Our Recent Economy: Like An Athlete on Steroids

Paul Krugman of the NYT wrote yesterday, predictably, about the failure of the Obama Administration to push for a bigger stimulus for the economy.  He seems to think that that would have solved the economic problems we are facing.  I disagree.

A metaphor for our economic illness has been rattling around in my head for some time:  our economy for the last 30 years has increasingly been like an athlete on steroids.  Just like an athlete who artificially expands his muscles and strength through the use of illegal steroids, all of the debt that has been building up in the various strata of the economy has had the effect of 'juicing' our economy so as to make it appear that we were prosperous. 

But in both cases, if you remove the cause of the 'expansion'--steroids/irresponsible debt--the strength collapses.  Furthermore, both steroids and irresponsible debt are not only artificial, but are also very damaging long-term.  In other words, they are not a good idea, to put it mildly, and responsible people to not use them.

Now, for Krugman, it's like he doesn't recognize that we're at the end of the road with unlimited debt...it simply could not continue.  What he wanted to do in response to the crash was to inject even more government debt into the 'body economic' to 'stimulate' more growth...like a steroid debilitated athlete who just injects more steroids when he's starting to fail.  Duh!!...that's not going to solve the problem.

I don't even read Krugman much anymore, he's so predictable, simplistic, and hyper-Keynesian.  The only real solution to our economic problems is to get back to honest responsibility in our individual, financial, and governmental use of debt, more savings and investment, reform of entitlements, more regulation for the banks, a balanced national budget (perhaps along the lines of what the British are doing), etc.  And to realize that our national prosperity over the last several decades had become bloated and swollen all out of proportion to what is reasonable and responsible, and also that we're probably going to pay a serious price for our economic irresponsibility.  Actions have consequences, our mothers told us.

The Age of (Relative) Austerity in America has begun...which of course is still unimaginably wealthy to the billions of people in the Third World.