Posted by This article on Newsweek is a must read. The article talks about something I have said dozens of times over the last few years: The World is no longer in a Cold War. During the Cold War the United States and the Soviet Union found it safer to engage one another indirectly through the use of pawns. They would create little monsters and have those monsters do battle with each other. This served to build the economy of the United States at a rapid case (Trickle Down Economics anyone?) by giving the USA Military Industrial Complex and excuse to spend crazy money on defense. With the fall of the USSR their monsters ran free and started thinking for themselves. Welcome to the modern world. What Now?
This leads us to why the USA has declared war on nebulous things since the fall of the USSR such as Drugs and Terror – things with no actual country of origin and thus endless spending opportunity. I could delve into the countless conspiracy theories existing today on the US government manufacturing threats etc, but that goes away from the point of this article. The Point here is that the world is not where the US left it during the Cold War. Threats don’t work any more. Sanctions are BS because nobody upholds them. Basically nobody gives two shits about what the Imperialist US Government really thinks any more – and for us, Americans, to think otherwise is totally blind folly on our part. There is no war, on terror or anything else. There is just people around the world that want America out of their business, and our government hanging on to policy they created to spend money on defense to prop up a failing economy.
We were on top of the world once and it wasn’t because our military – it was because of the melting pot we had combined with amazing resources, most of which we have squandered, and a will to produce lighter, faster and cheaper. Now we are just then world’s largest consumer market packed with the fattest culture on the planet, and some argue in history, and we are grasping at straws to keep it.
What a sad thing we have become.
Good post.
It is interesting to look at the changes that have taken place rather quietly since the wall came down in Berlin. One thing that might be worth some research is the economic sustainability of a service economy coupled with the required adjustment to an import-dependant consumerism. It seems troublesome to build the fundamentals of valuation based on a general ethereal basis of knowledge sans any concrete production.
I can’t help but think of the party-like chaos I was caught-up in during the heydays of the dotcom era as a primary example of how we are trending as it refers to macro-economics. Bush II attempted to keep the lights on with lowering hurdles to home ownership. The resulting sub-par exotics almost collapsed our banking system. Obama has nodded towards a “green economy” but hasn’t really outlined a solid plan.
Ultimately, we will all suffer a retrenching of our standard of living in this country. I fear this is going to be extremely painful in another decade or so unless innovation and entrepreneurialism in addition to research and development aren’t properly incentivised by our country. Unfortunately, we current value fast food and reality shows to what the American generation that allowed us to visit the moon used as a success model.
My grandfather said, not long before his death, “I can’t wait to get out of here. This is no longer the world my generation knew, fought for, and died for.” Amen.
We have yet to see the commercial real estate bubble collapse, hold on.
There is a lot of back and forth, and opinions as well as emotions run high on all sides – Repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act http://www.investopedia.com/articles/03/071603.asp. The toxic derivatives amount to trillions of dollars. Although its very nature seems to leave everyone guessing as to how much it really is – quadrillions has been tossed around world wide.
For me, I look to the words of the founding fathers and the danger of a private central bank issuing currency being more of a danger than a standing army.
There is quite a bit of chatter on the radio in California now about the commercial bubble busting. My father, who still lives in cali, said that it will make the residential bubble look like a walk in the financial park.
thraxxus… your grandfather was both brave and smart. i hope when i’m looking at the end, i can plainly state, “i’m ready to go… this party has gotten boring”. yes, amen to that.
I am not so sure about brave, but his generation sure was.
I used to think he was nuts, now I know he was what I see as “enlightened”.