the economics of mass destruction
TRANSCRIPT
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Jeffrey Harding, The Daily Capitalist
www.dailycapitalist.com
September 15, 2010
The Economics of Mass Destruction
The Power of Capital
The most valuable economic substance in the world is capital. It is not money if we
define money as pieces of green paper. Governments cannot create wealth by printing money.If they could we wouldnt have to work.
The formation of capital plus a culture of entrepreneurship is the only way to create
economic well being. When government policies destroy capital it diminishes everyones
economic well being.
Capital is saved wealth. If you produce goods and you make a profit and save the profit,
then you have created capital. Ditto with your labor. If you spend all of your wages, youve
saved none of the wealth created from the goods you made and you have no capital.
It takes societies a long time to create and amass capital. In the U.S. we have a dynamic
financial infrastructure to generate wealth/capital. It started with the rights guaranteed by theConstitution, but it took about a century to create our wealth-creating financial infrastructure.
While you can criticize it all you want, wealth is widely distributed in America when one
compares our standard of living to elsewhere.
This financial infrastructure is called capitalism.
Our current economic policies are destroying capital and our well being. These policies are
now globalized. They are the Economics of Mass Destruction.
International Coordination of Economic Policy
I have a folder entitled Supranational in which I keep research related to international
regulation of the worlds economy. As I anticipated, after the Crash nations joined together to
coordinate economic policies and the regulation of financial activities.
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Jeffrey Harding, The Daily Capitalist 2
www.dailycapitalist.com
September 15, 2010
The conformance of economic policies was rather automatic. Most of the worlds economic
ministers, especially those of the G-20 countries, have adopted familiar Neo-
Keynesian/Neoclassical policies of fiscal and monetary stimulus. In most countries the results of
these policies have been as disappointing as ours.
Monetary Stimulus
Look at monetary stimulus. It is no coincidence that central bank interest rates of advanced
economies are historically low; they all are trying to create massive monetary stimulus to revive
their economies. Higher interest rate countries such as the BRICs with less stable economies
either have more trouble selling sovereign bonds on the international markets or are
attempting to thwart rising prices.
Central Bank Interest Rates
Fiscal Stimulus
Almost all these countries engaged infiscal stimulus as well. The Bush Administration
committed about $700 billion to the various bailout schemes. Then the Obama Administration
came up with a massive Keynesian spending program (initially $787 billion). Other countries
followed:
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Jeffrey Harding, The Daily Capitalist 3
www.dailycapitalist.com
September 15, 2010
Type of Stimulus as a Percentage of GDP
Note this subsidies chart doesnt reflect the U.S. TARP and related bailouts. Source the OECD
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Jeffrey Harding, The Daily Capitalist 4
www.dailycapitalist.com
September 15, 2010
Financial Regulation
The last piece of the globalization of economic policy was to increase regulation over
financial activities. The post-Crash drive to coordinate financial regulation was unified by the
theory that the cause of the Crash was Wall Street: the investment banks, investment
companies, hedge funds, the big banksters, and insurance companies. Not to mention greed
and overpaid executives. If governments admit any fault it is that they failed to adequately
exercise their existing regulatory powers.
Which means that many of the laws passed here are or will be similar to those enacted in
other major countries. For example, the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul act contains many rules
that had been discussed with G-20 counterparts. Forum shopping or the you can run but you
cant hide policy, was a major factor. The new bank capitalization rules of Basel III are an
outcome of the Crash. No treaties are required to accomplish most of this legal conformation;
meetings between economics ministers and their regulatory staffs were all that was needed
and individual governments did the rest.
The Failure of RegulationUnfortunately our new laws (Dodd-Frank) fail to address the primary cause of the Crash:
the Federal Reserve itself. Its years of easy money policy kicked off the massive credit boom
that landed on the housing market because of U.S. government policies that encouraged capital
to flow into residential real estate. The boom ended when the Fed raised rates.
I dont mean to spare Wall Street in my criticism; they failed in many ways, primarily their
faulty risk models. But, while they pushed the scheme forward, they didnt cause the boom or
the bust. History shows us that cheap money from central banks, or from banks or sovereigns
pre-existing central banks, always have caused these boom-bust cycles. Just because the Fed
took over doesnt mean that bad banking theories changed.
