CHECK-UP OR AUTOPSY? DIAGNOSING THE US ECONOMIC BODY

  • by Hazel Henderson
  • Inter Press Service

The mainstream media in 2008 ran myriad diagnoses of the sickness of the US economy. Central bankers, politicians, and their economic advisors sought to explain the economy's swoon in medical terms: a heart attack, a seizure, on life support, on the operating table, writes Hazel Henderson, author of Ethical Markets: Growing The Green Economy and president of the independent Ethical Markets Media.

But there may be some more realistic medical appraisals than those spun off by the economic experts: our economic body suffers from the cancerous growth of its financial sector which metastasised to over 20 percent of its GDP. A normally efficient financial sector, likened to the body's blood supply and circulatory system, need be no larger than 10 percent of GDP. Immune system malfunctions where the regulatory functions of their watchdog cells, liver, kidneys and other vital organs were compromised, causing growth of strange, toxic organisms such as CDOs, SIVs, CDSs.

Can the US body economic be healed? Yes! Rejuvenation and reforms are on the agenda of the new Obama administration, as well as plans to perform re-constructive surgery on the economy, towards a new base of solar, wind, and geothermal energy, and a more efficient infrastructure. As the rest of the world relies less on the US dollar, US consumers will kick many old addictions, and producers will grow more sustainable local economies. Bloated industries will downsize while inefficient firms will go bust. The old dreams of Wall Street and old boys' military adventures and empire can quietly fade away.

(*) Hazel Henderson is author of Ethical Markets: Growing The Green Economy, president of the independent Ethical Markets Media and co-creator of the Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators ( www.calvert-henderson.com).

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© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service