No Recovery In Sight

November 16, 2011
by John Myers


President Barack Obama promised a recovery, but it is a mirage.

You don’t have to be a news buff to have heard about the deadbeat protesters that are occupying cities in North America and Europe. I have seen lots of coverage but little insight. What I have noticed in big Canadian cities is that the protesters are angry without cause.

Canada is in the midst of an economic recovery. The unemployment rate is slightly above 7 percent, and the Canadian dollar is up 25 percent against the greenback in just the past 2.5 years. While people rage against spending cuts in nations like Greece, there isn’t a hint that Canadians will have to endure any reduction in government benefits. In other words, Canadians have never had it so good; yet they, too, are angry enough to take to the streets.

Canadians recently demonstrated that they don’t need a good reason to riot. Hundreds of people tried to burn downtown Vancouver last June because their hockey team lost the Stanley Cup. Those riots tell me that there is more to this growing global unrest than just a bunch of anarchists and addicts, even though two of the protesters in Vancouver have overdosed on heroin during the crusade. Nobody would confuse those two with a Leon Trotsky or Maximilien Robespierre.

I am not going to concern myself with the cause of the unrest in Canada or anywhere else. Long after the Russian and French revolutions, historians cannot agree on what caused them. What concerns me and what you need to protect yourself from are civil unrest and the response by our government.

When Revolutions Spin Out Of Control

It is worth remembering that the French Revolution started slowly but quickly gathered steam. What began with concessions from Louis XVI sparked the Liberté, which morphed into Robespierre and his Reign of Terror. At one point, more than 1,000 French people were guillotined every month. Robespierre lost his head before it ended.

The bloodshed during the Russian Revolution was far worse. It is estimated that 5 million to 10 million people were killed during that revolt. To that total, add more than 40 million Soviets who died at the hands of the resulting dictator, Joseph Stalin.

Obama’s Blame Game

I understand there is a lot of anger in America. I, too, am an American citizen and I am angry. However, I don’t blame big corporations or big banks for this worsening crisis. I lay it where it belongs, squarely on the shoulders of the Federal government.

The Administration of President Bill Clinton was eager to do away with financial regulations. The Administration of President George W. Bush wanted everyone to own a home, whether he could afford it or not. And when it all blew apart three years ago, the Federal government forced U.S. investment banks to accept $125 billion in taxpayer money. (I urge you to read the bestseller by Andrew Sorkin, Too Big to Fail.)

It began in the summer of 2008. When the markets began to crash, the Chinese and Russians threatened to sell their $1 trillion in U.S. assets. Then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson held the system together until American International Group Inc. began to fail. AIG had never been regulated. Why? In the words of Paulson, the former chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.: “Because everyone was too busy making money.â€