Paul Craig Roberts is a sane voice crying in the wilderness. He was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during the early Reagan administration and one of the most important advocates for "supply side" economics, which was a correction of the tax system that was penalizing business and causing stagflation. He was right, and America put an end to stagflation for nearly 30 years until our glorious leader, George W. Bush, and his agents of evil in the Treasury and the Federal Reserve inadvertently revived stagflation by financing Bush's wicked wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and now Pakistan with unlimited borrowing and the printing of dollars. We are back to the dismal world of the 1970s, its rising inflation and falling employment and economic stagnation, without a clue how to escape.
Mr. Roberts was a darling of the conservative Republicans and was published in all the best journals--the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Baron's, etc. But when Bush started his crazy wars, Roberts objected clearly and strenuously. For doing so, he quickly became an unperson. Strangely now, he is welcome among left wingers and is regularly published in Counterpunch.
He has been warning us for years and years that the American economy is being hollowed out, that we are bleeding to death with a vast trade deficit, that reckless deficit spending for wars and the military/industrial complex is bankrupting the government, and that borrowing trillions from foreigners with no hope to repay them will destroy the dollar. The grim realities of today's headlines prove him right.
In this column, he warns America that the bailout billions flowing from Washington will result in a budget deficit this year alone of $2 trillion, all of which must either be borrowed from foreigners or printed up at the Federal Reserve. We can't finance such colossal debt, so resorting to the printing press will be the government's only option. Want a peek at America's future? Look at Zimbabwe today--inflation without limit. You say that it can't happen here? Yes, it can; and, yes, it will.
Read "The Crisis Has Hardly Begun"
No comments:
Post a Comment