Trade agreements have thus become obsolete tokens of negotiation in larger geopolitical disputes, protectionist tools for managing and interfering with global trade flows.
The boom produces impoverishment. But still more disastrous are its moral ravages. It makes people despondent and dispirited. The more optimistic they were under the illusory prosperity of the boom, the greater is their despair and their feeling of frustration.
The Soviets, the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge — these totalitarian regimes would have failed even without any intervention from geopolitical rivals. The socialist systems would have been conquered not by standing armies, but by economics.
The psychological impact of a lifetime within a fiat money economy cannot be underestimated. With more wealth seemingly available at the click of a computer button, refusal to spend more on government programs must stem only from cruelty and greed.
