The American Consumer
Feb. 16th, 2009 06:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexbogdРешил писать по-английски иногда. Под катом первая проба пера, посвящено американскому потребителю.
Nobody knows how long the recession we are in will last or how deep it will be. There are plenty of catastrophic scenarios, sometimes fiercely promoted by the very pundits who were preaching a year ago about $250-a-barrel oil or a 20,000-point Dow Jones.
But let's assume that the modern world's economy will not be swept away by a terrific Kondratiev wave of mysterious origin. If this is not the end of time, the world economy is going to finally emerge from this crisis. If so, Keynesian measures against recession - or should we call it depression? - are not meaningless. Thus, the increased spending might jump-start the economy.
Now, who will do this spending? The one who started it, I suppose. Or, perhaps, the one who can spend enormous sums of money. (By sheer coincidence, it is the same country).
Barack Obama's administration has been just as generous as his predecessor's. George Bush pushed for a $700-billion trouble assets relief program (Tarp); Barack Obama came up with a $800 billion-plus stimulus package. An overhaul or the Tarp program is up next, as well as measures to reduce home foreclosures, stimulate the credit and pump the toxic assets out of the banking system.
The US Government has all the potential to become the greatest spender in history, and it probably will, taking into account the worldwide demand for the dollar, however insecure. But the government is not almighty. The American Consumer is.
This personage could be imagined as a Rabelaisian giant who consumes unbelievable quantities of goods, which, despite his mythical dimensions, by far exceed his capabilities. The world is now watching anxiously as the giant shows clear indications of indigestion. The malady of the giant threatens us all, however unfair such a model of the world economy is.
I prefer to put it another way. I can imagine the American Consumer as a person in the street, perhaps a lady in a shop, first grabbing and then putting back on the same shelf a handbag. The picture of this lady served for months as a background for CNN's grim observations on the economy. So I have something to tell this person.
Dear Madam! We all know that you have been in trouble for some months, that you have almost no savings and that you are in danger of losing your job. But we once again rely on you. Please buy this handbag. Please sustain the unsustainable demand on the economy for a while.
Spend, don't save money when you can save the world. Please buy.
(An emoticon would be appropriate here, I suppose).
Nobody knows how long the recession we are in will last or how deep it will be. There are plenty of catastrophic scenarios, sometimes fiercely promoted by the very pundits who were preaching a year ago about $250-a-barrel oil or a 20,000-point Dow Jones.
But let's assume that the modern world's economy will not be swept away by a terrific Kondratiev wave of mysterious origin. If this is not the end of time, the world economy is going to finally emerge from this crisis. If so, Keynesian measures against recession - or should we call it depression? - are not meaningless. Thus, the increased spending might jump-start the economy.
Now, who will do this spending? The one who started it, I suppose. Or, perhaps, the one who can spend enormous sums of money. (By sheer coincidence, it is the same country).
Barack Obama's administration has been just as generous as his predecessor's. George Bush pushed for a $700-billion trouble assets relief program (Tarp); Barack Obama came up with a $800 billion-plus stimulus package. An overhaul or the Tarp program is up next, as well as measures to reduce home foreclosures, stimulate the credit and pump the toxic assets out of the banking system.
The US Government has all the potential to become the greatest spender in history, and it probably will, taking into account the worldwide demand for the dollar, however insecure. But the government is not almighty. The American Consumer is.
This personage could be imagined as a Rabelaisian giant who consumes unbelievable quantities of goods, which, despite his mythical dimensions, by far exceed his capabilities. The world is now watching anxiously as the giant shows clear indications of indigestion. The malady of the giant threatens us all, however unfair such a model of the world economy is.
I prefer to put it another way. I can imagine the American Consumer as a person in the street, perhaps a lady in a shop, first grabbing and then putting back on the same shelf a handbag. The picture of this lady served for months as a background for CNN's grim observations on the economy. So I have something to tell this person.
Dear Madam! We all know that you have been in trouble for some months, that you have almost no savings and that you are in danger of losing your job. But we once again rely on you. Please buy this handbag. Please sustain the unsustainable demand on the economy for a while.
Spend, don't save money when you can save the world. Please buy.
(An emoticon would be appropriate here, I suppose).
