|
|
Even if the U.S.
economy has hit bottom – a prospect that we view as extremely unlikely
-- there is almost no chance the recovery will restore the nation to economic
health. No one knows this better than the Baby Boomers, vast numbers of whom
have seen their retirement plans go up in smoke because of the
wealth-destroying effects of the Great Recession. Tens of millions of Baby
Boomers are parents as well, and they are just starting to come to grips with
the possibility that their children will experience a declining standard of
living in the decades ahead. As recently as three years ago, before the
banking system and housing market collapsed, few would have believed America
could fall so far, so fast. Now, with public, corporate and private debt
hanging over us that has grown far too large to redeem, only a fool in denial
could fail to see the dark shadow that has fallen over the economy.
Even so, the
illusion of prosperity seems likely to persist, especially with the stock
market’s relentless rally, now entering its 14th month, to
distract and disconnect us from the real economic world. A comment
posted in the Rick’s Picks forum yesterday by “EdwardO”
[click here to
visit his blog] trenchantly describes the folly of it all:
“The
cognitive dissonance about the land is now both pervasive and immense. The
number of unemployed, underemployed, and otherwise financially and
economically imperiled has ratcheted up over the last few years, and though
the economic deterioration that began in earnest in early 2008 seems to have,
at least by some modestly credible measures, abated somewhat in the last few
months, the new normal, such as it is, is distinctly less healthy, less
favorable to most, than it was.
“And yet,
despite the immutable facts of a reduction in the standard of living for so
many, we keep hearing talk of recovery -- which is, by definition, absurd,
since a recovery assumes the reclamation of a prior state. The only prior
state that has been recovered is the one that Wall Street was operating in
before the financial world, as we knew it, ended in a thunderous calamity. In
fact, even that picture isn’t entirely accurate since Wall Street has
now, de facto, if not de jure, captured at least two, if not
all three, branches comprising the Federal Government.
‘Nothing
Left to Lose…’
“And the
Federal Government, whose agenda is unmistakably crafted and shaped by
corporations, if we are operating euphemistically, and owned like a mindless
piece of chattel (by the remnants of the FIRE economy) if we are not, in
concert with the mainstream media, which is also the province, lock, stock,
and barrel of ‘bottom line’ concerns, are all in on maintaining
-- to the vast majority’s detriment -- the grand, if tenuous, illusion
of prosperity. That Matrix will continue to function as is until some
critical number of those trapped within it lose even more than they have lost
already. At that point, one imagines a genuine move towards revolution and
freedom- which, as Kris Kristofferson observed, is “just another word
for nothing left to lose” -- will emerge in a such a way as to make the
Tea Party movement look like the tepid, co-opted brew it is. Unfortunately,
by then, it may well be too late. Vamos a ver [We shall
see…].”
Rick
Ackerman
Subscribe to Rick’s Pick
Rick Ackerman is
the editor of Rick’s Picks, a daily trading newsletter and intraday
advisory packed with detailed strategies, fresh ideas and plain old horse
sense.
You can subscribe by clicking
here.
|
|
