Repeal The Laws of Gravity

Politicians act as if they control everything. Some probably believe their own speeches. It is a wonder that there has not been a movement on their part to repeal the laws of gravity. After all, life would be so much easier if that were done or at least the pull of gravity lessened.

Political Wizardry

Few politicians are stupid enough to claim they can repeal the laws of gravity.  Many believe, or at least would like you to believe,  they are able to amend the laws of gravity. In this sense the political world is little different from the Wizard of Oz. A flimsy curtain hides the lies and claims of the charlatans who wish to play God. Their power  depends upon their being able to convince us that we would be worse off without their wisdom and laws.

A claim to be able to repeal the laws of gravity is too much of a boast even for these fake Gods. Evidence does not respect authority and fraud should have consequences.

Economic Recovery

Statistics can be manipulated but facts are stubborn things. For almost eight years we have been told that the economy is getting better. Most people have no way of judging the overall economy but do know whether their condition is improving or not. It is easy to assume when everything is claimed to be rosy that their own hard times are due to personal inadequacies. After all, if the economy is doing well and you are not then there must be something wrong with you.

Personal failure is hard enough to accept when you are at fault. But personal failure should not worry those who are keeping up with the rest of the herd. There is a difference between a person slowing down and the entire herd slowing down. Claiming that the herd is speeding up only creates doubts about personal adequacies if you are not speeding up.

Facts vs. Government Claims

Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse is a consistent thorn in the side for the official economic narrative. He has an inconvenient way of coming up with lists that contradict what the mainstream media and their benefactors, the Washington political class, want you to believe. His latest list follows. It is 19 items that are inconsistent with a healthy economy. Whatever personal inadequacies you have been suffering from in light of the economic claims from Washington should be substantially eased by this list. While it may not improve your financial or economic condition, it should provide evidence that the herd has not sped up. You are falling behind just as the majority of your peers are:

#1 The poorest 40 percent of all Americans now spend more than 50 percent of their incomes just on food and housing.

#2 For those Americans that don’t own a home, 50 percent of them spend more than a third of their incomes just on rent.

#3 The price of school lunches has risen to the 3 dollar mark at many public schools across the nation.

#4 McDonald’s “Dollar Menu & More” now includes items that cost as much as 5 dollars.

#5 The price of ground beef has doubled since 2009.

#6 In 1986, child care expenses for families with employed mothers used up 6.3 percent of all income.  Today, that figure is up to 7.2 percent.

#7 Incomes fell for the bottom 80 percent of all income earners in the United States during the 12 months leading up to June 2014.

#8 At this point, more than 50 percent of all American workers bring home less than $30,000 a year in wages.

#9 After adjusting for inflation, median household income has fallen by nearly $5,000 since 2007.

#10According to the New York Times, the “typical American household” is now worth 36 percent less than it was worth a decade ago.

#1147 percent of all Americans do not put a single penny out of their paychecks into savings.

#12 One survey found that 62 percent of all Americans are currently living paycheck to paycheck.

#13 According to the U.S. Department of Education, 33 percent of all Americans with student loans are currently behind on their student loan debt repayments.

#14 According to one recent report, 43 million Americans currently have unpaid medical debt on their credit reports.

#15 The rate of homeownership in the U.S. has been declining for seven years in a row, and it is now the lowest that it has been in 20 years.

#16 For each of the past six years, more businesses have closed in the United States than have opened.  Prior to 2008, this had never happened before in all of U.S. history.

#17 According to the Census Bureau, 65 percent of all children in the United States are living in a home that receives some form of aid from the federal government.

#18 If you have no debt at all, and you also have 10 dollars in your wallet, that you are wealthier than 25 percent of all Americans.

#19 On top of everything else, the average American must work from January 1st to April 24th just to pay all federal, state and local taxes.

It is fitting to present this list as we enter our eighth summer of “economic recovery.”

How This Ends

Readers of this blog know that there is no economic recovery. Nor can there be one without a massive collapse and a rebuilding from the smoldering ashes. The distortions in today’s economy arise from decades of mis-allocations of capital. This capital must be liquidated and re-deployed (to the extent it can) to productive uses. Until that happens (along with massive regulatory reform and a shrinkage of government), this economy will continue to under-perform. Incentives and disincentives are such that no recovery is possible.

Would it be possible to save this economy? A dictatorial turnaround expert might be able to do so, although things have probably progressed beyond the point where even that approach could be successful. (And no, Donald Trump could not do it.)

There is no way that this economy can be righted via the normal political process. No politician can afford sponsor the necessary changes. He/she would be destroyed by the political process. No politician is brave (or honest) when their livelihood demands duplicity. No one person or group of people want to be seen as ushering the US into another Depression.

There is no economic solution to our current problem because there is no political will to admit mistakes or to sacrifice one’s career to do what is right for the country. Instead, more band-aids will be applied and more poison will be administered in an effort to defer the inevitable. From a political viewpoint, that is optimum . From an economic standpoint, it makes no sense and only makes the Judgment Day more painful when it does arrive.

As a related aside, this email joke seems appropriate: