www.economicnoise.com .
Lorimer Wilson, editor of www.munKNEE.com (Your Key to Making Money!), has edited the article below for length and clarity – see Editor’s Note at the bottom of the page. This paragraph must be included in any article re-posting to avoid copyright infringement.
Pelerin goes on to say, in part:
After seventy years of increasing Keynesian economic witchcraft, the world is cracking. Politicians have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They have gained control (and ownership) of the economy and created great personal wealth for themselves in the process but all of this is coming to an end. Tyler Durden explains:
The standard Keynesian narrative that “Households and countries are not spending because they can’t borrow the funds to do so, and the best way to revive growth, the argument goes, is to find ways to get the money flowing again.” is not working.
In fact, former IMF Director Raghuram Rajan points out that today’s economic troubles are not simply the result of inadequate demand but the result, equally, of a distorted supply side…
Detailing his view of the mistakes of the Keynesian dream, Rajan notes “The growth that these countries engineered, with its dependence on borrowing, proved unsustainable.”
Politicians Have Papered Over Each Downturn With Disasterous Results
It is the distortions on the supply side that have created the current problem. For at least fifty years politicians have papered over each downturn. The result has been to mitigate the severity of each slump, but doing so by propping up companies, prices and investments that should have adjusted. Instead, these distortions were enabled and continued in the system. After decades of such economic interventions, the misallocation of labor and capital has crippled the economy’s ability to function. Small costs avoided have built into a massive cost directly ahead. Durden summarizes the choice ahead:
The industrial countries have a choice:
- they can act as if all is well except that their consumers are in a funk and so what John Maynard Keynes called “animal spirits” must be revived through stimulus measures or
- they can treat the crisis as a wake-up call and move to fix all that has been papered over in the last few decades and thus put themselves in a better position to take advantage of coming opportunities.
For better or worse, the narrative that persuades these countries’ governments and publics will determine their futures — and that of the global economy.
Our Democratic Process is Not About to Change for the Better
The Politicians: Political greed is a given. There is no hope of changing that. The constitution held it in check for a while but when the Progressive Movement, aided by Keynesianism economics, finally weakened these constraints, politicians leapt at the opportunity to control the economy. This loosening of constitutional constraints turned our democratic process into a “spending as bribery for votes” contest. The country has gone so far down this road that the possibilities of politicians ever relinquishing this power is slim to none – especially because it would require them to admit that:
- government has been the root cause of economic problems and that
- government is too large and too interventionist and needs to be dramatically curtailed both in terms of power and spending.
Few who have held political office during the last fifty years accept either of the above points.
Current politicians and politician wannabes have been drawn to the profession (it used to be a public service; now it is a profession…) based on the belief that government should, and must, solve all problems, grow bigger while doing so, and make it possible for elected officials to become wealthy in the process. The mindset of these politicians cannot comprehend the above two conditions.
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The Voters: Sadly, voters are in a somewhat similar position. They have been conditioned to the myth that government creates wealth. The private sector is merely a necessary evil. Government must control this evil to protect the rest of us from their predatory exploitation.
This conditioning of the public was necessary in order to implement political plunder – and this plunder is used to enrich politicians directly and to bribe votes with the plunder.
The above rationale is never stated so bluntly. Rather it is justified in terms of making society “fair” and helping the poor.
Government officials believe that government is indispensable and needs to do more rather than less while a large proportion of the population, primarily the dependents and crony capitalists, have been convinced to believe the same. Under these conditions, it is impossible to enact a political solution to current problems.
- Neither side can compromise on spending cuts for any proposal ends up in perceived harm to one or the other.
- Furthermore, any politician who admits the truth about what has gone on and what needs to be done is committing political suicide. He is unilaterally disarming himself against his opponent and leaves himself open to charges of “meanness” and “unreasonableness” by an opponent who will run against him on the premise that things can continue as they were.
Recent elections in Europe demonstrated the above point. Those proposing austerity (the Austerians) lost big to those promising to continue or even increase spending….and their replacements will only accelerate the Greek-type tragedy that lies ahead for these countries.
What the Future Holds for the U.S. and Why
The Democrats will lose the 2012 election…and the Republicans will control government for the next two years. Whatever enthusiasm initially exists will dissipate as soon as the polls show how unpopular austerity is. If they try to cut spending, they will suffer the same fate as the European Austerians [did in Greece and France – resounding defeat!].
Conclusion
Voters given the choice between someone who promises to take their ice cream away and someone who promises to increase their ice cream will vote for the latter. That is what fifty years of conditioning has done. Eventually there will be no juice (taxes, borrowing or printing) left with which to produce and distribute the ice cream. Bond markets or hyperinflation will end what politicians refuse to do.
*http://www.economicnoise.com/2012/05/24/why-the-us-will-have-its-own-greek-tragedy/
Editor’s Note: The above article may have been edited ([ ]), abridged (…), and reformatted (including the title, some sub-titles and bold/italics emphases) for the sake of clarity and brevity to ensure a fast and easy read. The article’s views and conclusions are unaltered and no personal comments have been included to maintain the integrity of the original article.
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