The U.S. Economy is Dead
Jeff Nielson for Sprott Money
ZeroHedge.com
02/20/2015
For the past quarter century; the most effective “stimulus” for the U.S. economy has been a fall in gasoline prices. This is no great surprise, given that the United States had been the most gas-guzzling nation on the planet – and by a wide margin. But times have changed!
After Barack Obama publicly admitted that the U.S. government had ruthlessly manipulated oil prices lower, as “part of its strategy” of economic terrorism against Russia; global oil prices have been cut in half. The only other time that oil prices have fallen so far or so fast in the last quarter century was the brief/temporary collapse in prices which accompanied the Crash of ’08.
Has this enormous economic stimulus kick-started the U.S.’s zombie economy? Not at all. Indeed, the collapse in the U.S. retail sector has accelerated throughout this plunge in oil/gasoline prices. This should not be possible. Economic stimulus from lower prices (in any sector) is supposed to be automatic.
What does it mean when an economy not only fails to respond to “automatic” stimulus, but continues to rapidly decompose? It means we are dealing with a deceased economy. This is a “surprise” to the irredeemable charlatans who have the audacity to call themselves economists, but it shouldn’t have been. Not if any of them were paying attention. Not if any of them lived in the real world.
Back in the real world; evidence of the U.S.’s zombie economy is both overwhelming and abundant. It begins with 0% interest rates. As has frequently been noted in the past; 0% interest rates are the economic equivalent of a defibrillator. As with a defibrillator; it is the most-extreme form of stimulus known to us. As with a defibrillator; it is a “therapy” option which is so radical/reckless that it is only ever intended to be used as a last resort, to resuscitate a patient on Death’s door.
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