Remember those terrible “Skeeter Movies” from back in the early ’90s? They were campy little low-budget flicks meant to suspend reason and, in general, be goofy in an upbeat sort of way (though predicting long-term disaster). Usually they entailed an eeevil government/military/corporation plot gone awry and an optimistic neophyte with the perfect idea to save the world!
In a very real sense, what we’re facing today is a form of that genre. Call it Skeeter Economics. The markets probably won’t auger in, and all the talking heads will say that two and a half pages from the White House will have saved the day. Gotta love them last-moment skeeter scientists/economists.
Wait, wait, wait… Let’s backtrack for a moment. Just to give you (and me) some hope of understanding the lingo (DDT if you will) that will be gushing from the news channels, here’s a quick BBC link that offers thumbnail descriptions of some of the terms likely to be used. Using that link in conjunction with one of our earlier rants we might just have a prayer of understanding most of the details that are about to unravel. Good luck.
Back in the bigger (pecuniary) swamp (you may want to fasten your seat belts and return your seat backs and tray tables into their full, upright positions): We’re $9 trillion in the hole and that does not include Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Add those in, and we’re talking something along the lines of $50 trillion. Our GDP is only $12 trillion. China and Russia are larvae just being born. Listen: Can you hear the buzzing?
Look. Our economy is just plain “skeeter crazy.” It would be harmlessly goofy if it weren’t all so world-crushing. Put another way: Our economy is spinning out of control faster than that underground science experiment in France and Switzerland. And it just became more likely to create a black hole.
Alan Speakman
