As we earlier pointed in The Lost Decade: US Edition, stock market returns had been dismal, a decade since the new millennium.
Well, America's blemished decade hasn't just been confined to the performance of its stock markets, but likewise reflected on major economic indicators as magnificently shown in the chart below from the Washington Post.
According to the Washington Post, (bold emphasis mine)
``The U.S. economy has expanded at a healthy clip for most of the last 70 years, but by a wide range of measures, it stagnated in the first decade of the new millennium. Job growth was essentially zero, as modest job creation from 2003 to 2007 wasn't enough to make up for two recessions in the decade. Rises in the nation's economic output, as measured by gross domestic product, was weak. And household net worth, when adjusted for inflation, fell as stock prices stagnated, home prices declined in the second half of the decade and consumer debt skyrocketed."
The obvious lesson is that policies that promote short term prosperity through inflating asset bubbles negates the ephemeral yet unsustainable policy driven gains.
As Ludwig von Mises presciently warned in his magnum opus, ``The boom squanders through malinvestment scarce factors of production and reduces the stock available through overconsumption; its alleged blessings are paid for by impoverishment."
In short, bubble blowing policies simply don't work.
To add, the impact of the fast ballooning Federal regulations as seen in the Federal Register journal [as earlier discussed in Has Lack Of Regulation Caused This Crisis? Evidence Says No] should likewise be considered in the decomposition of the prevailing conditions of the US economy.
As previously quoted,``According to the Washington, DC-based Competitive Enterprise Institute’s 2009 edition of “Ten Thousand Commandments” by Clyde Crews, the cost of abiding federal regulations is estimated at $1.172 trillion in 2008 – 8% of the year’s GDP. This “regulation without representation,” says Crews, enables the funding of new federal initiatives through the compliance costs of expanded regulations, rather than hiking taxes or expanding the deficit."
In other words, numerous opportunity costs from the costs of compliance, costs of an expanded bureaucracy and the attendant corruption, the cost of the crowding out of private investments, the misdirection and wastage from inefficient use of resources and other forms 'unseen' distortions from the said regulations should also be reckoned with in appraising the economy.
To argue that America's decade have been emblematic of the frailties free markets is to engage in Ipse Dixitism or plain falsehood.
That's because it's easy to use the strawman to blame others, yet the worst is to admit one's mistakes. And passing the buck won't solve anything but agitate for more restriction of individual liberties and possibly provoke unnecessary conflicts.
Well, America's blemished decade hasn't just been confined to the performance of its stock markets, but likewise reflected on major economic indicators as magnificently shown in the chart below from the Washington Post.
According to the Washington Post, (bold emphasis mine)``The U.S. economy has expanded at a healthy clip for most of the last 70 years, but by a wide range of measures, it stagnated in the first decade of the new millennium. Job growth was essentially zero, as modest job creation from 2003 to 2007 wasn't enough to make up for two recessions in the decade. Rises in the nation's economic output, as measured by gross domestic product, was weak. And household net worth, when adjusted for inflation, fell as stock prices stagnated, home prices declined in the second half of the decade and consumer debt skyrocketed."
The obvious lesson is that policies that promote short term prosperity through inflating asset bubbles negates the ephemeral yet unsustainable policy driven gains.
As Ludwig von Mises presciently warned in his magnum opus, ``The boom squanders through malinvestment scarce factors of production and reduces the stock available through overconsumption; its alleged blessings are paid for by impoverishment."
In short, bubble blowing policies simply don't work.
To add, the impact of the fast ballooning Federal regulations as seen in the Federal Register journal [as earlier discussed in Has Lack Of Regulation Caused This Crisis? Evidence Says No] should likewise be considered in the decomposition of the prevailing conditions of the US economy.As previously quoted,``According to the Washington, DC-based Competitive Enterprise Institute’s 2009 edition of “Ten Thousand Commandments” by Clyde Crews, the cost of abiding federal regulations is estimated at $1.172 trillion in 2008 – 8% of the year’s GDP. This “regulation without representation,” says Crews, enables the funding of new federal initiatives through the compliance costs of expanded regulations, rather than hiking taxes or expanding the deficit."
In other words, numerous opportunity costs from the costs of compliance, costs of an expanded bureaucracy and the attendant corruption, the cost of the crowding out of private investments, the misdirection and wastage from inefficient use of resources and other forms 'unseen' distortions from the said regulations should also be reckoned with in appraising the economy.
To argue that America's decade have been emblematic of the frailties free markets is to engage in Ipse Dixitism or plain falsehood.
That's because it's easy to use the strawman to blame others, yet the worst is to admit one's mistakes. And passing the buck won't solve anything but agitate for more restriction of individual liberties and possibly provoke unnecessary conflicts.
