Well stated gruff and you are right again. It's the boom and bust cycle. However, we are limiting our ability to return to the glory days by enormous wasteful spending and wrong-headed economic policy. India and probably China as well are more likely to be the main drivers of the emerging world economy then we are. Their leaders seem to have a solid understanding of basic macro-economics our leaders don't. A slow but steady transfer of the commanding heights of industry to the State's control is stifling capitalism. Legal capitalism that is. The black market insures capitalism will survive no matter what the rules say.
As you say, this will turn around eventually much as it has in Russia and I suspect when we do it it will be more orderly and less controlled by criminal elements. Unfortunately I don't see this happening within the next eight years. I predict various older(75+) famous people will get sick and/or die in the near future. I predict the witch hunt against former heads of state will peter out and Pelosi and others will finally shut up about the past and politics as normal will continue without prosecution of anyone. I predict Gitmo will continue to be used to house dangerous terrorists. I predict a gradual but steady move away from chicken little global warming related disaster fear mongering to a more realistic, science based approach of using the resources we have available(such as coal) in as clean a fashion as we can. The cap and trade fiasco will be proven as such swiftly and we will abandon this stupidity. I'm all for nukes as well but we should have started building them 30 years ago. The formation of OPEC should have sealed the deal. Ridiculous government restrictions prevented this from happening. It's one of congresses biggest failures in my opinion. dj On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 11:37 AM, gruff <[email protected]> wrote: > > Ahh, rigsy my dear. Allow me to brighten your perspective a bit with > some recent history. > > Notwithstanding that at the end of WWII, a global economy was in the > making as trade was established around the world, in 1971 Nixon took > the U.S. (and there rest of the world by default) off the gold > standard and let the currency we use base it's value on the > productivity of the nation rather than on the hard and stagnating > standard of the value of an ounce of gold. Yes, it's true. Gold > limits a nation's ability to grow wealth. > > So once we cut loose from the gold standard, other nations quickly > followed suit and pretty soon the whole developed and industrialized > world was engaged in production of wealth. We -- the U.S. -- led the > parade. It's one of the things we are really great at -- creating > wealth. In 38 years we took a simple raw economic wilderness and > turned it into the wealthiest and most powerful country on earth. > > Unfortunately we were not morally and ethically ready for such a vast > amount of financial freedom and we ran amok. As Adam Smith, the man > who first defined the capitalist economic system -- ironically in the > same year that we established our nation -- 1776 -- pointed out, a > free market system has an invisible hand which will eventually bring > aspects that have gotten out of control back to their proper balance > and state of being. > > There have been a few bubbles and crashes since then but this current > one, mainly due to no longer being tethered to gold, is the biggest > yet. And as always, the bubbles seem to arise first in the real > estate market. And as Smith's invisible hand dictates, it eventually > bursts. We are now in that process of bringing our economy back into > proper balance, but in the meantime, compared to any previous time in > history, we are still wealthier than we have ever been. In the past > few decades the wealth we have created has raised virtually everyone's > boat. (Not all but most boats.) > > And in the process we have learned a valuable lesson about ourselves > -- there need be controls and regulation to prevent these bubbles from > getting this far out of hand, to put a governor on the greed that ran > rampant for the last couple of decades. It's fine to seek a profit > but the hardened sharp-edged profit gouging that has taken place in > recent years was a bit beyond the pale. > > So in essence we are just going through an adjustment to bring the > free-market back into proper balance. This is not to say some won't > be hurt ... there are a lot of people who are being hurt undeservedly > but unfortunately at this point that seems unavoidable. As a society > we have not yet reached the point of moral and ethical maturity that > those who took more than a fair piece of the pie can stand up, account > for themselves and return some of their over-reaching gains. > > But you have not seen the end of capitalism. Marx may have been right > that it is a system that cannot sustain itself in the long run, but > we're still a long far way from that point. So take heart, our > adorable free-market system is alive and healing fairly rapidly. > There will be a few small estate sales at all levels, and some will > take the advantage to pick up some bargains, but on the whole, free- > market capitalism is alive and getting better. Long live profits. > > On May 19, 12:10 pm, rigsy03 <[email protected]> wrote: >> The economy will take years to recover and the capitalism of our >> parents is being destroyed. I hope I am dead before the estate sale- >> it would break my heart. > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. 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