The illusion of growth

[marmar]

Neil Macdonald: The illusion of growth
How central bank stimulus is creating a global 'bubble economy.' Power Shift, part 2

By Neil Macdonald, CBC News

Posted: Apr 30, 2013 5:03 AM ET
Last Updated: Apr 30, 2013 5:01 AM ET


Mark Grant sits on the aft deck of his yacht in South Florida's spring sun, ostentatiously relishing his wealth as only an American does, and dispensing advice. He's made his money, and he likes to wear it.

Grant's personality is as big as his mansion and as flashy as his collection of exotic cars — he actually calls himself "The Wizard," a tribute to his own financial acumen.

.....(snip).....

Bubble economies

Just about everyone agrees the Dow Jones industrial average — the measure of blue-chip America — did not reach an all-time high recently because of vibrant economic growth or fabulous performance by the companies listed in that index.

Markets are where they are principally because the Federal Reserve has been gobbling up U.S. treasury bills, the safest investment on Earth, in a deliberate attempt to force private investors into riskier assets, like stocks.

It's a high-stakes form of market engineering. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/04/29/f-rfa-macdonald-power-shift-growth.html

[Newest Reality]

1. Hubris in a cloud.

I would suggest that these big players invest in their own security with the kind of economic policies they imagine from their lofty pedestals. They will need more alarms, body guards, gated communities, electric fences, land in Paraguay as an escape hatch, etc.

He thinks that everyone should spend for the good of all? Oh, gosh. That's rich. Does he also have some snake oil, a few bridges to sell and his own circus.

Maybe the sheer lack of insight into the interdependence of things and how context and environment affect and shape people's lives is a part of the financial game of lemmings that is being foisted upon us. If not, then we have some rather frightening sociopaths with a death wish who have the means to take us all with them, and so, I prefer to think their ignorance is created and enforced by the thick insulation of having way too much of everything.

There may be an Achilles' Heel in there, somewhere. Voodoo economics and the astrology of debt may not make those who grow skeptical confident that the Titanic is in good hands. In fact, the facade of expertise is starting to look dodgy.

[RKP5637]

3. Exactly! "... their ignorance is created and enforced by the thick

insulation of having way too much of everything." It builds a bubble of "I control the universe." And history bears witness to that fallacious line of thinking.

[reformist2]

2. All the aggregate economic stats are skewed to the rich, give a warped view of what's happening.