Posted on 02/08/2011 2:50:45 PM PST by RWB Patriot
In response to my ongoing discussion of a deflationary depression versus an inflationary depression, readers often ask me if a “soft landing” is possible. I guess the answer to that question depends on how you define soft landing.
If by soft landing, you mean we will somehow muddle through, things will calm down on their own, and we will not experience a great deal of pain, the answer is no. But if your definition of soft landing is an economy that declines slowly, without violent revolution, I would say such a scenario is possible.
There are a number of complex factors at play here, but let’s begin with the most obvious one: human nature. I believe it was Groucho Marx who told the joke about a man standing on a street corner, hitting himself over the head with a hammer. When asked why he would inflict such pain on himself, the guy answered, “Because it feels so good when I stop.”
Groucho’s joke reminds me of just how adaptable human beings are. After all, Americans have been hitting themselves over the head with a financial hammer for decades, but they’ve become so used to it that they are immune to the pain. Human beings seem to have an uncanny ability to adapt to discomfort.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.robertringer.com ...
“Human beings...”
Not sure if I buy it. I remember a bunch of neighbors who went through the Depression. Their stories of going without weren’t recalled fondly. It was sort of something they had to do but it certainly wasn’t something they got used to. How do you get use to going with holes in your shoes as kids or an aching hole in your tummy? One person I know remembers his parents surrendering their infant to an orphanage simply because they couldn’t afford another mouth to feed. No, going back to the stone age doesn’t appeal to me either. Just a thought.
Things are already getting painful for a lot of people, the ones who judge inflation differently than Washington does, and the train has gone off the cliff. I can’t imagine any happy endings to this insanity.
is that the guy who wrote “Winning Through Intimidation”?
Anyway, I bookmarked his site. His article before this one really nails why we are in the trouble we are in - and why it is pretty hopeless.
Click on “egypt is the wrong focus” above the article title at the site. That article hits more at the core than this one does, and agrees with where I think you are going with your comment.
Bear in mind that what made the Great Depression bad was the government’s attempts to “fight it”; the same thing is happening now.
As Robert Ringer points out on his blog, a depression/recession is when the economy cleanses itself, so the best thing (in the long-term) would be for that cleansing to happen as soon as possible.
“As Robert Ringer points out on his blog, a depression/recession is when the economy cleanses itself, so the best thing (in the long-term) would be for that cleansing to happen as soon as possible.”
That’s not going to happen. The government will continue to meddle, and that includes Republicans. I have prepared for a Japan-style lost decade-plus of grinding deflation in assets and inflation in some consumables, including energy. We are about 3 years into it now. It looks like we have about 9 years to go.
Fiat currency and the moneyed powers that have risen up around fiat currency. That is where I was going.
As Our pal Murphy of the laws of the same name once said, Once a system is AFU, any action you take will make it worse.
And in my life experiences, Oh, ‘tis true, ‘tis true.
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