Next Stop: Recession!
Summary
We've enjoyed years of "recovery" since the Great Financial Crisis by literally papering over our problems with newly-printed money, instead of addressing their root causes.
Despite more than a decade of an "all-hands-on-deck" propping up of the financial markets, all the central bankers have to show for it is the widest wealth gap in history coupled with stagnant wages.We've enjoyed years of "recovery" since the Great Financial Crisis by literally papering over our problems with newly-printed money, instead of addressing their root causes.
B.S. From The BLSDepending on which OECD country you live in, you can take your 'official' inflation measure and multiply it by either 2x or 3x to get the true rate.
For example, in the US, we've been told that inflation is running at just under 2% for years. In reality, it's been trucking along at closer to 4% to 6% (for rural and urban dwellers, respectively).
To summarize the situation simply: the central banks have been printing up new money and then handing most of it to the wealthy (via QE, which boosts the prices of the assets the rich own).
The Unease Grows…
As increasing concern spreads across the social landscape, for reasons well beyond the financial fibs outlined above, it's becoming increasingly difficult to follow the competing narratives in play.
For example: the economy is either doing great, or it's busy imploding. For example: the economy is either doing great, or it's busy imploding. Technology promises an amazing future, or it's ruining our minds. The world is awash with cheap fossil fuels, or peak oil is in play and our standard of living is at risk. Either man-made global warming is an imminent existential threat, or there's nothing to worry about.Lurking beneath every one of these dueling plot lines is this nasty, inescapable realization: Our entire way of life is unsustainable.
It's simply not possible to extract exponentially more raw materials year over year, forever. We all know that. It's not a difficult concept to grasp.
But the entirety of our political system, the mainstream media, and our economy are all predicated on the opposite being true, that endless exponential growth lies ahead.
Like all delusions, this false belief will have a terminal encounter with the limits of reality at some point.
There will come a time when attempts at further growth are counterproductive and cause more harm than benefit. In fact, we've already entered that period.
We know that growth is killing the planet. Yet, each day we are bombarded with messages imploring us all to invest in and hope for more growth.
Those who have been paying attention know, quantitatively as well as morally, that more growth is not the answer. Yet, it's the only path forward offered by those in power.
We can all see and feel that the end of the growth narrative is near - yet not even the barest glimmer of that inevitability is debated in the news or in any halls of power.
As the social anxiety grows over facing a dimming future, our feckless Western press exploits that emotional tension to sell more consumer products and push political agendas, committing sins of commission and omission in the process. Outright lies are published.
Next Stop: Recession!Huge signals of collapse that everybody needs to know about are breaking out with greater frequency and ever-larger and more worrying amplitude. It's only a matter of time before something truly systemic snaps and we're all forced to contend with terrible ramifications, ones entirely of our own making.
Maybe it will be a nightmare collapse of key ecosystems within the planet's web of life. After all, we're carelessly and swiftly disrupting the interconnected relationships that species took hundreds of millions of years to develop.
Or maybe it will be a political flashpoint resulting in war. A conflict resulting in even a temporary blockade of the free flow of global trade so critical for keeping all of our just-in-time production and distribution systems running smoothly could cause store shelves to go empty in just a matter of days.
More likely in the near term, we'll see an economic/financial meltdown. The third credit bubble of the new century is breaking down just like its predecessors did. Except this one is the largest and most universal in history.
A recession lies dead ahead.
And this next recession promises to be a doozy.
The world is fraught with political and social tensions that were absent in 2008. And it's saddled with many trillions more debt than existed back then.
But worst of all? The public has lost faith in our institutions and political bodies after having been so obviously, comprehensively and repeatedly lied to over the years.https://seekingalpha.com/article/4239717-next-stop-recession?ifp=0==================================
Good Luck, WE are ALL going to NEED IT!