Martin Wolf in the Financial Times:
Welcome to 2009. This is a year in which the fate of the world economy will be determined, maybe for generations. Some entertain hopes that we can restore the globally unbalanced economic growth of the middle years of this decade. They are wrong. Our choice is only over what will replace it. It is between a better balanced world economy and disintegration. That choice cannot be postponed. It must be made this year.We are in the grip of the most significant global financial crisis for seven decades. As a result, the world has run out of creditworthy, large-scale, willing private borrowers. The alternative of relying on vast US fiscal deficits and expansion of central bank credit is a temporary - albeit necessary - expedient. But it will not deliver a durable return to growth. Fundamental changes are needed.
More:
Now think what will happen if, after two or more years of monstrous fiscal deficits, the US is still mired in unemployment and slow growth. People will ask why the country is exporting so much of its demand to sustain jobs abroad. They will want their demand back. The last time this sort of thing happened - in the 1930s - the outcome was a devastating round of beggar-my-neighbour devaluations, plus protectionism. Can we be confident we can avoid such dangers? On the contrary, the danger is extreme. [Emphasis mine -- RD.] Once the integration of the world economy starts to reverse and unemployment soars, the demons of our past - above all, nationalism - will return. Achievements of decades may collapse almost overnight.
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Mr. Lahti, do you have a weblog? I need to bookmark it!
This is nonsense. The future is not "set" by past events, nor by present conditions. The future will be determined by future events, future decisions, future behavior.
This nation, and it's extraordinary people, can and will turn the world around... But ONLY if given back their economic, business, and personal sovreignity. If we unload the backs of the people who are drowning under the millstone of massive government and rules and mandates and malignant beaurocracies, we can and WILL restore and rebuild what needs to be done.
There is no challenge too great, no depth too low, no obstacles too high, for which the individuals, acting as individuals, but with common purpose of enlightened self interest, cannot overcome.
But, it depends upon completely stomping out the absurd BDS, and other nonsense that has infected even YOU, Rob. FREEDOM, and the defense of the individual, is the answer to every problem we have, Rob. Get on with it and start promoting it, instead of this namby pamby welfare-state nannyism like your anti-privatizing social security garbage.
It is time for bold and courageous people, not wimps with "baggage" controlling them with emotion. Grow a pair. Get a backbone. Stop being swayed by your "peer" writers who can't think their way out of a paper bag.
BDS, commonly known as Bush Derangement Sydrome, was coined by Charles Krauthammer in 2003. Cleverly, it attempted to use mental health wordage to discredit anyone who opposed the policies of the Bush Administration. Interesting footnote, the Bush appologists have went from "United We Stand" to defense of individual rights. Amazing what a failed Presidency and two heavy loss elections can do for you.
"But why would skeptics of unrestrained globalization view such a prospect as dangerous"?
I suspect Rod just saw the phrase "the danger is extreme" and was unable to contain his excitement long enough to check the context. In the list of Phrases Most Likely To Be Bolded By Rod, that one has to come at or near the top.
Thank you, Tony D., atop Mt. Baldy, above: it is an honor and a privilege - and for me as well. Si monumentum requiris, circumspice.
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