So says Mike Whitney, a “well respected freelance writer living in Washington state, interested in politics and economics from a libertarian perspective.”
After discussing the housing bubble, capital consumption, and much else, Whitney concludes that prosperity will be restored only if we all start using things up: “America’s consumer culture is in full-retreat. The slowdown is here. It is now. We are likely to see the sharpest decline in consumer spending in US history. Bush’s $150 billion will be too little too late.”
More: “America’s place in the world has been guaranteed not by what it produces but by what it consumes. The American consumer has been the locomotive that drives the global economy. Now that engine has been derailed by the reckless monetary policies of the Fed and by shortsighted financial innovation. When equity bubbles collapse; everybody pays. Demand for goods and services diminishes, unemployment soars, banks fold, and the economy stalls. That’s when governments have to step in and provide programs and resources that keep people working and sustain business activity. Otherwise there will be anarchy. Middle class people are ill-suited for life under a freeway overpass. They need a helping hand from government. Big government. Good-bye, Reagan. Hello, F.D.R.”
“The Bush stimulus plan is a drop in the bucket. It’ll take much, much more. And, we’re not holding our breath for a New Deal from George Walker Bush.”
(Thanks to Floy Lilley.)
