Have you had enough yet? Everyday we wake up to a world which seems to be falling apart. A few days ago Calculated Risk posted Crisis Fatigue? Make A List. CR's list included—
- Risks from the earthquake in Japan
- Higher oil prices and a possible supply shock
- The U.S. Housing Crisis
- The European financial crisis
- State and local government cutbacks
- Possible Federal government cutbacks (even shutdown)
- Inflation (a two sided coin)
With the exception of the earthquake, each of these crises is either 1) a consequence of the Great Recession, the collapse of the Housing Bubble and the financial meltdown or 2) a consequence of the policies adapted by the Federal Reserve to counter those events or 3) a consequence of the failure of Federal policy to reform our society's rules and jump-start the economy.
For example, the soaring cost of food played a major role in instigating the revolt in Egypt, which itself spurred a bloodier uprising in Libya. Crop failures, which are bound to be more frequent as the Earth warms, did play a role in creating food shortages, but the Fed's accommodative loose money policy flooded overseas markets with dollars, which fueled speculation in commodities across the board.
Welcome to the post-meltdown world. The shit has hit the fan, and the world will never be the same ever again. Things may appear to settle down for a while, but here in the United States, we are closer to the end than to the beginning of a long decline which began in the early 1980s. Add this to CR's list—
- America's transformation into a Banana Republic accelerates
As above, this last item is a direct consequence of events that transpired during the Bubble Era (1995-2007), and the misguided or corrupt policy responses to those events.
If you've got crisis fatigue now, just wait—it gets better! In ten years, you will wish for the halcyon days of 2011. For example, the oil supply situation is about as good as it's ever going to be. The housing market will never be what it was in the years before the bubble. Government social programs which preserve the difference between being merely poor and being completely destitute are as generous as they are ever going to get. And so on.
This is why I have urged people to seek out other avenues, to seek out other modes of living. The Leave It To Beaver Dreamworld some still pay lip service to is as extinct as the dinosaurs. The American Dream has been a nightmare for most people for many years now. For these Americans, the economic opportunities that supported the Dreamworld aren't there, and they won't be coming back. You can't climb the ladder of conventional economic success because somebody stole the ladder. There will always be a lucky few, but you can't count on luck. You didn't ask to be born into this mess, but here you are.
I'm sorry to tell you this, but the world in 2011 is As Good As It Gets. Watch this film clip; maybe it will make you feel better. You have to make do with what there is, not with what you wish there were.
Thomas Kuhn observes that when scientific anomalies accumulate a paradigm goes into crisis because it can no longer deal with the problems it exists to address. Similarly, Joseph Taniter notes that society's exits to solve problems (it's always a case of whose problems are more important and how much others suffer to solve one class's problems). Our society is now in the crisis stage -it cannot solve the problems Dave points out here daily. Some are focused on what investments to hold -cash? gold?, etc- but this assumes the system holds and there will be folks willing to take money and gold for real goods. It's looking more and more like a rapid collapse could occur.
Posted by: Dan | 03/18/2011 at 12:36 PM