Like Argentina and Venezuela, Greece's economy is plagued not just by institutional problems, but by a pervasive anti-capitalism that continually cripples the ability of individual Greeks to build wealth and a solid economy.
The Greek government has spent freely for many years to enrich itself and its special interests at the expense of taxpayers. And now, it is not the Greek politicians who will suffer, but the taxpayers who face a future of unending debt payments.
The Greek crisis illustrates the latest failure in Europe's attempts to build a lasting prosperity through consumption and redistribution of wealth. It's been going on for 150 years, and it remains to be seen if Europe will learn anything from the present crisis.
Despite massive policy stimulus in the United States, the US economy is now growing far more slowly than in past periods of monetary inaction from the central bank. Meanwhile, fragile economic bubbles are being inflated from China to Europe.
The stability of the Eurozone is back in the spotlight this week amidst Greece’s talks with its creditors—which seem to be going nowhere good.
The euro is an inflationary fiat currency, but it’s apparently not inflationary enough for many profligate European governments that want their own local currencies so they can inflate even more, and use easy money to temporarily cover up many economic sins.
Both Republicans and Democrats think they can tinker their way to creating an economy with less inequality. Both sides miss the point, and ignore the central role of government fiat money in the problem.
The world's central banks have been pouring new money into the financial system, which has produced a dangerous amount of distortion to prices in the market. And what do we have to show for it? Economic growth is anemic, at best.
It appears that even economists are now being replaced by machines. At least it seems that way given a recent paint-by-numbers attack from the New York Times on James Grant's new book The Forgotten Depression.
Japan finally joined the US and the EU in their grand 2-percent-inflation-forever experiment in 2005. Many Japanese politicians have benefited from this. Meanwhile, nothing has been done in Japan to actually help the economy defend itself against the next economic disaster.
