Posted on 05/18/2016 6:58:34 AM PDT by Sean_Anthony
Politicians everywhere promised too much to naive, uninformed electorates and ultimately committed everyone to debtor's prison
There is an almost unanimous consensus among economists worldwide that the most worrisome disease infecting somewhat less than healthy and truly sick economies on almost all continents is low, non, or negative growth. How to correct that situation frustrates and consumes the thinking of political leaders and central bankers everywhere, regardless of which economic school provided the latters’ indoctrination. Pushing on strings has failed. Nothing seems to work. Securities markets are described as boring and directionless. It is like being in jail. You may be minimally fed, clothed, and housed . . . but you’re not going anywhere.
Massive government debt which has been funding massive government bureaucracies which enforce worthless red tape and provide social programs that contribute to large segments of the population being non-productive... can translate only into stagnant or negative economic growth. This cannot end well and will result in much unnecessary human suffering.
“Growth” and “productivity” are two words frequently bandied about in economics. But each has two different meanings.
Growth can mean expanded prosperity and profitability for all, with higher wages and lower prices. Or it could mean the equivalent of the growth of an economic cancerous tumor.
Productivity can mean workers doing what they do best, being more efficient at it, and being rewarded for this efficiency. It can also mean near sweatshop working conditions where profits are great and wages are small, with workers just being generic cogs in the machines of industry.
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