RIP: Our Expansionist Central State
Like the sun coming up in the morning, Central State planning and expansion predictably leads to state spending exceeding the rate of the real growth of the state's economy. The US Central State has been no exception and has been relentlessly expanding faster than GDP since the 1950s with only two notable exceptions. The dot.com bubble in the late 90's and the housing bubble in the early to mid 2000s. These artificial bubbles were created by Monetary Malpractice aimed at creating desperately needed growth to support excessive spending and debt levels.
What historically kills the expansionist state beast, is when debt reaches the critical point of debt saturation. This is the point where government borrowing is so pervasive that it forces total debt to grow to enable it to leverage ever smaller growth levels of an economy captured by a debt stranglehold brought on by the expansionist central state. The structural imbalance of state expenditures and revenue leads to structural deficits. This is the situation the US presently finds itself in, and is to be fully expected, when the central state is allowed to assume a larger expansionist role. Like a cancer it will insidiously and relentlessly expand unless operated on. The sooner the operation the better the chance of survival.
Unfortunately, we are in denial, as the cancer grows and the quack doctors suggest more spending. Similar to 'blood letting' by medieval doctors, the diagnosis is flawed and will only accelerate the demise of the naive and dependent patient.
The Obsolete Concept of 'Central State'
The whole notion of a central state is now obsolete. Technology now makes this possible and growing social unrest and a Crisis of Trust will soon demand it. We can fully expect those with political power and its need for control to restrict this change in every manner possible. The lifecycle of the expansionist central state is coming to a close for many natural reason. Some of these phenomenon include:
- The notion of the NODE versus HUB,
- The notion of HIERARCHICAL versus RELATIONAL,
- The notion of TOP DOWN versus BOTTOM UP Revenue distribution,
- The notion of SECURITY versus RISK
Security versus Innovative Risk Taking
What is often forgotten is that within a capitalist system and a free society, there is a balance of risk versus security. Risk cannot be eliminated; it can only be suppressed or transferred to others. If you want growth, you must reward risk and innovation and foster a culture that accepts failure and low-intensity disorder as the norm. The public cannot expect the false state promises of security without fully recognizing that it will kill risk taking, innovation and growth and foster the crony capitalism feeding off the less risky public trough. Expansionist central states ALWAYS make promises it has no ability to deliver on without effectively 'killing the golden goose'.
It must never be forgotten, that government by its nature is parasitic. It creates no wealth and lives off the wealth creation of others through its authoritarian powers to legally confiscate and seize. This is a fact, no matter how well intentions the public perceives the governments intentions to be.
"Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government".
Nobel Laureate in Economics, Milton Friedman
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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.
The information herein was obtained from sources which Mr. Long believes reliable, but he does not guarantee its accuracy. None of the information, advertisements, website links, or any opinions expressed constitutes a solicitation of the purchase or sale of any securities or commodities. Please note that Mr. Long may already have invested or may from time to time invest in securities that are recommended or otherwise covered on this website. Mr. Long does not intend to disclose the extent of any current holdings or future transactions with respect to any particular security. You should consider this possibility before investing in any security based upon statements and information contained in any report, post, comment or recommendation you receive from him.
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