Predicting Protracted Hard Times
Expect much tougher times ahead.
by Stephen Lendman
It works the same way every time. Bad policies assure bad results. Prioritizing short-term profits jeopardizes long-term gains.
Force-fed austerity when stimulus is needed is madness. So is harming economies, communities, and ordinary people to save banks.
Chickens eventually come home to roost. We'll know when they arrive. Perhaps it'll be sooner than imagined.
Money power in private hands assures it. The Fed and other major central banks bear full responsibility for monetary madness.
The late Bob Chapman warned about easy money, market manipulation, reckless speculation, counterproductive fixes, and unsustainable debt causing today's crisis.
He predicted an eventual house of cards collapse. Only its timing remained uncertain. He's not around to see what won't be pleasant when it arrives.
It's too early to know for sure, but monetizing debt/excess money printing may have hit a wall. One economist suggests Bernanke can't do much more in the mortgage market.
He's harming banks more now than helping them. Net interest margins "face the mother of all squeezes." The Fed's beginning to lose influence.
Production is down. Hiring plans are weakening. Layoff announcements suggest many more to come. Main Street America has been in Depression since 2008. Reality for most people is dire. Things aren't improving. They're worsening.
On October 17, economist Paul Craig Roberts headlined "America RIP: Death of the Middle Class, Offshoring of American Jobs," saying:
New millennium opportunity "disappeared. Middle class jobs are scarce. Indeed, jobs of any kind are" hard to get. Most are low wage, few or no benefit ones. Households need two or more to get by.
"The lack of jobs, especially high value-added, high productivity jobs, is the reason real median household income has declined and the distribution of income has worsened. Without rising real household income, there cannot be a consumer economy."
Roberts repeated his earlier prediction that America is being third-worldized. A decade ago he expected it in 20 years. It might arrive sooner than he thought.
