Courting Convulsion, By James Howard Kunstler

on November 23, 2009 6:52 AM

How infantile is American society? Last night's CBS "Business Update" (in the midst of its "60 Minutes" program) featured three items: 1.) The New Moon teen vampire movie led the weekend box-office receipts; 2.) Cadbury shares hit an all-time high; 3.) Michael Jackson's rhinestone-studded white glove sold at auction for $350,000. Some in-house CBS-News producer is responsible for this fucking nonsense. How does he or she keep her job? Is there no adult supervision at the network?

Meanwhile, over at The New York Times this morning, Paul "Nobel Prize" Krugman writes:

"Most economists I talk to believe that the big risk to recovery comes from the inadequacy of government efforts; the stimulus was too small, and it will fade out next year, while high unemployment is undermining both consumer and business confidence."

Disclosure: I'm not one of the economists that Mr. Krugman talks to (nor am I an economist). But it's sure interesting to know that the ones palavering with Mr. Krugman imagine that that the US can possibly return to an economy based on the fraudulent securitization of reckless debt. Does Mr. Krugman think that the production housing industry can resume paving over the nether exurbs with half-million-dollar houses (to be bought with no money down loans by the sheet-rockers working inside them)? Does he think all those people receiving cancellation notices from their credit card issuers are in a position to flash their plastic at the Gallerias this Friday? Or ever will be again? Is he perhaps misusing the term "recovery?" After all, that is generally taken to mean resuming a prior state, which is, in turn, presumed to be a healthy prior state. Is that what the economy of the past decade was? And, incidentally, what exactly is a "consumer?" And why, at the highest levels of journalism in this land, do we refer to citizens that way? As if the American people have no other purpose except to buy things? Or is that the only way an "economist" can imagine them?

I'm sorry to burden the reader with so many questions, but the idiots running the mainstream news media in this land are not doing it and somebody has to.

http://kunstler.com/blog/2009/11/courting-convulsion.html#more

When 90 percent of what we buy is imported, the money you spend leaves the country. That is why the trade deficit is in the hundreds of billions of dollars each year, and we owe everyone else on the planet in the trillions.

Similarly, most of the stimulus money flies overseas as people buy more imported junk. The reason the New Deal "stimulus" money worked is because it went to pay Americnas wages to build infrastructure in the U.S., and when the CCC workers spent that "stimulus" money, it went to pay other Americans who manufactured the goods that were bought.

There is only one way to revive the U.S. economy. Stop the imports by getting rid of corporate cartel agreements such as NAFTA, and Most-Favored Nation trading status to low-wage countries such as China, so that American companies who want to manufacture goods in the U.S. with American labor can compete with the multinational corporations who build factories in China.

Untying health insurance from employment would also enable American businesses to compete with foreign countries.

The solutions to U.S. economic problems is straightforward. Whether the solutions will be implemented without a total collapse of the economy occurring first is another question.

Wall street is UP...they are down.

I can remember before the crash a blurb on the news as to how it was real wonderful that the Chinese poor were getting our jobs...PROPAGANDA.

Wall street is UP because they show good earnings by cost cutting...i.e. firing workers and moving jobs overseas.

Some on here say there can be no recovery until there are more jobs in the US...but multinationals don't care whether the "voters" have jobs...when they can utilize cheap labor in other countries...and sell their stuff to the increasing middle classes in those countries?

They just need a police state to keep the US voters in line.

So the dimshit voters will vote for more of the same for various halfwit reasons they don't even understand.....because wingnut radio and the MSM says so.

The greatest threat you face is the dumbass down the street?

is advocating that the US government jump start the housing industry.
The stimulus was too small. And TARP never should have happened. That money should instead have been used to jump start green technology, infrastructure jobs and jobs creating alternative energy sources so that the US could move away from it's dependence on foreign oil freeing us to abandoned our expensive and ill conceived oil wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That money could then be used to provide universal health care and used to rebuild our manufacturing base.
Instead we are squandering that opportunity by trying to prop up wall street and continuing to fund war while people lose their jobs, lose their health care and lose hope.

TARP or nationalization. They chose the former because they were GOP, although Wall Street Dems would have done nearly the same thing with a few more strings. The collapse of the banking industry is not a realistic option.

If they skate that close to the edge again, the clear choice has got to be nationalization with a top-down change in the culture that caused them to assume so much risk.

But yes, the country needs to do three things: reinstitute the progressive tax to scrape money off the top, cut the Pentagon budget 10% per year until it's more in line with other national defense budgets, forcing those old boys to make uncomfortable choices for the first time in their lives, and invest in infrastructure and seed money for industry.

We know from the experience of the last 30 years the wealthy won't risk their hoard on startup industry in the US when easier money is to be made through financial gamesmanship. They have to be forced, and taxation is the way to do that.

I don't have many heroes, but Kunstler ranks pretty damn high in MY book! Ms Bigmack

and he's a hero in my book too! :-)

When you post, it reminds me to read him. There are SO many things to read, a reminder is good.
:hi:

We do need a huge consciousness raising around that word.

although the parasites at the top are the major consumers, they aren't the ones referred to as "consumers." We are -- the ones suckered into slaving all day for worthless paper to trade for mountains of poisoned chinese crap.

Instead of recovery emphasis should be on establishing new foothold.

The old economy, and the current attempt to recovery of that economy really is like quicksand. We're thrashing around trying to find the bottom and claw our way to the top, but I agree with Kunstler, we need to abandon globalism and work locally.

Globalism was just taking a larger portion of available suckers to the cleaners on a given day.

The leaders of this mess aren't going to lead us anywhere but back into the same traps. We need to revitalize local economies ourselves. It's already happening on a small scale with local farmers markets, Craigslist selling etc. The more people can abandon credit card mentality and stop seeing themselves as consumers, the more hope there is to get to a better place.