Thursday, August 27, 2009

Bill Bonner on America, Empire, and the Economy

Long-time Daily Reckoning sufferers will recall why the nation chose George W. Bush to lead the country. Nature abhors a monopoly and detests a void. At the time, America had an almost complete monopoly on power. The Soviet Union had thrown in the towel. China had taken the capitalist road. The US empire had no rivals…and badly needed to be taken down a notch. But how? If a nation has no worthy competitors, how can it be beaten? The answer is obvious: it has to become it’s own worst enemy. George W. Bush was the man history needed…a man who would be putty in the hands of the neo-cons…a man who could be counted on to do the wrong thing…and put the nation on course for destruction.

Ossama bin Laden kindly sent a videotape explaining to him how to do it. The United States would have to spend its way to disaster, he said. The United States would have to undertake costly, futile wars…while actually expanding domestic spending too. GWB signed the single most expensive bill of all time – a health care measure – while simultaneously sinking the empire in its single most expensive war, one that would last longer and cost more than WWII.

But George W. Bush was just the beginning. Now, he’s back in Texas. And the empire is still in business. What can the Fates do to us now? Give us Obama and Bernanke! Obama continues the imperial wars. And, with Bernanke as his sidekick, the two of them now set out to destroy the empire’s finances. When they are finished, the dollar will no longer be the world’s reserve money. US Treasuries will no longer be the safest, surest credit in the world. And Americans will no longer be the planet’s richest people.

That is our prediction. Prove us wrong!...

In short, Ben Bernanke is no hero. And the economy is not recovering.

read the entire essay

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