Made blind and stupid by a fundamentalist belief in the market
The situation remains – where realized – a taboo in the political discussion. Any such pessimism is considered dangerous as it will hamper a surge in consumer confidence needed to avoid recession from developing into a depression. Please ignore the Siberian blizzard and wet your trousers to keep warm!
Realising that something is wrong one side of the political spectrum try to energize the national economy by spending some money to keep more occupied until the end of the ‘recession‘. By so doing it worsens the situation in two ways. Firstly by ignoring that the free capital market has established an open and uncontrolled drain from the public budget deficit to international finance and secondly and directly because all extra economic activity means extra import. The other side of the spectrum realises the need for reduced public spending, but with the aim of increasing private consumption to minimize the effects of the ‘recession‘, the result will be the same, and its unlimited faith in the market makes it incapable of seing its destructive effects.
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