7 Deadly Habits of A Highly Dysfunctional Economy

In a recent lecture at Columbia University, Investment U Chairman Mark Skousen succintly summarized the over 20 years of disastrous economic policies that today have Americans skating on "thin ice."

1. An overreacting Fed, switching from "easy money" to "tight money." The Fed has been a major source of instability in the financial system. For example, Greenspan was chairman for 19 years, and switched policies seven times! The Fed often overshot its target on both ends - raising interest rates too high in 1989, 1994, and now, and pushing them too low in 1992 and 2003.


2. Inflation and structural imbalances. The Fed's "easy money" policy caused in part the "irrational exuberance" of the tech stock market bubble in the late 1990s and the real estate bubble in this decade. When the bubble bursts, as it inevitably must, the effects aren't pretty.


3. Poor consumer/investor finances. Our government policies promote overspending and undersaving on a massive scale. The saving rate has turned negative, and household debt as a percentage of disposable income is at a dangerous level, exceeding 150%.
   


4. A vulnerable [read: corrupt] financial/banking system. We live in a global laissez-faire financial system that is highly leveraged with debt financing, derivatives and fractional reserve banking. Hedge funds are not really "hedged," but highly speculative, and another collapse along the lines of Long-Term Capital Management in 1997 could be disastrous.


5. Trade deficits and out-of-balance capital flows. The trade deficit is at record levels. To make up this imbalance, foreigners must invest $2 billion a day in the U.S.


6. Overburdened federal debt levels, unfunded liabilities and rising interest rates. The Senate just raised the national debt ceiling to $9 trillion, representing 70% of GDP. Interest expense is now the third-largest category of the federal budget, only exceeded by defense spending and domestic welfare expenditures. Imagine the impact as interest rates start climbing again.


7. The rising cost of war/natural disasters. Last year, we faced a large jump in the deficit as a result of the rising costs of the war in Iraq and the expenses related to the Gulf hurricanes.

They offer VERY powerful lessons for those who care to build a highly effective economy, the most important of which is number 6.

Collecting taxes to pay interest is the mother of all scams. You CANNOT collect money that you've never issued.

Thanks for the link, silverisgood.