"Jerry Kraus" <jkraus_1999@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:820d8259-d6ed-44e2-9a79-068e54585b91@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> On Mar 21, 9:40 am, "fyfp...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
" <fyfp...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> On Mar 21, 10:22 pm, Jerry Kraus <jkraus_1...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> > It seems reasonably clear to virtually everyone now that, at the very
>> > best, the American economy has lapsed into a period of "Stagflation",
>> > minimal or negative growth combined with the constant threat of
>> > serious inflation. As in the 1970's, this has followed a period of
>> > growth during an extended and unsuccesful military conflict. While
>> > the government and the Fed are frantically patting themselves on the
>> > back for having "handled" the situation with a combination of cash
>> > bailouts, rebates and tax cuts, it seems reasonably clear that these
>> > represent only a drop in the bucket faced with the magnitude of the
>> > current economic problems: simlultaneously collapsing real estate,
>> > financial, service and manufacturing sectors, combined with an aging
>> > population and a deteriorating social infrastructure.
>>
>> > The government points to the recession of 1991-1993, saying that it
>> > "managed" it by cutting interest rates by 1% at once. In fact, the
>> > downturn lasted until 1993 or 1994, and really ended only with the
>> > coming of a fundamentally new technology: the Internet. Economists
>> > regularly exaggerate their understanding and control of the economy,
>> > arguing for inevitable business cycles as natural, physical laws of
>> > nature, when in fact they result from a conjunction of environmental
>> > and psychological factors: in particular, the existence of new
>> > technologies and markets, and the willingness of people to exploit
and
>> > develop them.
>>
>> > The two main problems we face currently in the United States are:
>>
>> > 1. An extreme disparity of wealth between the rich and the poor, the
>> > concentration of wealth in a small number of hands making training
and
>> > advancement difficult or impossible for the majority of the
>> > population, undermining both business and consumer activity.
>>
>> > 2. The lack of development of new technologies and markets due to the
>> > waste of resources on the failed Iraq War.
>>
>> > The government, bought and paid for by the wealthy in the American
>> > plutocratic system, does not wish to resolve the first problem. In
>> > all probablility, it does not know exactly how to resolve the problem
>> > of developing new technologies and markets. It remains to be seen,
>> > how the situation will resolve itself.
>>
>> What you have listed above is true of many other countries whose
>> economies are interrelated to the US? In some places in the world,
>> the prices of many food items have doubled in the past 6 months! Food
>> inflation has caused riot in some Latin countries, I was told.- Hide
>> quoted text -
>>
>> - Show quoted text -
>
> It's probably a worldwide phenomenon at this stage, but Americans,
> being a rather self-centered bunch, tend to only care about something
> if it affects them directly. Now, it's starting to affect them
> directly!
>
There's an old saying in economics,
If America catches cold the world gets pneumonia.
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