Introduction

I am not an economist. However, I do understand the basic law of economics: There’s no free lunch.

Economics is complex; even economists disagree on countless economic issues. But economics doesn’t belong to academics in their ivory towers alone - especially when so many of those academics are corporate operatives.

Workers know a lot about economics. So do parents, housewives and people who can’t afford to go to school. More than a collection of theories and statistics, economics is reality. It all boils down to how much money you have in your pocket - and how your earnings compare with your fellow citizens’.

If you have enough money to lead a good life and retire some day, you might judge the economy OK. But if you’re one of the tens of millions of Americans who are unemployed or semi-employed, your opinion will be radically different. And if you’re politically astute and you take a hard look at the corporate fatcats who are getting rich while you spiral downward, and if you understand that you’re spiraling downward precisely because they’re getting rich by exploiting you - by literally stealing from you - you might get downright angry. And you should.

Take a cue from the protesters in Greece and other European nations, not your fellow Americans who mindlessly chant “I support the troops” while the United States totters on the brink, reduced to little more than a war-time economy and public investment fund for Bill Gates deranged "philanthropy."

I became politically aware about 1995 while working for the Seattle School District at the very time a derelict retired general named John Stanford was recruited to spearhead the privatization of Seattle’s public schools. I began asking questions and doing research and soon became politically active.

My biggest concern remains the exploitation of children, but I was also struck by the extraordinary theft I discovered - theft in the form of government ripoffs, corporate welfare, etc. You’re probably familiar with the term bankster. After John Stanford died of leukemia, a bankster replaced him as Superintendent of Seattle Schools.

Anyway, I had a premonition that Seattle was going to crash, based on the almost incomprehensible fiscal crime wave that was tearing it apart. After I turned my attention to national politics, I realized that Seattle is but the tip of the iceberg.

Then came 9/11. I was one of millions of Americans who got laid off shortly after 9/11 - after teaching for sixteen years.

I observed George W. Bush’s reign of terror in horror. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know he would wreck our economy; I was amazed we survived his first term.

There’s no question that Bush’s misadministration torpedoed the U.S. economy, though corporate interests were chipping away at it long before Bush. Ronald Reagan and even Bill Clinton can take much of the credit.

Obama should have hit the ground running, desperately trying to undo Bush’s damage. Instead, he has made it worse, even as he escalated Bush’s insanely cruel and immoral wars.

When the “recession” that I call the second Great Depression hit near the end of Bush’s second term, I was not among the people who predicted it would soon get better. I predicted it would get worse. Two and a half years later, I’m amazed our economy hasn’t crashed yet.

Sadly, the only good news seems to be the fact that it hasn’t crashed. On the negative side, it’s hard to imagine how the economy could get better. And if things merely stay the way they are for another five years, that would be an economic holocaust for millions of Americans. An entire generation of Americans will be effectively lost in an economic maelstrom as former third world nations reach for the stars.

It’s predicted that China’s economy will equal ours in just five years. Brazil, India and Russia - which, together with China, make up the BRIC countries - are also emerging powerhouses. Many of the Latin American nation the U.S. once maintained as banana republics are now moving forward, leaving the U.S. and Europe mired in economic chaos.

Of course, nothing you’ve read so far is news; it’s all been said a thousand times before. So what can I contribute to the conversation?

First, I’m very proud of a piece of research I did. I simply sat down and made some comparisons between the original Great Depression and the current global economic crisis. The results were frankly frightening.

Please read my report - Comparing Depressions - if you dare. But is it all doom and gloom?

Not at all. I’m proud of the fact that I’ve been fighting back, especially targeting the “Seattle Mafia” (which includes Bill Gates, an international player), through a series of political websites and several campaigns for public office. The delicious irony is that I’m based in Seattle, Bill Gates’ hometown.

And if you look at the big picture, you may see a light at the end of the tunnel, as I do.

I can’t predict the future, especially when the world has become so complex and so volatile. However, I’m of the opinion that the U.S. has become a virtual lost cause. I wouldn’t say it’s impossible to reform our political system, but I really can’t imagine it happening. How can we take back the White House when we can’t even reform our local school boards?

Instead, I believe that we’re going to continue our war against the world - a war that has evolved into a war against our own country - until another nation or coalition of nations cleans our clock, just as we stomped Germany and Japan during World War II.

But Germany and Japan weren’t completely destroyed. They quickly rebuilt and emerged as two of the world’s most powerful and prosperous nations. Similarly, it’s possible that a defeated and properly humiliated U.S. could clean up its act and enjoy a sort of renaissance - hopefully not as a sole world superpower.

A reformed U.S. would certainly be good for other nations. It would be good for the planet itself.

Of course, that’s just my personal prediction. There are many other far more sinister that could play out. But it’s hard to see the U.S. remaining on top in any scenario.

Like I said, there’s no free lunch. We have to pay our dues, just like the Germans and Japanese did - just as the U.S. should have cleaned up its act long ago.

And if we survey the planet, continent by continent, looking for signs of hope we see that hope in the form of people fighting back, from European protesters and anarchists to Mideast revolutionaries. But, in my opinion, the flagship for the New World Order is Latin America, which has largely embraced Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’ “21st century socialism,” which is about more than money.

P.S. Just for the record, I’m not anti-capitalist. I favor a mixed economy, combining capitalism and socialism.

David Blomstrom, July 11, 2011