Here’s an OP-ED piece in the NYT. By Stephen D. King(not the author)
Chief economist for HSBC
I recently posted in another thread that economists are a dime a dozen and one can be found
to suit any ideological stripe.
This one suits my ideological stripe, or it suits my belief on what is happening to the US economy and the World economy as a whole.
Note especially his Reason #1.
I’ll add:
We began encountering the negative aspects of this in the early 1970s when World Oil became self-aware so to speak.
The 1980s saw the ever increasing decline of US manufacturing. A decrease that also steadily gained in intensity.
The 1990s saw the Western World in many cases trying to reinvent itself economically with information tech and more diverse and widespread
investment and banking. Increased foreign investments and new trade treaties. Complicated investment schemes based on imaginary wealth etc.
Artificially inflated markets.(housing ie)
Our GDP is stagnant. It isn’t any particular party’s fault or President’s fault.
The US has clung to a Post WWII mentality that has lingered far longer than it actually
had effect.
What we are seeing in Congress and politics in the US(and in Europe) is the frantic realization of this sea-change.
Everybody is pointing fingers and accusing the other of the problems. But everyone is still doing this in the mentality of the Post WWII mindset.
America’s Might, or Exceptionalism for example. Everyone is trying to figure out a way to bounce back to another time that doesn’t exist anymore.
I could go on. I’ll stop here. I’ve tried to convey these dynamics numerous other times.