The U.S. Economy is Dead

For the past quarter century; the most effective “stimulus” for the U.S. economy has been a fall in gasoline prices. This is no great surprise, given that the United States had been the most gas-guzzling nation on the planet – and by a wide margin. But times have changed!

After Barack Obama publicly admitted that the U.S. government had ruthlessly manipulated oil prices lower, as “part of its strategy” of economic terrorism against Russia; global oil prices have been cut in half. The only other time that oil prices have fallen so far or so fast in the last quarter century was the brief/temporary collapse in prices which accompanied the Crash of ’08.

Has this enormous economic stimulus kick-started the U.S.’s zombie economy? Not at all. Indeed, the collapse in the U.S. retail sector has accelerated throughout this plunge in oil/gasoline prices. This should not be possible. Economic stimulus from lower prices (in any sector) is supposed to be automatic.

What does it mean when an economy not only fails to respond to “automatic” stimulus, but continues to rapidly decompose? It means we are dealing with a deceased economy. This is a “surprise” to the irredeemable charlatans who have the audacity to call themselves economists, but it shouldn’t have been. Not if any of them were paying attention. Not if any of them lived in the real world.

Back in the real world; evidence of the U.S.’s zombie economy is both overwhelming and abundant. It begins with 0% interest rates. As has frequently been noted in the past; 0% interest rates are the economic equivalent of a defibrillator. As with a defibrillator; it is the most-extreme form of stimulus known to us. As with a defibrillator; it is a “therapy” option which is so radical/reckless that it is only ever intended to be used as a last resort, to resuscitate a patient on Death’s door.

Equally, as with a defibrillator; if it doesn’t “work” right away, it will never work (has anyone ever heard of a nation called “Japan”?). When a doctor attempts to resuscitate a patient with a defibrillator, and fails after a couple of minutes; does he continue to jolt the patient, again and again and again and again – year after year? Of course not. He quickly gives up, because it has become evident that he is no longer “treating a patient”, but merely charring a corpse.

This is what the U.S. government (and other Western governments) has been doing for the past 6+ years with its 0% interest rate: charring a corpse. Further proof that the U.S. economy is already dead comes from a chart of the heartbeat of the U.S. economy (and any capitalist economy) – it’s “velocity of money”.

As we see; the U.S. “heartbeat” (i.e. the flow of money) has nearly stopped, having fallen further/lower than at any time in recorded history. What does it mean when money stops moving, in a “capitalist economy”? What does it mean when the money (i.e. blood) stops moving in the heart of the greatest Capitalist Empire the world has ever seen? R.I.P.