Jim Rodgers: Worst crash in our lifetime coming within the year

Tide1986 said:

I assumed the reason for decline might be more substantial than that.

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DzynKingRTR said:

I thought we already established everything was the Millennials fault?

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CajunCrimson said:

Right.....the current economic crisis is because of oil, radical Christians, and overspending by Republicans.

Well...figuring that the economy had gradually become increasingly unstable as we lost control of the oil market - primarily due to environmentalists. And the economy has gradually become unstable as the decline in Christianity has taken hold. And since the insane boost in social programs, the housing bubble burst (due to too many bogus loans being given), and unnecessary excess spending on red tape, regulations, and fat cat salaries......I sure find it hard to blame this on a Radical Right movement.

There may be a rising in its early stages. But, that is a result of current situation, but definitely not the cause of it.

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While the works of the robber barons was often condemned in the press, America's commitment to industrialization and free markets (compared to other countries) was extremely high in the late 19th/early 20th century. Unlike many countries after World War I, the 1920s saw great economic expansion for upper-income individuals, as well as a growth in median income. Labor unrest continued to mount throughout the 1920s and 1930s, however, as the lack of wage and hour rules, child labor protections, unemployment insurance, the right to organize, workplace safety requirements and social security insurance continued to exacerbate the discontents of the substantial numbers of working poor.

The Great Depression caused massive unemployment and, with it, massive public distrust of corporations and wealthy individuals (it didn't help that some businessmen took advantage of Depression conditions to benefit themselves). In response, the New Deal instituted by Franklin D. Roosevelt went into effect with massive public support. Many lawyers and economists influenced by Keynes worked under the New Deal, and believed that free markets, without proper regulation, would lead to disaster.

While the American economy boomed for about 30 years following World War II with the benefit of Keynesianism, robust anti-trust regulation to promote competition and financial regulations to prevent the most volatile forms of market speculation, high unionization rates and protections promoting the growth of domestic industry, during the 1970s, stagflation – brought on by the 1973 oil crisis and the shift from the gold standard to fiat currency – was made to discredit the policy consensus set in place under the years of the New Deal Coalition. This culminated in the election of Reagan in 1980, and many of the statutes and organizations created by the New Deal were dismantled.

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While Thatcher, Reagan, and their successors made sweeping reforms, the authors argue that the current era of globalization finally began around 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since then, they assert, countries embracing free markets have prospered on the whole, while those adhering to central planning have failed.

While strongly in favor of this trend, the authors worry that globalization will not last. More specifically, they believe that if inequality in economic growth remains high, and if Third World nations are not offered the proper opportunities and incentives to support capitalism, the movement will end just as the first era did.

The reason the authors place so much emphasis on narrowing economic gaps is because they believe, against many of the people they interview, that there is no ideological support for capitalism, only the pragmatic fact that the system works better than any other. As they remark:

The market also requires something else: legitimacy. But here it faces an ethical conundrum. It is based upon contracts, rules, and choice – in short, on self-restraint – which contrasts mightily with other ways of organizing economic activity. Yet a system that takes the pursuit of self-interest and profit as its guiding light does not necessarily satisfy the yearning in the human soul for belief and some higher meaning beyond materialism. In the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s, Republican soldiers are said to have died with the word "Stalin" on their lips. Their idealized vision of Soviet communism, however misguided, provided justification for their ultimate sacrifice. Few people would die with the words "free markets" on their lips.

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rgw said:

I read a book back in 2006 or so called American Theocracy by Kevin Phillips. I think it establishes a lot of the key points of the decline of America and the rise of the radical right.

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The Christian share of the U.S. population is declining, while the number of U.S. adults who do not identify with any organized religion is growing, according to an extensive new survey by the Pew Research Center. Moreover, these changes are taking place across the religious landscape, affecting all regions of the country and many demographic groups. While the drop in Christian affiliation is particularly pronounced among young adults, it is occurring among Americans of all ages. The same trends are seen among whites, blacks and Latinos; among both college graduates and adults with only a high school education; and among women as well as men.

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rgw said:

We lost control of oil in the 1970s due to OPEC. I can't remember if American Theocracy covers that or The Commanding Heights by Daniel Yergin. Here's the wiki blurb from The Commanding Heights page under International Analysis / United States:



I also think they're analysis in the late 90s is being proven correct:



Finally, I've said this before that my criticism of the politicized Christianity in this country is that it isn't really Christianity. It is christian-ish insofar as it benefits those in power's ability to legitimize whatever they want by invoking religious imagery.

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rgw said:

I think the GOP's invocation of Christianity is little different in structure to those in the Middle East using Islam as a rallying cry to bring people behind their flag. As that quote in my last post pointed out: nobody is going to die with the words "free markets" on their lips but they might die for "Christian values" but you just gotta make sure that you taint and twist the religion's narrative in such a way that "Christian values" reaffirm corporate power and wealth disparity.


To deny that this has been happening in this country since the end of the 1960s is frankly denying history. Despite declining rates, a smaller group of fanatics is more useful politically than a educated, secular, questioning group of people. Also, "evangelical" has become too tied with political crazies...they often call themselves baptist or nondenominational these days. Mainline Christian denominations are still in decline as they were in the mid-2000s.

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