Political Theatre

Commentary By Ron Beasley

I didn't listen to Obama's speech - as the Republicans were claiming it was political not governing.  I am not really offended by this - it's what politicians do when there is nothing else they can do.  Our economic woes are not US economic woes but global economic woes.  In a global economy there is little that a single country can do to remedy the problem.  I suspect that Obama knows this as do at least some of the Republicans - I'm thinking the sane ones like Romney and Huntsman. 

The entire global financial system is about to break down - collapse.  The too big to fail banks are sitting on billions of dollars of debt that is never going to be repayed.  As Dave pointed out the other day it only makes sense for Greece to walk away from their debt and before too long that will apply to Spain, Portugal and perhaps even Italy. The TBF banks are going to start failing.  Will it be a European bank or Bank of America  that fails first?  It really doesn't matter - it's the domino theory redux. 

It makes me think of a couple of books I have read in my 65 years.  The first is The Promise of the Coming Dark Age by L.S.Stavrianos published in 1976.  He says that collapse is not only inevitable but necessary.  The second book is The Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph Tainter.  Taiinter attempts to explain why civilizations fail.  In short Tainter thinks they collapse because they become too complex.  The only solution to over complexity is simplification but complex systems are unable to voluntarily simplify. Collapse is nothing more than involuntary simplification.  The global economy will not work in a world of expensive transportation - we are there or very close.  It's constant growth that has enabled a highly leveraged economy and that growth has been dependent on cheap transportation.  We have reached a point where growth will no longer support a leveraged economy.  Not exactly what Tainter looked at but it is a resource issue.  

We are near a new Dark Age, or perhaps we are already there.  But as cruel as it may sound it's necessary.  Phoenix can only rise from the ashes if there are ashes. 

So Obama's speech is political kabuki dance because it's all he can do.