It’s rather hard to be optimistic about the economy these days, since the common consensus around the world is that the best way to cure the economy is to drain it of blood until it has none left. Lots of people have been harping on this for years now, but it’s not getting better. In fact, it’s getting worse (whoever would have thought that selling off your country would destroy your economy and lead to extremist parties gaining power? Anybody?)
Really, the only question left is whether the Very Serious People in charge are too stupid to know what they are doing, or are fully aware of what they are doing and simply being evil. For example, if banks are in trouble because a lot of people can’t pay their mortgages, you can save the banks by giving people money to pay their mortgages, and therefore also keep them in their homes. Or you can just shower money on the banks and watch them foreclose on people. Which one is the preferred path? Well, the people who lost their jobs and can’t afford their homes need to be taught a lesson, we can’t just bail them out. We can bail out bank executives though. I guess they have no lessons to learn.
Or, to mention another very recent example: Honeywell’s CEO says that the U.S. debt is the problem holding back the economy. Honeywell has a lot of government contracts, and also takes advantage of tax loopholes to better their bottom line. If we improved the debt situation by cutting government spending and contracts for companies like Honeywell, and also closing the tax loopholes that Honeywell takes advantage of, I guess Honeywell wouldn’t lay off tons of people due to the loss of that business and increased taxes. No, they would be so “confident” in the debt situation that they would expand hiring! Hey, I’m glad that Honeywell is willing to do their part to fix the debt – That is what the CEO is saying, right? That Honeywell is willing to give up those contracts and tax benefits? – but it’s hard to see how Honeywell losing business is going to goose the larger economy. Also, why can’t we have a media that asks Mr. Cote how taking government contracts from Honeywell would improve his hiring? It’s not a tough question.
So the question remains: do these people not know what is ailing the economy and how to fix it? Or do they know, and are simply taking advantage of the crisis to achieve their own selfish policy goals? The more time that passes, the more it seems like the latter.