Of course you can’t trust economists on the question of where we are headed.
They have a dog in the fight–personal ambitions and biases color their analysis.
Peter Schiff is an economics analyst who has been concerned.
I am a dumb emergency physician, and I am concerned.
Debauching the currency and excessive borrowing are not the ways of prudent leaders and economists.
Here’s a frightening analysis that I consider worth reviewing by a non recognized economist, who just goes through the events that have been systematically ignored by the economists and the media.
http://www.teapartynation.com/profiles/blogs/economic-summary-january-25-2014
I have an intimate acquaintance who read it and said she heard much of this predicted over the past year, which makes me feel a little ignorant.
She particularly pointed out the predictions, a year ago about the Chinese Banking collapse.
Reminds me of the talk about how the Japanese would buy us out and own us–remember that when they bought up real estate in NYC in the 80s? But they had a collectivist economic strategy, didn’t they? Collectivism and central planning are doomed, according to my favorite Austrian economists von Mises and Hayek. But wadduino?
The keiretsu model was born from the pre-World War II zaibatsu. Shortly after Japan became an empire in 1868, family-owned companies began dominating large swaths of the Japanese economy. Mitsubishi, Yasuda, Sumimoto and Mitsui, the largest zaibatsu, gained much of their power early on by becoming the government’s tax collectors and arms makers. The American occupation found the zaibatsu responsible for influencing public policy toward the war. Though the occupation dissolved some smaller zaibatsu, the need to rebuild Japan’s economy during the Cold War allowed the big four zaibatsu to reorganize into modern keiretsu.
Dunn note: the zaibatsu have always in Japan had an intimate and cooperative working relationship with the government. MacArthur never destroyed that old traditional tribal/family/collective/clan approach to life and culture. Thank you
Kind of went south, didn’t it–and Japan has an economy that has no vigor and traditionalist Shinto/Buddhist mores are prone to collectivist cooperative “PROJECTS” or commitments if you will. Shinto/Buddhism is a merger religion in Japan and is the practice of more than 75 percent of the population. They are tolerant of other religions, that operate on the fringes.
In addition, the Japanese demographics are going the wrong way–and they are aging, due to what some reading this blog have pointed out–abortion and a decline in fertility.
Rather than sounding like that jackass Krugman, I point these things out and ask you, as citizens with a higher level of inquisitiveness on social/economics issues, to consider.
Wadduihavtoluz–I am old and am not working on a career. I am just mad that we have squandered the great American dream–on laziness and collectivism for the benefit of an arrogant ruling class elite who would turn this into a new version of a medieval manor–us regular peoples and the nobles. Thinkaboutit.
You decide what you want to consider momentous.
On the topic of impending disaster, my wife and I were recently discussing a growing sense of “something in the wind.” We recently purchased a book through kickstarter about edible wild plants and weeds. It got 4.6 times what they were asking for. Another great book, Clara’s Kitchen, began as a simple set of youtube videos of a woman in her 90’s talking about how her family got enough to eat during the depression. Her videos have received millions of views. Other topics blowing up on the web include gardening, canning, hunting, and curing. There’s nothing particularly new about interest in these topics, but what I find interesting is the undercurrent of survivalism. Gardening shows used to be about middle-class housewives growing as a hobby. Hunting and fishing shows focused on tips and tricks to improve the skills of people that had been hunting and fishing for years. What I see now is focused on educating absolute beginners and always has a tone that says “You’re going to need this soon.”
Even on broadcast TV I’ve seen a trend of survival based shows changing from adventure fantasy like the original survivor’s lost-on-a-deserted-island premise, to urban post-apocalyptic EOTW scenarios like The Colony. Reality shows have broadened from following brainless debutants to include gun manufacturers and even bunker manufacturers. Even zombie movies have changed from monsters attacking the modern world to the struggle to survive after societal collapse.
If you keep half an eye on the markets you’ve already noticed increased stockpiling in food, precious metals, and ammunition. The administration keeps spitting out massaged numbers to try and paint a rosy picture, but you can only keep people from noticing what they see with their own eyes for so long.