The economic reality

Oh, those economists! They still can't understand why Americans aren't running out to the malls to buy more useless crap they can't afford. According to this article in the Washington Post, we're just a bunch of Chicken Littles afraid of nothing. There's plenty of money! Didn't you just get a big stimulus check? Oh wait, I had to use that to fill up my tank just to get to work this morning. Never mind...

As usual, you have to look outside the mainstream media to get a dose of reality. This essay explains why Americans don't have any more money to spend. Regardless of how the government spins it, your person in the street knows when they're tapped out. After years of running up the credit cards and refinancing the house, the average consumer has simply run out of money. The only way for them to get more would be to earn more, and that's not likely in the short term.

Some government efforts at economic propaganda are downright laughable. An inflation index that DOESN'T count food and energy, the two things EVERYBODY needs? You can always mend your own trousers or keep watching VHS tapes on the old black and white TV, but it's kind of hard to get by without eating. Earth to Washington: You're not fooling anyone. I know how much I spend every week on food and gas, and believe me, it's way more then I was spending a year ago. Just how stupid do you think I am?

All this talk of the "New Economy" aside, the keys to national financial and political stability are the same as they've always been: Wages that allow people to live beyond a mere subsistance level; consumers spending money wisely on products that last, and saving the rest; and the creation of government infrastructure - cheap education, affordable health care - that reinforces people's access to a "middle class" way of life. In the last 30 years, we've gone backward in all three of those categories, and no amount of economists' voodoo is going to put lipstick on that pig. It's going to be a long ride, folks. Hope you brought a book.