Battling Back

With the Fall coming in, I'm afraid Strays is going to turn back to some of that serious policy wonkie stuff that will reduce its readership from about ten to about one, but it's in the air.  With a jumpy philosophical twist.  So here goes, Mr. (or Ms.) Reader:

Back up on the table with the Republic of Equity.  The name - it is simply to imply the opposite of the Empire of Debt - means that we move back to a global society where more free people own more of their own stuff and rely less on borrowed money.  Top to bottom.  Drive that car after it's paid for.  Prepay the mortgage until it  hurts.  Let failed businesses fail. Let Greece default  and tell them - much as I like all the Greeks I know - that they can't borrow their way out, they will have to live on what they earn.  The point being, if we are coming to the end of a Kondratiev wave, let's get there.  Liquidate, take our lumps, reconstitute our moral strength, go to work, and move on.

And don't try to reflate the economy, don't monetize the debt by running the printing presses, and don't start another war.

I know it sounds a little like calling for the Dark Ages.  But I don't think we go back to that, or anything near, because technology has made intelligence and communication cheap.  Knowledge won't be limited to the monasteries.  There won't be a priesthood that can deny us heaven.