The Globalization of Failed Economic Policies
The purpose of this article is not meant to be an expos of an international conspiracy or
secret cabal to control the world. These policies are the logical conclusion of theories of
economics and political organization that have been taught in our universities before our oldest
citizens were college freshmen. Some of these ideas even trace back to Ancient Rome. Sub sole
nihil novi est.* These ideas were developed in Europe, but took root and flowered in our best
universities. Because of the stature of Americas academic institutions, which stature is founded
on capitalisms prosperity, it is no surprise that these Neo-Keynesian ideas have spread
throughout the world.
*There is nothing new under the sun.
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Jeffrey Harding, The Daily Capitalist 5
www.dailycapitalist.com
September 15, 2010
You may believe this regulatory coordination and conformation is a good thing because it
gives enterprise a more stable regulatory foundation in which to operate. Or that it is necessary
to prevent another crash. Or that regulators have superior knowledge and can be trusted to
properly guide economies. But that is not the case.
The serious economic problems we have are the direct outcome of mainstream economic
thought and these ideas now operate worldwide. If one studies economics in London, or Paris,
or Rome, or Beijing, the lessons are very much the same. If one examines the policies of the EU
and its member states or China or Japan, they are remarkably similar.
Perhaps the term the Economics of Mass Destruction is a bit of hyperbole, but I am giving
fair warning that we Americans, the most dynamic capitalists and the primary drivers of the
world economy, are heading for long-term economic decline if we continue with the same
Keynesian doctrine that got us into the current historically big mess.
While it is nice to believe that emerging economies such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China
will take up the slack, I am not convinced they yet have in place the cultural and financial
resources that have made America the worlds leader.Because of the globalization of these ideas, it now appears that the whole world will rise or
fall on these policies.
The Fallout of Economic Conformity
The logical conclusion of these failed policies is economic stagnation. Here is what massive
government spending and taxation has done to our economy:
1. Total government (federal, state, and local) share of the economy has exceeded thetipping point, estimated to be between 15% and 20%, which is the point when it hinders
economic growth. Presently total government spending for 2010 is estimated to be
about 47% of the economy.
2. Taxation must rise substantially in order to pay for government debt, health and welfareentitlements, and other fixed government costs. The 2010 estimate of federal, state,
and local taxes amount to about 30.4% of GDP (about $4.480 trillion).
3. Our total government debt (federal, state, and local) is estimated to be $16.635 trillionfor 2010, approximately at 114% of our GDP (2010 E$14.623 trillion). Of total
government debt,federal debtis estimated to be $13.787 trillion in 2010.
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Jeffrey Harding, The Daily Capitalist 6
www.dailycapitalist.com
September 15, 2010
f=federal govt.; s=state govt.; l=local govt.
f=federal govt.; s=state govt.; l=local govt.
The larger the share of governments take of capital out the economy, the less money
there is available for businesses and consumers. The less capital available for the private
economy, the less it will expand, and the result will be a decline in GDP.
While progressive utopians believe that taxation of the rich is acceptable to fund socialbenefits, mathematics, demographics, and the laws of economics prove them wrong.
Progressives have yet to understand that government produces nothing.
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Jeffrey Harding, The Daily Capitalist 7
www.dailycapitalist.com
September 15, 2010
The table, below, shows tax rates of many major economies as a share of their GDP. The
welfare states have taxes approaching 50% of their economies, with the median in the high
30th percentile. The U.S.s tax burden on the economy of 30.4% is less than most of these
countries. While we ramp up our welfare state which assures higher taxes, Europes welfare
state services are crumbling and face drastic shortfalls as their GDP falls, as their populations
age, and as their companies find better conditions abroad.
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Jeffrey Harding, The Daily Capitalist 8
www.dailycapitalist.com
September 15, 2010
The Economics of Mass Destruction
The Organisation For Economic Co-Operation And Development (OECD) is an economic
think tank put together by 33 countriesof which the U.S. is a member (see above chart for
members). Most members are economic powers. China and India are not members. It
generates a lot of data, but very little useful research. It is located in Paris and has 2,500international staff members. They take a rather hard Keynesian line. One need only look at
their logo to see where they stand:
The OECD just came out with their Interim Economic Assessment, Recovery slowing amid
increased uncertainty said the headline. They, like the Obama Administration are realizing thattheir Keynesian policies are failing.
