The global economy is in crisis. Government intervention on a multi-trillion dollar scale is the only thing preventing a worldwide collapse into a new great depression.
This crisis is structural, not cyclical. At its core is the fact that global production, swollen by limitless credit denominated in fiat money, greatly exceeds the consumption that can be financed by the income of the individuals who comprise the world’s population. Governments around the world are borrowing, printing and spending on an unprecedented scale to absorb the global excess capacity (and to prevent asset prices from deflating), but these measures cannot continue indefinitely. The structure of the global economy is unstable and unsustainable. A catastrophic economic breakdown may be unavoidable.
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There’s Still Time for the Korean Won
On Dec. 19, South Korea announced plans for a new fee on bank transactions. The goal was to reduce speculation that was pushing its currency, the won, up in value. But Korean officials are wasting their time. These measures won’t be enough to stop the won from appreciating even more.
After all, we continue to see similar policies fail across the globe. World currencies are spiking as low interest rates and the widening money supply in the United States and Japan force investors to search for higher yields elsewhere.
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