FOLLY
I’ve been spending some time in Florida and recently went to a seminar on the economy put on by some friends. The hall was packed with retirees. The speakers were enthusiastic about the economy and the stock market. After an hour and a half I was ready to tear out my hair. When they started a question and answer session, I slipped out the back. It amazes me how little concern most investors have about the future. Nobody seems to get it. They don’t want to hear that we are at great risk of an economic crisis.
None of the speakers mentioned a faltering China, the problems of European banks, war in the Mideast, a budding recession, the junk bond collapse, spreading oil bankruptcies, runaway government spending, the failure of Keynesianism in a sinking Japan, Federal Reserve money printing, runaway public and private debt, a socialistic U.S. government that misleads its citizenry, the crisis in emerging markets, negative interest rates, record levels of leverage and speculation and constant inflating. That’s a worrisome lineup, but Wall Street and Main Street take it lightly. They don’t seem to have a worry in the world. It’s always been that way on the eve of disaster. Most people don’t have a clue and they are totally unprotected.
How long can America violate every common sense law of economics before retribution strikes? Virtually every economist who ever lived up until John Maynard Keynes (including Marx) would warn us in the strongest terms that our economic and monetary policies now border on madness. The great classical economists would argue that we are in for the greatest financial crisis ever known because we have committed the greatest monetary sins ever known. Furthermore, every nation that has done what our government and our monetary authorities are doing has suffered immeasurably. Why should it be any different now?
