It's a Comic Strip World

     I recall a plot from years ago.  I don't remember if it was
part of a radio drama, book or something else.  The creator of a
comic strip was kidnapped.  Only he had the creative genius to
get the hero through the perils he faced.

     The creator's staff tried desperately to keep the comic
strip going.  The staff couldn't rescue the hero.  The only
"solution" the staff knew was to buy time by putting the hero in
deeper.  Each day's strip added a new peril.

     Obviously this wasn't going to rescue the hero.  The staff
knew this.  The only hope was to keep the strip alive until the
creator returned to rescue the hero.  What if the staff dug the
hero in so deep that even the genius of the creator wasn't enough
to rescue the hero?

     In such case I suppose there was still the Dallas option. 
Some may recall that the television evening soap opera, Dallas,
declared an entire season to be someone's dream and started
over.

     I have no ending for the old drama.  I don't  remember if
the creator returned and rescued the hero.  You can create your
own ending if you so choose.

     Governments the world over are plagiarizing the script
from that old drama.  Instead of trying to keep a comic strip
running for another day, they are trying to keep economies
struggling along for another election.

     As the governments stagger from crisis into deeper crisis
it becomes increasingly obvious that the patches of the day aren't
working.  Even the Congressional Budget Office admits the
Obama stimulus spending is lowering rather than increasing long
term economic growth.  When even the government's own
"experts" admit failure, you can be sure we are in really big
trouble.  How much deeper can government dig the hole before
the next election?

     The problems of Europe and the Euro make even The
Perils of Pauline seem tame.   A short time ago the Euro
managers claimed to have again solved the problem that had
failed to respond to all of the previous solutions.   Now analysts
are worrying that without drastic action the Euro could collapse
into a pile of dust.

     One analyst recommended that the US Federal Reserve
create more money and buy a trillion or  two dollars worth of
European bad debt to save the Euro.  He didn't offer any advise
on who might then save the US dollar.  Perhaps the Europeans
could create a few trillion more Euros and buy US bad debt.

     How many more perils can clueless governments pile
onto the private enterprise hero before he is beyond rescue, even
by the most creative of minds?  In the real world you don't have
the option of declaring the nightmare to simply be a bad dream
and start over with a clean slate.

     When the recession started, government preached the
Keynesian "wisdom" that all that we need do to rescue the
economy was to increase consumer spending.  "Helicopter Ben"
Bernanke suggested that we had to get people to spend more,
even if we had to drop money from helicopters.

     As far as I know few people dropped money from
helicopters.  Consumer spending is now above pre recession
levels.  The economy is still stagnant.  Official unemployment is
still stuck above 8 percent.  This does not include the millions
who have given up looking for work.  All we have to show for
the stimulus spending is more debt.  It's the 1930s all over
again.

     Will the voters ever come to their senses and throw out
the clueless politicians whose only solutions to our problems are
to pile on more problems in desperate attempts to survive
another election?   Such solutions might be fun reading in a
comic strip.  They are far less fun when we live them in the real
world.

     Oh, yes.  If you don't like the ending, you won't have the
option of writing your own.

aldmccallum@gmail.com

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Copyright 2012
Albert D. McCallum
18440 29-1/2 Mile Road
Springport, Michigan 49284