The Problem with Reality

Reality refuses to do what we are told it is doing. No one except the paid media commentators and corporate stooges thinks the American economy is doing great. The rest of the planet is struggling with the reality we are being told to ignore. That’s a problem. <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2023/01/10/global-economic-prospects" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">At the start of 2023, the World Bank</a> was not optimistic: <blockquote> The global economy is projected to grow by 1.7% in 2023 and 2.7% in 2024. The sharp downturn in growth is expected to be widespread, with forecasts in 2023 revised down for 95% of advanced economies and nearly 70% of emerging market and developing economies. </blockquote> The reasons for this stated by the World Bank were: <blockquote> Given fragile economic conditions, any new adverse development — such as higher-than-expected inflation, abrupt rises in interest rates to contain it, a resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic, or escalating geopolitical tensions — could push the global economy into recession. This would mark the first time in more than 80 years that two global recessions have occurred within the same decade. </blockquote> Guess what? Not only do we have a fragile set of economic conditions with a COVID pandemic resurgence, escalating geopolitical tensions, and increasing interest rates, but a rapidly evolving climate disaster that the World Bank didn’t even mention. America has succeeded in holding interest rates by declaring a 3% inflation normal. It was 2%. Things haven’t gotten worse, so why not? Have we avoided a recession as warned about by the World Bank in January? The economists I read say it is hard to say as we are in new territory. Very little makes sense economically now. The old rules are gone, but that is an academic discussion. <a href="https://rlandok.medium.com/the-problem-with-reality-d3301e86de78">Read More</a>