Anarchy needed?
 

Is the US a kleptocracy? A plutocracy?

Is there a Kant-form of anarchy needed (bloodless, specifically, law and freedom without violence) to restore the Lockean roots of our economic system?

Free market, Kant-form anarchy feels like it's needed and the Tea Party feels like it's struggling to be that force for change, but falls woefully short of the mark.

If the answers to the foregoing are affirmative, how does the US set itself aright?

Those are good thoughts. We need a cleansing form to restore some vitality but I don't see the leadership and energy needed. Has a Kant-form anarchy ever succeeded?

arguably the US form of constitutional republicanism easily allows for Kant anarchy every four years particularly when a massive change in two branches of gov can occur. In a way, Obama's election was anarchy...just in the wrong direction

Your word, cleansing, is the right word. I'm not sure how it can happen but we have a brain-dead populace that is getting exactly what it deserves.

I am mixing topics but I have held that the boomer generation is the worst in the last century. Our generation (I presume you're from the late sixties/early seventies as i am) pays the economic price. Our children pay the ultimate price (when was the last time a global coordinated economic depression resulted in anything but meaningful regional--if not global--conflict?). Our grandchildren reap the benefits.

Rinse, repeat.

I don't know how to cleanse. What we are witnessing in Europe is the utter failure of European-style socialism. I argued vehemently with a friend who worked for Paulson in EARLY 2008 (before Bear Stearns) that a disaster was coming and they needed to be ready. There was no preparation and instead, we got the worst allocation of capital in the history of mankind (gov bailouts, QE1, QE2). I would say that easily 30-40% of banks would have been bust if my plan was enacted but we would be already on our way to recover. Instead, we thought it somehow wise to resolve a debt crisis by issuing 3-4x the original problem in new debt.

As I sit in front of the Bloomberg getting ready for the week ahead, there's news breaking out of Europe that the IMF is going to throw $800bn at Italy in a short term facility. We (the US) are something like 40% of IMF funding. So we are now bailing out the largest scale failed socialist experiment from itself.

In the old days, when we were warriors, we let these countries fail and then "owned" them. My ancestors (we have over 1000 years of norwegian history) took no prisoners. There was a time--a long time--when most of Europe prayed the following:

"Pity [us] the highest favor by preserving and guarding our bodies, free us from the savage Norman tribe who devastates our realms.
They aged and young would have their throats slit, and maidens and lads too, and the multitudes also. Repel the evil from us, we altogether implore [thee]. Bring thee the ruling realm, we plead on our knees, to the king of glory, who pity us with true peace, soundness, hopes and strength. Give us peace and harmony. Bestow us unmitigated hope, genuine faith also; concede us continual charity and let completed be. Sanctify our prayers that we be availed in achieving this, that we be rejoiced in glorious measure. Praise be peace and glory, to the Trinity who [is] wholly most-magnificent for the people. Amen "

The US should own Europe out of this episode, but I fear we have forgotten the art of war, including economic war.

I agree that the bank bailout was a bad choice and we may fail financially as a result of this bad decision.

It just got worse.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-1...lar-swaps.html

Ron Paul's head just exploded.

Let me tell you how this will proceed, as you may have already surmised:

The only way out for Europe is a unified fiscal body. The Europeans can't pull this off politically at present, so they need a serious amount of brinksmanship.

Germany, knowing it has effected the greatest currency scam known to man, clearly knows it cannot see the eurozone disintegrate, hence it will, upon the arrival of said brinksmanship, sponsor a new, de facto fiscal parliament led by who but Germany and France. Italy, of course, will have a minor role.

Then, they will issue eurobonds to guarantee the assets of the periphery.

Meanwhile, markets will rally furiously, after having seen the near-abyss conditions of 2008.

Watch for it.

This is the thing that pisses me off. Germany has reaped the benefits of the low valued euro and yet is nowhere to be found in today's games. The EU governments overspend, Germany benefits from lower valued unified currency and further damages the weaker EU members in the process. The US picks up the tab with the credit card.

I had not thought of the "brinksmanship" angle in this for them. Germany will rule Europe without firing a gun.

The issue is the Fed. The Fed is owned, in effect, by the banking system. The NY Fed chief is appointed by bank heads.

If the US wants to solve its issues, the first place to start is with the bank lobby.