The Economy That Could

Gather round, children of trade, and let me tell you the story of your economy. I would like to tell this as a bedtime story, with a happy ending that will have you sleep soundly. I would like to have you cuddle up to something sweet and comforting. I would love to have you believe that fairytales come true; but this is not a little engine we're considering.

The station we'll be pulling out from is called "The New Deal". Many Americans lined up at this station when there wasn't much fueling their economy. The new platform, now an old entitlement, was kept up by government funding. And, for those unable to mount a good front, it also provided a safety net. According to Dalton Conley who wrote Liberalism and the New Inequality, "The old New Deal safety net was created to prevent absolute deprivation which, thanks to rising if unequally distributed prosperity, is largely a thing of the past."

Unlike the train that pulled out from the New Deal on track laid down by the U.S. government, the trains leaving "The West" station travel routes and schedules dictated by financial markets. These conductors follow the money, like kids on a rollercoaster with no safety net in sight. But when the ride gets too scary or too slow, for that matter, the economy that could springs into action with the good-ole government funding and safety net provisions. The only difference is that the funding goes to "funders"; and the safety net intended for absolute deprivation is now for the relative deprivation of investors.

"I think we can" - beat out China, benefit from the euro's demise, and continue to chug along our fare(ly) -secured credit rating. The people on the Hill await our arrival - or do they? "I think we can, I think we can", but we're dragging too much weight. Yet, no safety net can hold the weight of disengagement either. Maybe Mr. Conley can help? His suggestion, "In this new age of affluent inequality, we need to find ways to turn that safety net on its side and make it a rope lattice everyone can climb." As long as the rope is greased with rail fluid, however, by markets pressing for faster and farther performance; climbs are always and only temporary achievements on the way to derailment and decline.

"I think we can, I think we can, I think we can" see that unless we want an economy railroaded by robber barons or sidetracked by amatuer gamblers, we're caught in a prediction.

What goes up must come down to how big of a hole we're willing to tolerate in the safety net. Let me remind you that it's no longer going to be "the little engine that could", but "a big engine that stalled" that will silence the determined whistle of progress.