Only 18,000 Jobs

Well, apparently, the U.S. economy is not working well.  More and more people are out of work, it and for longer periods.

Foreclosures.

Debt.

And now even the poor, destitute, handicapped, and even the aging veterans are being hung out to sacrifice.  If the government doesn’t raise the debt ceiling, says Obama, people are going to die.

It’s getting ugly! People are losing everything and no amount of infrastructure spending, foreign trade, or economic growth seems able to fix it. The U.S. economy is dying a slow death and we seem helpless to do anything and hopeless that anything might be done.

But what is the problem, after all? Trillions of dollars are floating around the global economy, more money than this world has ever seen before, and none of that can be made to work in the U.S. economy.

That doesn’t make any sense.

Where has all the money gone?

Well, think back to just before George Bush left office.

Remember what happened?

Panic in the [Wall]Street.

Desperation at the bank.

Global economic collapse was just around the corner they said!

“Quick,” said Bush. “Give the bankers all the money and that will fix it.”

Ya right.

Despite every single developed country falling in line and handing public funds over to private bankers, it didn’t fix it. The economies still chug along and the common folk still struggle to hang on to the things that they’ve worked for.

So what’s up with that?

Well, according to Michael Sharp it has everything to do with debt, accumulation, and greed. The problem isn’t that the economy is broken, or that money is evil, or that we can’t find a way to work things out so everybody has job, and everybody can be happy and prosperous. The problem is, like Warren Buffet (one of the richest men in the world) recently said in a NY Times article, some people have control and they are using that control in greedy accumulation that, far from benefiting the global economy actually undermines it. According to Michael Sharp the destruction of the economy is inevitable because of a fundamental flaw in the way we organize exchange and the nice thing is (if there is anything nice about this), you don’t need a PhD in economics to understand what is going on or figure out what we need to do. As Michael Sharp says, it’s not rocket science, just basic economic common sense.

I read Michael Sharp’s book ‘The Rocket Scientists Guide to Money and the Economy: Accumulation and Debt’ about two months ago.  I found Michael to be one of the most accessible writers I have ever come across and a seriously potent story teller.  It is so refreshing to find someone who explains complicated economic matters in such a logical, clear, self-evident and understandable way.  Economists are so good at talking over our heads and confusing people.  I can’t even understand most of them and I have been trained in the economic discipline. I found Michael’s book to be very well informed but a simply presented argument and story that explains the main problems with our economic system.  He is also one of the only people I have found who has highlighted the broader social consequences (for everyone) of individualistic money accumulation behaviours.   His work has helped me to clarify my own thinking and fit together a whole lot of different things that have been troubling me and filled in some big gaps too.  I am now in a much better position to articulate my own ideas that build on his, and I have begun to do so.  So you might say that his book has empowered me.  I’m sure it will do the same for many other ordinary people, and hopefully some economists too.  They could also learn a lot about how to write and communicate from Michael Sharp. Maura Andrew – M.A. Economics Student, South Africa

If you want to learn more, check out his book Rocket Scientists’ Guide to Money and the Economy: Accumulation and Debt.  It’s not an academic book in the traditional sense but it is a powerful story about the nature of economics and the trouble we have managed to get ourselves into. It is grist for the intellectual mill, enlightening beyond measure, and a testament to the power of the pen, even if I do say so myself.