Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Billmon's Back (Again)

He's been goofing off for quite a while, but today the incomparable Billmon is back in The Whiskey Bar.

Your attention is directed to his succinct, engaging essay about "Why People Think the Economy Sucks," complete with explanatory charts. As only he can do, Billmon explains how rising gas prices, global trade, immigration, China, and the appreciation of housing prices all fit together -- and what it likely means for the future.

Here's a teaser:
The economic effects of integrating China and India into the global labor market – what Laura Tyson describes as the mother of all supply-side shocks – could take decades to play out. And by the time they're done, there's likely to be a host of other low-wage countries lined up outside the factory gates. What Marx called the reserve army of the unemployed has never looked so huge.

Given the current power structure and the elite consensus that globalization can't be stopped, or even slowed, the solution isn't obvious, at least not to me. The New Deal is dead; the New New Deal hasn't been invented yet. But the political effects are easy enough to see. The immigration debate has been saturated by them.
There's more....

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