Nest

Can we really print ourselves to prosperity? Is this time different? Have we really discovered the secret unlimited potion that makes economies grow? No, no and no.

Over the past 40 years, we have printed money and expanded the credit system to grow our economy. During this period, as we papered over cracks that appeared in the system, we continued to grow the economy in nominal terms. By not resolving underlying issues, economic cracks grew into gaping holes requiring increasing amounts of credit and monetary expansion to maintain a semblance of prosperity.

Crisis after crisis, opportunities to resolve massive imbalances were simply pushed into the future, allowing those imbalances to compound. While many view the 2008 crash as the apex of the credit and monetary cycle, I fear it is not.

Since 2008, economic policy based on credit and monetary expansion has not changed and continues to push an escalating crisis into the future...more