An Ungovernable Democracy
22 Minutes, 36 Slides
There are five distinct stages in the life cycle of sovereign nations. These life cycle stages map to generational cycles and to Long Cycles such as the Kondratieff Cycle. Since these cycles are fundamentally behavioral shifts, they consequentially take the nations economic and political process with it. Democracies become exposed and borderline ungovernable in Stage V. This is a result of the electorate's expectations, entitlements and James Madison's "Complicity from the Tyranny of the Majority", as outlined in the "Federalist Papers".
Stage V
After bubbles burst and when deleveraging occur, private debt growth, private sector spending, asset values and net worth decline in a self-reinforcing negative cycle. To compensate, government debt growth, government deficits and central bank "printing" of money typically increase. In this way, their central banks and central governments cut real interest rates and increase nominal GDP growth so that it is comfortably above nominal interest rates in order to ease debt burdens. As a result of these low real interest rates, weak currencies and poor economic conditions, their debt and equity assets are poor performing and increasingly these countries have to compete with less expensive countries that are in the earlier stages of development. Their currencies depreciate and they like it! As an extension of these economic and financial trends, countries in this stage see their power in the world decline.
Accepting Stage V
Success breeds complacency and complacency breeds leverage. Fiat currency enables a late stage country to delay the realization that it is no longer rich, but not avoid it. The developed and emerging nations are in obviously different positions and consequentially their behavioral traits and priorities are different. Accepting the realities of Stage V is still to come for the developed world, and when it does it will be sudden and shocking to most people -- and to the financial markets. The Stage I, II and III countries remain dependent on the late-stage countries, which will make the Stage IV & V descent into poverty painful for all involved.
The End Game
Because governments are borrowing aggressively to offset declining private sector leverage, the focus of the next crisis will be sovereign debt/currencies rather than housing or the stock market. In a period of major Global Imbalances, which the world presently faces, this will make democratic policy setting extremely difficult and in fact will show democracies to be borderline UNGOVERNABLE. In cases of grossly distorted expectations, such as the US, it will be found to be UNGOVERNABLE.
This above confluence and much more discussed in the video, indicates that it is leading to a Constitutional Crisis in many developed democratic countries by the end of the decade.
This is the fourth in the Macro Analytic video series entitled "Constitution in Peril" that can be found at GordonTLong.com
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Author: Gordon Long
Gordon T. Long
Publisher - LONGWave
Gordon T. Long has been publically offering his financial and economic writing since 2010, following a career internationally in technology, senior management & investment finance. He brings a unique perspective to macroeconomic analysis because of his broad background, which is not typically found or available to the public.
Mr. Long was a senior group executive with IBM and Motorola for over 20 years. Earlier in his career he was involved in Sales, Marketing & Service of computing and network communications solutions across an extensive array of industries. He subsequently held senior positions, which included: VP & General Manager, Four Phase (Canada); Vice President Operations, Motorola (MISL - Canada); Vice President Engineering & Officer, Motorola (Codex - USA).
After a career with Fortune 500 corporations, he became a senior officer of Cambex, a highly successful high tech start-up and public company (Nasdaq: CBEX), where he spearheaded global expansion as Executive VP & General Manager.
In 1995, he founded the LCM Groupe in Paris, France to specialize in the rapidly emerging Internet Venture Capital and Private Equity industry. A focus in the technology research field of Chaos Theory and Mandelbrot Generators lead in the early 2000's to the development of advanced Technical Analysis and Market Analytics platforms. The LCM Groupe is a recognized source for the most advanced technical analysis techniques employed in market trading pattern recognition.
Mr. Long presently resides in Boston, Massachusetts, continuing the expansion of the LCM Groupe's International Private Equity opportunities in addition to their core financial market trading platforms expertise. GordonTLong.com is a wholly owned operating unit of the LCM Groupe.
Gordon T. Long is a graduate Engineer, University of Waterloo (Canada) in Thermodynamics-Fluid Mechanics (Aerodynamics). On graduation from an intensive 5 year specialized Co-operative Engineering program he pursued graduate business studies at the prestigious Ivy Business School, University of Western Ontario (Canada) on a Northern & Central Gas Corporation Scholarship. He was subsequently selected to attend advanced one year training with the IBM Corporation in New York prior to starting his career with IBM.
Gordon T Long is not a registered advisor and does not give investment advice. His comments are an expression of opinion only and should not be construed in any manner whatsoever as recommendations to buy or sell a stock, option, future, bond, commodity or any other financial instrument at any time. While he believes his statements to be true, they always depend on the reliability of his own credible sources. Of course, he recommends that you consult with a qualified investment advisor, one licensed by appropriate regulatory agencies in your legal jurisdiction, before making any investment decisions, and barring that, we encourage you confirm the facts on your own before making important investment commitments.
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