As I started home from work my radio had some gent blathering about the government spending our way out of this economic downturn. I turned it off, then back on to hear just how widely the misinformation is being broadcast and how much credibility it is being granted. Sadly, their featured star spent my entire drive home guaranteeing a total collapse of the USA and world economy.
The speaker was Robert Reich, Former U.S. Secretary of Labor; Author, The Work of Nations and Supercapitalism; Economic Advisor to President Barack Obama; Professor, Goldman School of Public Policy, U.C. Berkeley. His ignorance of economics and human nature is so vast that he needs to start over in kindergarten. Yet the words out of his mouth are those that will define the path our federal government will take as they steer this ship of state off the edge of the earth.
His audience was The Commonwealth Club of California. They seemed to appreciate his support of the Keynesian mythology that government spending will solve all economic ills. He will be advising Obama to spend on extended unemployment benefits, give money to bankers, finance homes out of foreclosure, give money to manufacturers, finance good energy, give lots of it to states, counties and cities. He seemed to find few places where a good dose of money wouldn’t fix everything. He has apparently never heard of prioritization.
A few times the question of where the money was to come from came up. Mostly he repeated the question then went on to answer another about how much good it would do. He did mention that “everybody loves Treasury Bills” because there are so few places where money is secure any more. I guess they forgot to tell him about commodities, precious metals and energy producers when he was in school.
So we are doomed. Those in power who know what is going on are enjoying their increase in power. Those in academia who have the fawning audiences in front of their TVs and radios understand only the mythology that got us to the brink of disaster. The lessons of The Great Depression weren’t learned by mainstream academics. Thus the rest of us get to experience it for ourselves. I should say, “All of us get to experience it for ourselves”, but I know there are those at the core of this disaster who plan to benefit and they will keep the academics funded so the smokescreen doesn’t dissipate.