Thursday, March 26, 2009

THE RECOVERY MYTH

Politicians love to pretend that they can control capitalism so it comes as no great surprise to hear the US President talking about an economic recovery.
"Barack Obama has told Americans he sees signs of economic recovery, but urged them to be patient and look beyond their "short-term interests" The US president said his draft budget would build a stronger economy which would mean America did not face a repeat crisis in 10 or 20 years." (BBC News, 25 March)
This of course contradicts another "expert" on the economic scene."The world economy is set to shrink by between 0.5% and 1.0% in 2009, the first global contraction in 60 years. In its gloomiest forecast yet, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says that developed countries will suffer a "deep recession". The global economic body says "the prolonged financial crisis has battered global economic activity beyond what was previously anticipated". (BBC News, 19 March)
To illustrate than none of the experts have a clue this is the same IMF that was predicting just two months earlier that world output would increase by 0.5%! In fact capitalism is an economic system that is based on slumps and booms and no amount of political "spin" can govern its unpredictability. RD

No comments: