The subject of “too big to fail” has been beat to death by the media. But as our economy continues to struggle to find some sense of balance, it is important to understand the root of our current malaise. Some decades back, the USA with the approval of American business decided that our country was not competitive in the world economy. Under the banner of “free trade”, the USA encouraged the export of jobs, factories and industries to foreign countries. The USA began the slow, destructive path from a producing nation to a consumption economy. We were forced to refocus our considerable resource to other alternatives where American ingenuity would again prevail.
Some may recall the promise of a new information economy where the USA would lead the world with an enhanced computer technology that would recast the way business is conducted. Sure enough, the technology did develop, but the USA cannot lay claim to being an insightful leader in this growing and innovative field. To the contrary, many American businesses had elected to export our knowledge base to foreign engineers, architects, accountants and other professionals whose cost effectiveness outweighed their American counterparts. Americans were left with immense computing power which is largely used to play a never ending array of complex games. We can readily socially connect with lost classmates and old friends, but we can’t find a living wage job that provides an outlet for our latent creativity. Once again, we were instructed not to worry as “free trade” and “market forces” would provide for our nation’s future.
And so the USA had arrived at its new position as a global leader which entailed continual consumption using a currency that was the envy of the world. For a while, everything seemed to work quite well. Americans went on a buying spree gobbling up inexpensive foreign products using dollars to pay for their endless appetite. Foreign countries gladly supplied the products in exchange for the coveted dollar. It appeared that American capitalism had developed a new paradigm as a super power.
American financiers became the new productive mode. They developed innovative and exotic monetary products which were used to drain the world of their excess dollars. Mortgages, credit cards, school loans, car loans and every other instrument of American debt were presented to the world for their consumption. The financial geniuses even provided guarantees of profitability in the form of insurance policies. And then the inevitable collapse came as the American consumer defaulted on their obligations. They simply did not make enough money to support their spendthrift habits. The disease spread to the banks infecting the American economy before contaminating the world.
The banks and their wealthy allies were “bailed out” by a taxpayer injection of trillions of dollars effectively aborting the concept of “free markets”. It appears a temporary reprieve as the economy totters for lack of direction. Mixed signals betray the confusion that prevails. Wall Street responds with optimistic growth while Main Street struggles to stay in their homes. The ill-conceived theory of consumption without production has been firmly crushed. There is no free ride- America must go back to work and begin producing for her own needs if we are to have a viable economy.