"Slow, wretched decline"

Here's something different. Daniel Hannan, a member of European Parliament from England, makes a statement to the body in Spanish. A nice gesture. He's talking about Spain. If you don't speak Spanish, follow along with the subtitles. What's happening in Spain sounds a lot like what's happening here in America.



Hannan also caught my attention with blog post today, outlining expectations of slow, wretched decline in Europe. He may be right. Those expecting an sudden lurch into a Mad Max kind of world brought on by rapid-fire economic collapse may be sorely disappointed. But that doesn't mean there won't at least be pockets of chaos from time to time. Things like just in time inventories can backfire big time in the event of a financial hiccup. And people today have a much deeper sense of entitlement while being far less self-reliant than they were in past times of economic risk.

So far, central bankers, politicians, and bureaucrats have been able to keep us from hitting rock bottom. But they've only accomplished it by buffering the blows by throwing more money into the system. Money that's borrowed. Or money that's created out of thin air by printing presses and cyber-injection.

It remains to be seen how much deeper into decline they can take us without triggering general alarm among populations that, at least here in America, haven't paid much attention.

For now, it seems the masses remain in a sheeple state. Too many just nod in agreement when Barack Obama and the Democrats tell them four years just wasn't long enough, another four is needed to finish what's been started (whatever it is). Or Mitt Romeny and the Republicans say they have a plan to turn things around, but it's all based on economic growth levels we used to have - and have little hope of returning to any time in the foreseeable future.

No one really has a plan to reignite - or even stabilize - the economies here or in Europe. Everything appears focused on masking (and sometimes steering) further decline.