From: bfrg9732@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Brian F. Redman)
Subject: Bankruptcy 1995 (part 7)
Summary: The approaching fiscal Armageddon
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 00:29:45 GMT
Keywords: treachery trickery deceit deception



Bankruptcy 1995: The Coming Collapse of America & How to Stop It.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

by Harry E. Figgie, Jr.
with Gerald J. Swanson, Ph.D.

About the authors:
-- Harry E. Figgie, Jr. is the CEO of Figgie International Inc., 
a diversified *Fortune 500* operating company. He was co-chairman 
of President Reagan's Private Sector Survey on Cost Control, also 
known as the Grace Commission.
-- Dr. Gerald J. Swanson is an Associate Professor of Economics 
at the University of Arizona.

"Any profits from this book have long since been assigned to 
charity. We make no profit whatsoever from it." (p. 25).

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
*                                                               *
* The United States has a problem that is easy to understand,   *
* but whose effects are difficult to comprehend. Its solution   *
* is simple to prescribe, but hard to implement. This problem   *
* is more insidious than drug addiction, more pressing than     *
* recession; it is crueler than poverty and illness and more    *
* hazardous than a hole in the ozone.                           *
*                                                               *
* This problem, which is of our own making, will precipitate    *
* an economic nightmare that will dwarf the Great Depression    *
* and turn the history of America into one of history's         *
* closed chapters. This problem has a name. It is *government   *
* debt.*                                                        *
*                                                               *
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

--------------------------- part 7 ------------------------------

"Sooner or later, every country that has spent beyond its means 
has collided with disaster. The crash that we are about to 
experience has been experienced many times before."

One example of this is the ancient Roman empire. The emperors 
Caligula, Claudius, and Nero successively emptied their 
treasuries "...to pay for lavish ceremonial feasts, luxurious 
villas, elaborate temples, no-show civil servants, and bribes to 
the army and Praetorian Guard to ensure their loyalty." When they 
ran out of cash they raised taxes, seized assets of wealthy 
citizens, or expanded the money supply "...by reminting old coins 
using more base metal and less gold and silver." These policies 
brought them severe inflation.

"By the time Rome collapsed, high taxes had already destroyed 
Roman commerce. Cities and towns were reduced to ruin by lack of 
investment in their maintenance, the population was impoverished 
and dwindling, and riots and rebellion were commonplace."

Another example of how history repeats itself can be found in 
16th century Spain. In that era, Spain began "...running huge 
deficits to pay for wars, a bloated civil service, and endemic 
corruption. By the end of the sixteenth century, revenues covered 
only half the state's spending... Repeated currency devaluations, 
growing inflation, and a murderous tax burden killed off Spanish 
industry and agriculture." What happened then? Spain's global 
influence shrank drastically and it began to close itself off 
from the rest of the world.

We Americans used to laugh at what we called "the banana 
republics." Well, we're "...not laughing now, and we ought to be 
studying their experience."

In the 1980s, Bolivia, Argentina, and Brazil suffered 
hyperinflation which was "...preceded by a period of deflation... 
the deflation in each of these countries began with plunging real 
estate values and then spread, a scenario similar to the one that 
we in the United States are experiencing today."

In the first part of this century, Argentina was a major global 
economic power. Now, however, its worldwide position has sank 
sharply and (up until very recently) it has "...done little that 
had proved effective in cutting its own spending. Its bureaucracy 
was still bloated, its taxes so high they were uncollectable, and 
its corruption widespread and endemic."

"Some economists think that if the United States is very, very 
lucky, it can fix its debt/deficit problems and suffer no more in 
the process than Great Britain has in the last dozen years.  
Great Britain's economy a little more than a decade ago didn't so 
much crash as run aground. In 1976, the British government had to 
ask the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help in servicing 
its debt."

The authors contend that thanks to the stern leadership of the 
"Iron Lady," Margaret Thatcher, the Brits were able to get back 
on track. [Well, what opinion would you expect from the CEO of a 
*Fortune 500* company? B.R.] "Like any stern and demanding 
captain, Thatcher was not loved by all the officers and crew, who 
were reminded that they had to live within the limits of their 
resources." The authors claim that Thatcher "...got England 
moving forward once again." [I don't know much about Great 
Britain, but I seem to recall that there was quite an uproar over 
there quite recently (Fall 1992) over the state of their economy. 
It is my impression that they are by no means "out of the woods" 
yet. B.R.]

[It is my opinion that the authors of this book are generally 
correct when they talk about our perilous economic situation. 
However, my impression is that when they talk about "sacrifice," 
they mean that *others* (besides wealthy capitalists) must do the 
sacrificing. Watch out! This could be the new "trickle down 
economics" scam of the 90s. B.R.]


------------------------- end part 7 ----------------------------

You can do a lot of good by taking this article and posting it to 
other areas besides "alt.activism." You can also post this or 
upload it as a file to a local BBS. This would help give the 
people of this nation an alternative to the "fluff" and 
propaganda posturing as hard news which they are currently 
getting from the major networks.


Synopsis/Review by Brian Redman
"Ah yes, Armageddon. I remember it well."
End part 7