Ace of Spades HQ

April 08, 2013

DOOM: It Only Stings For A Second
— Monty

I apologize for not bringing you your Monday DOOM last week, but it turns out that the Turkish authorities are rather less open-minded about certain...activities...than I had been led to believe.

I'm only going to link one story in today's DOOM, because it neatly encapsulates the same themes and issues I've been ranting about for so long.

"Sundown in America" is notable for two reasons. For one, it was not written by some fringe libertarian blogger but by Federal-budget insider David Stockman. For another, it appeared in the New York Times, which has heretofore gone to great lengths to hide the failures of His Imperial Majesty's eonomy from the serfs.

Stockman's main theme is that the economic slowdown is not just an American or even a Western phenomenon -- it's happening all across the developed world. The reasons for the slowdown are many and complex: demographics, institutionalized debt and chronic deficit spending by the governments of the world, weakness in the global banking systems (exacerbated by the basic problems with fiat currency), and the pressure of technology on the labor market.

Here's a sample:

The future is bleak. The greatest construction boom in recorded history Â— ChinaÂ’s money dump on infrastructure over the last 15 years Â— is slowing. Brazil, India, Russia, Turkey, South Africa and all the other growing middle-income nations cannot make up for the shortfall in demand. The American machinery of monetary and fiscal stimulus has reached its limits. Japan is sinking into old-age bankruptcy and Europe into welfare-state senescence. The new rulers enthroned in Beijing last year know that after two decades of wild lending, speculation and building, even they will face a day of reckoning, too.

It's easy to dismiss such sentiments as overly-pessimistic, or just sour grapes from opponents of His Majesty the King. Times are hard, but they've been harder. But Stockman and others are asking a frightening but very salient question: if we are wrong and times don't get better, how prepared are we -- government and citizens both -- to make the hard choices?

Posted by: Monty at 04:30 AM | Comments (43)
Post contains 357 words, total size 3 kb.

1 Good grief what a depressing day today is turning out to be.

Posted by: Samuel Adams at April 08, 2013 04:32 AM (ZOf1l)

Its OK kitty, we're all taking a bath on this.

/revisit the golden circle idea?

Posted by: Bigby's Hangnail at April 08, 2013 04:36 AM (3ZtZW)

3 Not normally one to complain, but I think Mrs. Thatcher deserved more then four minutes before getting replaced.

Posted by: Icedog at April 08, 2013 04:37 AM (9ScGj)

4 I posted on this yesterday. The liberal press has panned this book as it violates every one of their economic regimes, i.e. socialism is great.

Posted by: Vic at April 08, 2013 04:37 AM (53z96)

5 Poor kitteh

Posted by: Vic at April 08, 2013 04:38 AM (53z96)

Margret Thatcher is dead, died from a stroke.

Posted by: Gmac - Waiting for the revolution at April 08, 2013 04:39 AM (IanLz)

7 As noted in the previosly and now dead thread.

Posted by: Gmac - Waiting for the revolution at April 08, 2013 04:40 AM (IanLz)

8 I don't think that thread will die. The RIP threads usually stay on-topic and go long. The news thread however is now toast.

Posted by: Vic at April 08, 2013 04:41 AM (53z96)

9 Just give me a sec on the Thatcher post -- I'm going to bump it back to the top.

Posted by: Monty at April 08, 2013 04:42 AM (G8OwX)

10 Well then, this can be my birthday thread, because it is.

Posted by: Gmac - Waiting for the revolution at April 08, 2013 04:44 AM (IanLz)

11 On Margaret Thatcher : is the liberal collective celebrating her demise?

Posted by: katya the designated driver at April 08, 2013 04:45 AM (DoZD+)

12 Happy Birthday Gmac

Posted by: Truck Monkey at April 08, 2013 04:46 AM (jucos)

13 That poor kitteh. I love it.

Posted by: HeatherRadish™ eating cookies at April 08, 2013 04:47 AM (hO8IJ)

14 The politicians, of ANY party, will never, ever make the correct choices. The solutions to our problems are easy but they mean less power to the scum in D.C. so they will never be implemented. Besides, judging from the IQ of the current voting age population we're too friggin' stupid to save anyway.

