Yes, Dave, an over inflated sense of self-importance is very much part of the problem and they are going to have a hard time printing legitimacy and oil which will be needed to put things back to normal as they say they are trying to do. Resume “growth” hahahaha Really I can see it in 2010 and we can always change statistical methodology because that is just as good. Perception is reality, ya know?
It’s still not to late to repent and find your way out of the labyrinth, Dave. Go to the light… haha
I give Geithner till January. Krugman is triangulating as we speak. By that time the global dollar dump will be in swing and some big scapegoats will be needed. Obama will be forced to sacrifice Geithner to the peasantry outside the castle gates. Ya, think the IMF would lend us a helping hand?
The assumption by the G20 that money printed out of thin air is both necessary and sufficient to return us to a renewed path of global economic growth is deeply flawed. Trillions of dollars in new stimulus money will soon “find their mark” and stampede off looking for something to do. The energy to support all this money does not exist, at least if the independent efforts of three diverse institutions that have studied the data are to be trusted (and I do because their conclusions are so similar).
The combination of rapid declines in existing fields and a collapse in oil field investment means that it is extremely unlikely that we’ll have enough oil to return the globe to robust growth.
While it is possible that we’ll close some of the energy gap with efficiency measures, a decade or more of lead-time sits between the development of more efficient technologies and their full market penetration, which means that efficiency is unlikely to play anything other than a bit part in this developing drama.
Any plan to stimulate growth that does not take this energy reality into account is highly suspect and is probably flawed. Why this most obvious of all connections is not being openly discussed will be for future historians to dissect. For now, it is up to each of us to define for ourselves how much importance we place in this line of thinking.
