Posted on 03/03/2009 9:52:34 AM PST by Ohioan
What stands out most clearly, amidst all the panic inducing talk and extravagant promises, lately spewing from the mouths of Federal office holders & Central Bankers, is of a desperate need to keep America dependent upon credit--easy credit;--that what is most feared, in the seats of economic power in contemporary America, is a period in which people restrain expenditures for new goods and services, pay down debt and actually try to provide for the cyclical, as well as disaster driven, downturns that have always been part of the economic history of human nations.
The boom can last only as long as the credit expansion progresses at an ever-accelerated pace. The boom comes to an end as soon as additional quantities of fiduciary media are no longer thrown upon the loan market. But it could not last forever even if inflation and credit expansion were to go on endlessly. It would then encounter the barriers which prevent the boundless expansion of circulation credit. It would lead to the crack-up boom and the breakdown of the whole monetary system.
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Thanks for a great post. It all boils down to common sense, but that seems to be in short supply nowadays. You simply cannot spend more than you make forever. Bills come due, sooner or later it has to be paid, either literally or in severe consequences.—JM
To the sound money Conservative, this brings to mind the sixty year warning from the great Austrian exponent of market economics, Ludwig von Mises, who in Human Action, addressed "Interest, Credit Expansion & The Trade Cycle:"
I would plead my aging vision, but we have too much excuse making in today's society. I should have been more careful!
Yes! Very, very "severe consequences."
They are, in effect, mortgaging the fruits of generations of American labor and ingenuity, to bail out some of the worst forms of human folly.
I agree. You and I see it, but we have the masses crying for their bread and circus. I am starting to understand what it must have felt like in the last days of Rome.
The American Left has succeeded, since the 1930s, in telescoping hundreds of years of Roman social history & decline into a little over two generations. Of course those crying for more dependence upon Government, today, are simply economically and historically illiterate. But in a period of social disintegration, the schools, media and politicians lead the parade down hill.
The remnant who are able to see the whole picture, need to step up now, as never before, or we will indeed, very soon go the way of Rome.
Bread and circuses were pretty much ongoing from the first days of Rome. Circus Maximus was rebuilt in 50 BC to hold a quarter million spectators, and free bread was given out from 58 BC on.
The wildest excesses, debauchery and corruption of Rome were under folks like Nero and Caligula, when the empire was still rising, not falling, and managed to survive for centuries after. So, cheer up!
While Rome was still ascendant in 58 BC, that was hardly the early days. I forget the year of the founding, but Rome was about 700 years old at the time to which you refer.
I think Mr. Madison's point, however, was that we were repeating Roman folly, and picked the bread and circuses as simply an example. One could list many others, including the increasing dependence on outsiders for things we used to do for ourselves, and a decreasing sense of our own unique identity. Rome died when the Romans--the original Romans--became almost an insignificant minority in their own land; at a time, moreover, when their sense of personal responsibility for its future had been in decline for a long time.
America is being destroyed by those who have promoted a loss of personal responsibility among our rooted population. All of our fundamental institutions were premised upon a population with a strong understanding and belief in their personal, individual, responsibilities for their own future, etc.. Most people at this venue understand the importace, but how many of their neighbors still do?
Peter Schiff!
Peter Schiff and every provident economic advisor since Joseph advised Pharaoh.
Now come on, Every voice we hear in the media and government (except Ron Paul) is that easy credit with little interest is the cure to ALL economic problems, until you reach zero I guess. The only complaints we normally hear about too high interest rates like that moron O’Reilly made about Greenspan back in 2003(hard to believe now.) You know what drives this? The endless human desire for an easy solution shortcut.
This is why Schiff is so popular now, because both parties see the bubble or inflation as being real economic growth and the bust as a finger pointing opportunity. Both parties are Keynesian
Anyway, "bread and circuses" are from the very beginning of the Roman Empire, not the end. So, as I say, cheer up! The situation is often disasterous, but not serious.
bttt
It was easy credit that led to the "sub-prime" mortgage bust; easy credit that led to 30 fold leveraging of bank assets, and the burst financial bubble.
I would, of course, never disparage the media or our political geniuses in Washington, but frankly, the truth will out. There has been a tremendous dumbing down of those in journalism and now broadcast media, as well as in politics and the verbal arts, generally, over the past century. Just look at the dumbing down of political campaigns from the inspiring rhetoric of 19th Century orators like Webster, Clay & Calhoun, to the moranic 30 Second Sound Bite.
You forgot dumbing down of public schools. Ask any kid if he learned about Po Pot and Khmer Rouge, Everytime I do asked young people the answer is no. Public school teachers are natural socialists.
Yes, many are--particularly those who spout the NEA line. More serious than ignorance of South East Asian Communist atrocities, of course, for American school kids, is the totally distorted version of 20th Century American history that they are being indoctrinated in. You can account for the Obama election from that one fact, alone.
With the explosion of job categories in the early 1900s, of new opportunities to advance family goals and interests, a significant segment of the intelligent family oriented youth in the rooted population were drawn away from the verbal arts into exploding new fields with better possibilities to improve family living standards. This impact, of course, by the very nature of the causation, fell most heavily on those most naturally Conservative, thus leaving the verbal arts to those, on average, less competitive, less intelligent, etc.. Thus we have poorer teachers, as you point out, as well as poorer writers, speakers, clerics, etc..
Of course, those in the dumbed down fields will tell you with a straight face that this is the most intelligent generation of Americans, ever. It isn't so, and is easily demonstrated to be not so, if one will simply compare work products.
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