Martin Armstrong: Don’t Forget To Turn Out The Lights

It’s no surprise to me I am my own worst enemy

‘Cause every now and then I kick the living shit out of me The smoke alarm is going off, and there’s a cigarette

Still burning

Still burning

– Lit – “My Own Worst Enemy”

A new essay from Martin Armstrong:

Will We Commit Economic Suicide by Regulation?

Americans have the amazing inherent ability to shoot themselves in the foot.  Just look at the World Trade Center attack. America passed the “Patriot Act” that did more to destroy the Bill of Rights than any other legislation or foreign act could possibly have done.  What standing armies could not do, we did to ourselves. Then there were the ENRON and WorldCom cases. The legislation that emerged to make corporate officers responsible was so Draconian, where the United States was the financial capital of the world with a 50% share of all IPOs (new stock offerings) in 2000, we managed to once again shoot ourselves in the foot sending the business to London. Now, the US has lost its standing as the Financial Capital of the world and our share of the global IPO market is less than 5%. All the rest of the world has to do is stand on the sidelines like a vulture waiting for ourselves to gnaw off our own legs.

The debate we will now hear is the blame will be placed upon the Republicans and their deregulation policies that caused the collapse of the world economy. This is simply not true!  The problem is over-regulation of small firm and no regulation to speak of for the big firms.  Unless we examine the reality of what took place and consolidate the regulation into a single agency, we will destroy jobs, our economy, and our future. This is not a time for partisan politics. This is a time to rise above the political economic chaff. The Republican Party has self-destructed abandoning its economic conservatives for the religious right. The Republican Party may be a non-entity in the future to be replaced by most likely a new Third Party divorced of the religious agendas. But that we may not see until the next Presidential election. What we must look at is the truth. This is our country we are talking about and the future we leave to our children.

This latest financial collapse caused not by Wall Street, but by the Investment Bankers, could no doubt become the final nail in the coffin destroying American capitalism and whatever is left of the Bill of Rights after the Patriot Act that gave rise to the phrase “Papers please!” Instead of understanding the real problem, we will no doubt create a new “leverage” czar agency who will have no clue what really to do. This may leave the Securit.ies Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”), and the Federal Reserve not to mention the Treasury all with regulatory turf-rights that will destroy the economy.  If such regulatory reform comes out of this, all we will do is create a vast reservoir of jobs for more government workers, perpetuate a host of new jobs for worthless lawyers to interpret the new regulations, and most likely a whole new repertoire of statutes that will get you that tax-free living in jail for life. To enforce it, we will no doubt add an army of former prosecutors masquerading as federal judges that basically click their heels under the bench and say “zieg heil” under their breath before just ruling in favor of the Government no matter what they ask for What no standing army could ever have done to America, we will do to ourselves.

The economic depression we now face has been in part caused by the regulators SEC & CFTC. We are going to wipe out our economy and send it back to the Stone Age. Just as our forefathers left the over-regulated European systems of the day for freedom, it may soon become time to return home. The last rational person to leave, don’t forget to turn out the lights!