Henry Blodgett: Here's what's wrong with the economy... (And How To Fix It)

businessinsider.com ^ | 10-1-2011 | Henry Blodgett

[blam]

HERE'S WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE ECONOMY... (And How To Fix It)

Henry Blodget
Oct. 1, 2011, 11:14 AM

The United States is in a very tough spot, economically and politically.

The 25-year debt-fueled boom of 1982-2007 has ended, and it has left the country with a stagnant economy, massive debts, high unemployment, huge wealth inequality, an enormous budget deficit, and a sense of entitlement engendered by a half-century of prosperity.

After decades of instant gratification, Americans have also come to believe that all problems can be solved instantly, if only the right leaders are put in charge and the right decisions are made. And so our government has devolved into a permanent election campaign, in which incumbents blame each other for the current mess, and challengers promise change.

The trouble is that our current problems cannot be solved with a simple fix. They also cannot be solved quickly. It took 25 years for us to get to this point, and it will likely take us at least a decade or two to work our way out of it, even if we make the right decisions.

So it is time that we began to face reality.

THE PROBLEM: TOO MUCH DEBT

The biggest debt binge in US history, by a mile. Four years ago, when the debt-fueled boom ended and the economy plunged into recession, most economists and politicians misdiagnosed the problem.

They thought we were having just another post-War recession—a serious recession, yes, but a cyclical one, a recession that easy money, government stimulus, and a return of "confidence" could fix.

A handful of economists, meanwhile, argued that the recession was actually fundamentally different—a "balance sheet" recession resulting from a quarter-century-long debt-binge, one that would take a decade or more to fix.

(snip)

[familyop]

"7. Tighten up on legal immigration and make it skills and education based"

I disagree with that one, and here's why. A white, English-speaking, pro-American woman from South Africa and married to a US citizen tried to get her US citizenship for 10 years. That couple is understandably angry for life. There's no sense in even inhibiting such people of our culture from coming and staying in the USA or requiring large bribes in the form of fees from them. They're the American-culture wives, husbands and children of Americans, and they don't cost us what others do (e.g., one cost being the current decline of our nation).

An anti-American woman (loan officer) of equatorial culture, great "education" and "skills" bragged about getting permanent residence and becoming a citizen within a year, along with her whole highly skilled, foreign-language-speaking, extended family (all employed).

One was already very much American culture, and the other wasn't. We don't need tens of millions of non-assimilating people here for nothing more than money or some false concept of "class." That attitude is dragging our country down to immoral, third-world standards.

America was settled by northern European Protestants for a good reason, and their cause was the foundation for our particular Constitution. No other group at that time would have written or agreed upon such a Constitution, and we see many contemporary, public arguments in favor of violating it. Without the morality of our founding people,... Well, we see the results of that loss in process now, and we're throwing it away for the sake of material lusts.

Besides, our system of formal "education" is a major contributor to the collapse. So are the citizen-of-the-world, socialist employers, who now define skills--too many deleterious social skills. There are impoverished people putting their skills to work with what little they have. Most who are now highly paid and esteemed are devoid of useful skills (technical skills) and do little more than cause trouble to their neighbors (e.g., pensioned HOA/socialist shrews and their effeminate "partners").

But then in regards to decline, maybe we do need that, followed by better rebuilding. Maybe we should proceed with nonpolitical politics.

[familyop]

BTW, I do agree with everything else in your comment. Well said.

[Kellis91789]

Still can’t tell if you agree with the letter or not. You are sounding more and more like an idiot liberal troll, though.

[dennisw]

The easy remedy here is to return to European only immigration which was our policy prior to the 1965 Immigration Act. Many East Europeans of good character and good education would love to move here. So would British and others

If you include illegal immigration then immigration since 1965 has been 90% non-European. This makes 46 years for those policies so going European only immigration for a few decades is reasonable

[familyop]

Agreed on immigration. We can do well with immigrants who simply want to be here and share allegiance with us. Otherwise, there’s an obvious effort to gradually move all people into one world culture with all inventions and designs expected to come from that single culture. No future “diversity” in that plan for a world with obviously one government. It’s probably good that globalism is about to collapse.

A note on China’s “ghost cities” here. Did you know that at least many, if not all of the units for sale in those cities require a minimum of 50% down? The question, “What are they waiting for,” is possibly answered. They are the Han culture. They might plan to have an orderly “revolution,” maybe even with the next change of guard or the one after (depending on other world events).

[dennisw]

At 50% down no one can afford to move into the Chinese ghost cities. Chinese are superstitious so they probably think the ghost cities have bad ju-ju.

[familyop]

"At 50% down no one can afford to move into the Chinese ghost cities."

Agreed. China hasn't changed in every way over the hundreds of years. She'll move 'em in, when she is ready. And the nouveau riche might be SOL then, and if not compliant, enemies of the people.