The world economic recovery may be slowing faster than previously
anticipated, according the OECDs latest Interim Economic
Assessment. Growth in the Group of Seven countries is expected to
be around 1 per cent on an annualized basis in the second half of
2010 compared with the previous estimate of around 2 per cent in
the OECDs May Economic Outlook.
The OECD says the loss of momentum in the recovery is temporary
although uncertainty has increased.
If the slowdown reflects longer-lasting forces bearing down on
activity, additional monetary stimulus might be warranted in the form
of quantitative easing and commitment to close-to-zero policy interest
rates for a long period," the OECD said. "Where public finances
permit, planned fiscal consolidation could be delayed. [my emphasis]
It is clear that the OECD does not understand what is happening. Otherwise they wouldnt
need to suggest more fiscal and monetary stimulus if they really believed the loss of
momentum in the recovery was only temporary.
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Jeffrey Harding, The Daily Capitalist 9
www.dailycapitalist.com
September 15, 2010
Its announcement sounds almost as if the Fed had written it. Heres what
Chairman Bernanke said on August 27, 2010:
Overall, the incoming data suggest that the recovery of output and
employment in the United States has slowed in recent months, to a
pace somewhat weaker than most FOMC participants projected
earlier this year.
We will continue to monitor economic developments closely and to
evaluate whether additional monetary easing would be beneficial. In
particular, the Committee is prepared to provide additional monetary
accommodation through unconventional measures if it proves
necessary, especially if the outlook were to deteriorate significantly.
The Obama Administration is proposing more government fiscal stimulus spending to boost
the economy.
The only thing these policies have achieved is the destruction of capital.
The Fed and other central banks have been printing money to pump liquidity into their
economies. These policies arent working. Credit is declining, money supply is declining, and the
creation of fiat money destroys capital by devaluing currencies.
Massive government spending on politically favored projects adds nothing to the economy
and destroys more capital. One need only look at U.S. stimulus spending at Recovery.gov to see
where the billions are going. If it worked the economy would be growing and unemployment
would be declining. The opposite is happening.
How does repairing a highway in Ohio lead to economic growth? The answer is that it
wont; once the money is spent, the repair jobs go away and the capital is gone.
Is it possible that the private economy would find better things to do with that capital? We
need to ask what the person whose capital was taxed away by the government was going to do
with it. I am sure that the answer would be that it would be preserved or used for new
economically viable businesses. Only savings, not spending, creates capital for renewed growth
by private enterprise.
Eventually governments run out of capital if they dominate their economies long enough.
High taxes and a welfare state lead to lower incentives to produce and lower incentives to save.
Most of these countries are still spending the capital earned in former, freer market economic
times. If they destroy enough capital they will go bankrupt and plunge their economies into
serious depressions.
The outcomes of policies that destroy capital will vary from country to country, but none of
them will be good. In the U.S. we can look forward to stagflation: years of high unemployment,
low productivity, and rising inflation. Japan will continue its 20-years of low productivity and
deflation. China will experience capital destructive boom-bust cycles. Germany may be the
sanest of all by ignoring the conventional Keynesian wisdom by cutting government spending.
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Jeffrey Harding, The Daily Capitalist 10
www.dailycapitalist.com
September 15, 2010
A sobering thought is that these capital destroying policies are being exported to
developing countries as well. As these economies emerge from controlled economies to freer
systems, they need time to amass capital to drive their growth. Most advanced economies
experienced a century or more of rather hands-off capitalism before they turned into welfare
states and regulated economies. China cannot morph into a dynamic capitalistic economy by
burning up capital of its entrepreneurs through graft, wasteful spending, and harsh regulations.
There is no refuge from the worlds plunge into massive capital destruction. At one time in
history you could flee to countries with freedom and free markets, such as America. With the
globalization of Neo-Keynesian economics, there is no refuge. Watch out for EMDs: the
economics of mass destruction is here.