Posted by: jj at April 08, 2013 04:47 AM (gWO5X)

15 Oh well, Happy Birthday, Gmac.

Posted by: katya the designated driver at April 08, 2013 04:48 AM (DoZD+)

The U.S. has the assets and the ability to declare legitimate a national reset (which would be, in effect, a global reset) of debt, which would trigger a new era of prosperity.

All it takes is the will to do it.

Posted by: jwest at April 08, 2013 04:49 AM (u2a4R)

17 Tell the "low-information" obomba voters that their lousy lot in life is obomba's fault!

Posted by: A.Men at April 08, 2013 04:49 AM (8oOiX)

18 Aaaa Doom it's what's for breakfast.

Posted by: Paladin at April 08, 2013 04:55 AM (DPvCq)

19 Governor Hickenlooper About To Give Secret Service Power To Arrest Colorado Sheriffs - for refusing to enforce gun laws.

Posted by: Whatev at April 08, 2013 04:57 AM (A7Wh1)

>>>Governor Hickenlooper About To Give Secret Service Power To Arrest Colorado Sheriffs - for refusing to enforce gun laws.

How does that work? Its State law, not Federal.

Posted by: Bigby's Hangnail at April 08, 2013 05:02 AM (3ZtZW)

21 In the middle of a Bible Study last night, I realized politicians are the new Pharisees.

Posted by: katya the designated driver at April 08, 2013 05:05 AM (DoZD+)

22 "but it turns out that the Turkish authorities are rather less open-minded about certain...activities...than I had been led to believe." Oh come on, you know they've always been soft on Buggery.

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 08, 2013 05:07 AM (hTDbY)

Tell the "low-information" obomba voters that their lousy lot in life is obomba's fault!

The MSM will blame Bush/Romney/The Republicans. And the LOV will believe it.

Posted by: katya the designated driver at April 08, 2013 05:08 AM (DoZD+)

24 The first mare I ever bred had her foal this morning, so there's that. It is beautiful here today.

Posted by: dr kill at April 08, 2013 05:10 AM (oUcLV)

25
How does that work? Its State law, not Federal.

Further, sheriffs are also elected officials, right? I wonder what the sheriff's constituent's will think of this.

Posted by: GMan at April 08, 2013 05:11 AM (sxq57)

26 Stockman is the sort of backstabbing weasel, that one feels is unworthy to be stepped on, he paints the problem as if it is inevitable, when in truth it's because of deliberate policies.

Posted by: luigi vercotti at April 08, 2013 05:12 AM (Jsiw/)

27 The MSM will blame Bush/Romney/The Republicans. And the LOV will believe it. Posted by: katya the designated driver at April 08, 2013 09:08 AM (DoZD+) The password is... 'Sequestration.'

Posted by: RWC at April 08, 2013 05:16 AM (fWAjv)

28 The unexpectedly large number of American workers who piled into the Social Security Administration's disability program during the recession and its aftermath threatens to cost the economy tens of billions a year in lost wages and diminished tax revenues.
Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist for J.P. Morgan, estimates that since the recession, the worker flight to the Social Security Disability Insurance program accounts for as much as a quarter of the puzzling drop in participation rates, a labor exodus with far-reaching economic consequences.

The unemployment rate in Friday's report fell to a four-year low of 7.6%, which most times signals job growth. This time it reflected workers leaving the workforce, a problem that could persist: Economists say relatively few people are likely to trade their disability checks for paychecks, in part because the program doesn't give much incentive to leave.

The economic golden age continues unabated

Posted by: TheQuietMan at April 08, 2013 05:26 AM (1Jaio)

29 The unexpectedly large number of American workers who piled into the Social Security Administration's disability program There's that word again.

Posted by: rickl at April 08, 2013 05:31 AM (zoehZ)

30 read the article , started reading the NYtimes commentors.

