Group stink

The three amigos point to the seven-fold increase in GDP as evidence of their sound economic stewardship.

What they conveniently airbrush out of the picture is the additional US$68 trillion of debt it took to achieve this economic ‘growth’…US$4 of debt for US$1 of GDP. What a disgrace.

Difficult decisions…my a*se.

The three amigos were serial opportunists. Taking advantage of the enormous buffer in interest rates they inherited from Volcker…lowering them to the point where they could lower them no more.

If they genuinely had the best interests of the economy at heart, they would have taken the real tough decisions…

• holding interest rates higher
• working behind the scenes to hold banks accountable to higher lending standards
• allowing markets to function on a true price discovery mechanism
• allowing recessions to clean out the dead wood
• accepting a lower growth rate as the trade-off for the longer-term stability of the system

But that was a bit too much to ask of the three ‘group thinkers’.

There would be no fawning left-wing media or cosy post-Neverland positions awaiting them.

Not one of the three Amigos exercised individual thought…even after the market showed them — in 2000/01 and 2008/08 — the serious error of their policy ways.

What was that Einstein said about insanity?

Something along the lines of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome.