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At the same time, Washington and Wall Street's controlled Fed "ruled out permitting the banks to fail. That leaves inflation," high unemployment, and troubled times coming.
Expect it though guessing when's hard to know. However, reality eventually trumps hope based on false expectations. The "comfortable world" Americans once knew "is falling apart at the seams."
On January 10, Mark Weisbrot 's London Guardian article headlined, "The economic idiocy of economists," saying:
The American Economic Association's January meeting addressed many topics, including the "economics of regime change" and "political economy of the US debt and deficits."
UC Berkeley economist alan Auerbach "warned of dire consequences" if America doesn't address its "rising debt-to-GDP ratio." Former Fed vice-chairman Alan Blinder described discussions of national debt ranging from "ludicrous to horrific."
As long as debt issuance is bought or monetized, crisis short-term is avoided. Longer term's another matter, but consider Japan. With debt about 220% of GDP, it's nearly double America's size relative to its economy and nowhere near collapse.
At the same, America and Europe stress austerity when stimulus is badly needed for growth and job creation. However, US electoral politics excludes proposing it. As a result, "high unemployment and a lot of unnecessary misery in the world's richest country for the foreseeable future" is assured. So is America's "lost decade."
Expect Europe to fare no better. The continent's already in recession. October and November industrial production declined. Energy products distorted below the surface reality. For example, consumer goods plunged 0.8% in November.
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