And many have said, ooh grim republican adviser=full of b.s.
some asked for Krugman's response!

grim, grim article, not that we hadn't known.

Posted by: willow at April 08, 2013 05:39 AM (nqBYe)

31 I have been ranting about SSDI being the real killer of SS for a long time. And now the fraud and abuse is readily apparent.

Posted by: Vic at April 08, 2013 05:40 AM (53z96)

32 I had not realized Bernanke entered the fed chair in 2006, I had always gotten a sense it was later as I had felt greenspan left him holding the bag.

Posted by: willow at April 08, 2013 05:42 AM (nqBYe)

33 Heh. Fucking with people on politico. Getting under the skin of two window lickers. I swear I post something and they both respond within 30 seconds. Happy Monday!

Posted by: RWC at April 08, 2013 05:43 AM (fWAjv)

34 rip Mrs. Thatcher.

Posted by: willow at April 08, 2013 05:43 AM (nqBYe)

35 Happy BDay Gmac. hope you day is filled with lovely food , great desserts and good friends.

Posted by: willow at April 08, 2013 05:49 AM (nqBYe)

36 I posted this on the Thatcher thread.....just when you think they can't get any dumber......

@donnabrazile Okay, what did the #ironlady do to advance Great
Britain and the world? Did she leave lasting footprints for women in politics? #justsayin

Posted by: Tami[/i] at April 08, 2013 06:04 AM (X6akg)

37 On the plus side, PM Thatcher, RIP, was so close to actually seeing all of these socialist states actually run out of money.

Posted by: Stateless_Infidel at April 08, 2013 07:45 AM (AC0lD)

38 The problem with trusting Stockman or anything he says is that he is still bitter towards Reagan for firing him and, especially, for the fact that supply-side economics turned out to rely less on voodoo than he thought. I can't do the tinyurl thing, but there was a post a couple of weeks ago at Zero Hedge that was essentially unreadable due to Stockman using the occasion to vent and spit poison on Reagan and his legacy. Personally I can't trust the guy.

Posted by: Ed Snyder at April 08, 2013 09:51 AM (wV/2Z)

39 All the technological advancements in the last 5 years - exemplified by Apple - are economic dead ends. If the I-Phone replaces cameras, music and video players, internet gateways and, oh yea, phones, exactly what economic path - innovation and such - are we on? I can sit in a box and all information flows to a 4" box in my hand....so what?

Posted by: Tracy Coyle at April 08, 2013 01:44 PM (QGJtz)

40 There is a YouTube video of Reason magazine interviewing David Stockman wheres Stockman says we should raise taxes enough so that we will be paying the full cost of the welfare state and not pass the cost down to our children. Matt Welch of Reason magazine asked him won't the government just create new programs to spend that money on and Stockman looked at him and said there was no impetus for government to use the money for anything else but deficit reduction. Idiot.

Posted by: waelse1 at April 08, 2013 02:26 PM (p9My7)

TY for the HBW's all, back home from work.

On to new threads, where I may even post a comment buried so deep that no one will ever see it, much like this thread.

BTW, grats Dr Kill on the foal!

Posted by: Gmac - Waiting for the revolution at April 08, 2013 03:37 PM (IanLz)

42 Monty, you might want to hop onto Forbes dotcom and find the editorial on Stockman. Interesting analysis of his claims and theories (supports some; refutes others: it's complicated).

Also interesting: CSPAN had Stockman and David Walker giving a speech to economy/money beat reporters, followed by a Lively Q&A, just a couple of days ago. Stockman is very passionate about his ideas, and Walker almost as much so. Both are ex-Republicans who seem to dislike the Elephants only somewhat less than they loathe the Jackasses.

Posted by: Beverly at April 08, 2013 10:02 PM (0RMUJ)

43 Oh, and the NY Slimes featured Stockman's ideas because they can be construed as The Failure of Capitalism and All That, don't you know. Which, in their little pea-brains, = Let's Have Socialism!

Posted by: Beverly at April 08, 2013 10:03 PM (0RMUJ)

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