ATLANTA— Richard Posner, a respected economist, argues in a blog post this week that the United States may be heading into decline, much like the British Empire at the turn of the 20th Century. His description of the American situation is fairly bleak. Spiraling deficits coupled with an intractable political environment (wherein government can neither raise taxes nor reduce spending). Rapidly increasing borrowing over the upcoming years that will send government bond rates rates higher, stoke inflation and exacerbate economic misery. A government that promises too much, but lacks the political will to pay for it. (In fact, his description sounds a lot like the Carter Administration).
I found Mr. Posner’s post pretty poignant. I have grown up during a phase of immense economic strength for our country. I have read that our country grew more economically from the early 1980′s through the middle part of this decade than in any other comparable period in our past. That is pretty much the bulk of my life. I have never known a feeling of economic insufficiency. But those days may well be coming (and perhaps are already here).
It certainly does not help that at this precarious time in our history, we have our most profligate spender-in-chief ever in Barack Obama.
But despite the current negative headwinds, I’m long on America. I believe we are a great country with a strong tradition of rule of law and economic liberty. We are blessed with enormous natural resources and we are protected by two vast oceans. Our population is growing while other developed nations are stagnating. From my viewpoint, we are a power in recession, but not a power in decline.
The key to overcoming the current malaise is electing strong, fiscally disciplined political leadership. Leadership that believes in a strong dollar and free markets. Unfortunately, we did not do that in November 2008. In fact, we were not given the option.
My hope is that we can in 2012 and beyond…
TennesseePaul
Stephen VanNuys
Brooklyn Daniel
The Freedom Thinker
“The key to overcoming the current malaise is electing strong, fiscally disciplined political leadership. Leadership that believes in a strong dollar and free markets.”
Stephen, you are so correct when you maintain that we were not given that option last November. A dearth of leadership (and common sense, plus devotion to ethical and moral standards) characterizes so many of our politicians. We get what we elect and if they are a reflection of our national standards, then we are indeed on a downhill slope.
I don’t agree with some of what Ron Paul has to say, but he did energize his part of the voter base. Same with Mike Huckabee. Mitt Romney had a much, if not more in the way of executive experience and success than any of the other candidates.
For me, a candidate is much more attractive if he has firmly stated positions than if he is whoring for the approval of the general public by advancing a platform that deviates from his history. The current resident of the Oval Office is a perfect example.
Maine- definitely agree with you there. There was much more substance coming from some of the candidates that didn’t make it as far in the primaries then there was in the final candidates that were presented to us. Both were classic politicians who would sell short (or obscure) their guiding principles for a vote.
I fixed the link to the Posner post, btw. If you had tried to click previously, it should work now.
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