Sundown In America

I like hard facts and real numbers, the kind that usually don't come from government budget offices and economists. This report from David Stockman is full of both. Stockman was Budget Director under President Reagan and over the years has gained only more respect for his non-partisan and clear eyed view of the economy.

Perhaps the most salient quotes here are....

"Over the last 13 years, the stock market has twice crashed and touched off a recession: American households lost $5 trillion in the 2000 dot-com bust and more than $7 trillion in the 2007 housing crash. Sooner or later — within a few years, I predict — this latest Wall Street bubble, inflated by an egregious flood of phony money from the Federal Reserve rather than real economic gains, will explode, too."

And...

"When it bursts, there will be no new round of bailouts like the ones the banks got in 2008. Instead, America will descend into an era of zero-sum austerity and virulent political conflict, extinguishing even today’s feeble remnants of economic growth."

Although I do not agree with him 100% about the cause and the cure, his trenchant "pox on both your houses" analysis is well worth the read, especially if you want to live out the next few years comfortably.