The Big Gamble
Friday 13 Feb 2009
US President Barak Obama finally got the numbers to secure passage of his almost $800 billion “stimulus” Bill through the US Senate. Now, what may well prove to be the greatest economic gamble in the history of the World is in play and all we can do is wait and see which way the chips finally fall. If President Obama is right, the World Economy should right itself within 12-18 months. If he is wrong, we may never again see the bright lights of the second half of the 20th Century that created the highest standard of living this world has ever seen.
No matter how much money this “stimulus” bill involves, it is a very high stakes gamble because never in the historic of economics has this approach to managing an economy worked. What Americans and the World are now waiting to see is if President Obama can be the first to buck this trend. The odds against President Obama succeeding are not good. Still, the highly popular young president and his left-leaning Democrat Party that now controls both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate could not be dissuaded. This highly popular young president, who has never managed a business in his life, is certain that he knows how to kick start the flagging US and world economy.
Many of his supporters will say that this is an over-dramatic view of the level of risk involved in President Obama’s stimulus package. It is suggested however that those who make such a claim are not mindful of the unique miracle that the United States represents in the history of the world and how critical the individual free enterprise US economy is to the welfare of the world. Because of this reality, it is often said in economic circles that if the US gets sneezes the world suffers an epidemic. In the past six (6) months a lot of people have come to understand what this saying means. In the next six (6) months, and the years ahead, a lot more people are going to learn this lesson, if President Obama’s stimulus package fails.
We Must to Something
In recent weeks in an effort to get his way, President Obama has travelled throughout the US and has pushed his case hard to the US people. The thrust of his message is that “we must do something.” Sadly, the alternative argument was never really heard and is seldom appreciated. What the media never told the people is that there are many, many very experienced economists in the World today who are of the opinion that left-leaning governments of the world, like President Obama’s, have already done enough; by continuing to interfere with natural market forces, all they are doing is worsening the situation. Many also believe that we are now at the point where years of government interference have just about killed the goose the lays the golden eggs.
In a world where most people now rely on Government for everything, it is very hard to convince voters that their governments should do nothing. However, the record is clear: never, in the history of the world, has government intervention in an economy ever worked. In all-the-world, over thousands of years of history, there is not one example of where Government has been able to get an economy out of recession. All that governments have been proven to be good at is putting economies into recession. And, one does not need to look very far to see very real tangible examples of this truth.
Failed States
Take the once Great Britain, for example. Only a very few years ago Britain ruled the world and had a bustling free enterprise economy. Britain was renowned for its engineering and technology leadership in the world. Then, Britain moved sharply left, embraced creeping socialism, and now Britain is great no more. The industry and traditional inventiveness of Britain has gone. Rolls Royce and all the symbols of Britain’s greatness have been squandered. Now, after another 12 years of concentrated socialist government, as unimaginable as it may be, Britain is teetering on the brink of financial collapse. Individual free enterprise is all but dead in the UK and it will take a great deal of effort to ever again revive its corpse. Within the foreseeable future, Britain is expected to move from a staunch Christian nation to a member of the moribund Muslim world.
Britain, of course is not the only recent example that we can point to. Japan tried President Obama’s approach to economics in the 1990s and the experiment failed miserably. People in Japan today refer to that period as Japan’s lost decade. Japan is now struggling to achieve its real potential.
Prior to Britain and Japan, the United Soviet Socialist Republic (“Russia”) made a global public spectacle of socialism for 70 years during which its leaders preached from every pulpit the benefits of government control of everything while they killed millions of people who had the audacity to speak against their foolish ideas. Despite their totalitarian control over one of the wealthiest land masses on the planet, they could not make big government work and the USSR failed and the Russian people not only lost 70 years of opportunity, but also millions of their brothers and sisters. Today, Russia is trying to compete in the free markets of the world but it is very, very doubtful if they ever will. While the US economy boomed and created demand for their oil, Russia looked good, but as soon as the US economy went into downturn, the Russian boom soon ended.
China is another, like Russia, that has embraced and trumpeted the socialist model. Like Russia, Chinese leaders killed millions who disagreed with them, and for a brief moment while the US economy was booming and they prepared for the 2008 Olympic Games, the world thought that China would succeed and become the world’s first successful socialist model. But now, when the US engine has stalled, the drivers of the Chinese economy are finding that without the individual free enterprise engine of the west in top gear, it is not so easy for their socialist state to succeed.
There would be some reason to hop if these were isolated situations, or that these facts related to only a few countries in the world today. The sad fact is that this situation is now the norm throughout the world. Sadder still, for the world, it now seems that the once great United States of America has voted to join this line up of failed states.
The End of the Glory Days
Is this then the end of the glory days that we have known for the past 50 years? It is very hard to make such a prediction, although the signs are everywhere. One wants, with every ounce of one’s humanity, to be wrong, but it is very, very difficult to find good reason to believe in such an outcome. And the Bible gives us no reason to think differently.
Speaking of the end, the apostle Paul said: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God."
For this cause,” Paul said, “God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thessalonians 2: 3-12)
