Stamm: Avoiding Peter Pan’s deprivan economy
Everything seemed fine. The giraffes, elephants, tigers and chimp were leisurely roaming the ranch while the parrot and exotic birds held an idyllic view from the trees. The carnival rides were full of happy children and the purveyor of the property, the king of the ranch, looked at his investment with pride.
The owner was invigorated in the daytime; however, sleeplessness set in during the evening hours. Possibly unable to cope with past mistakes, and in denial of a debt overhang of $500 million while still spending lavishly, he reverted to the use of a type of “pixie dust” called Diprivan because of its anesthetic properties.
His problems remained even though his awareness of them is dulled. To make things worse, those friends who knew the truth remained quiet and enjoyed the illusion of peace while it lasted. With multiple injections of “pixie dust,” and a variety of other drugs, it appeared relief was close at hand and that improved performance, albeit in another country, was only days away. However, after an especially stressful workout for the upcoming gig, reality cast its dark shadow over the empire and its image.
Peter Pan never grew up even while his environment kept changing. He lived in self-denial believing that all was well in the “land that never was.” Analogously, all might seem well in the U.S. economy with stocks rising, housing showing some signs of improvement, clunkers being redeemed, job losses lessening and gross domestic product declining at a slower pace.
From the bailout or outright purchase of banks, insurance companies and auto firms, to quantitative easing and zero interest rates, to the Federal Reserve’s rescue efforts to making new homes more affordable, over $7 trillion has been committed to or invested in the economy. All appears to be well as “green shoots” in various forms are spotted by the experts.
The U.S. will return to economic reality. We will come out of this self-induced euphoria, and, unlike the King of Pop, whose financial affairs have fallen into the hands of friend and foe, our country will need to pay for the “pixie dust” that it has borrowed from both friends and foes.
The financial injections may bring temporary relief in the equity and housing markets, however, unless we face the cause of our inherent weakness that has its root in avarice and arrogance, we will return from whence we came. When the anesthesia wears off, we are back where we started – or possibly back even further because of the high cost of the drugs.
I am afraid that Peter Pan cannot save us because he cannot save himself. Trying to live in a self-induced artificial time warp will not work, and neither will outdated monetary and fiscal policies. Neverland was an inflated, exaggerated, ostentatious way of life that had a death sentence on it from the beginning. An economy, or for that matter an individual, must face reality and not avoid it. Moreover, if that means leaving Neverland and returning to a “new normal,” then “Let it Be.” The alternative is to remain starved for more stimulus injections, only to be more dependent on drugs with no cure.
Written by Professor of Economics Brad Stamm
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I whole-heartedly agree with this article as I beleive that people who take drugs to “forget” about life are not helping themselves as their problems will still be there and most likely get worse.
Taking drugs and using substances to either lessen the pain of problems or to forget about any past regrets will not help but actually hinder the resolution of the problems. Right choices and smart business and economic moves come with clear thinking and a drug-free brain.
I definitely agree with this article. Right now the U.S. is trying to cover up the economic crisis. We are dishing out money left and right and doing bailouts trying to make things better. I like how this is compared to drugs. Drugs make everything feel better for awhile, but eventually reality and the truth will set in and nothing will be able to make it better. In the end result taking “drugs” and trying to cover up the economic problems will have only made it worse. The U.S. just needs to face the economoy and do what they can to improve it and not just cover it up.
I agree on your view point 100%. What does our country think is going to happen, that we will wake up out of a state of mind that came from drugs and our economy will be right back to normal. Its not that easy. Our country just needs to buckle up and take the next steps to improve where we are.
I think this is a very eye opening article. It’s something that my dad talks about all the time, but I don’t understand because I don’t really know what he is talking about. I believe that drug-abuse is taking over this nation and we are too busy taking the drugs to even think about what’s it’s doing to us.
I fully agree with everything Professor Stamm said. The U.S. is in a huge amount of debt right now and instead of facing the issue head on, we are trying to cover it up and make it sound better then it really is. We are making an, “Illusion of Peace,” that won’t last forever. Once the “drugs” wear off reality will set in and we may be in a deeper hole then we were before. We need to put our game faces on and get things done instead pretending everything is okay.
I agree with this article 100% because all these things that are doing to try and help our economy really isn’t going to help in the long run. Most the people for instance that use the cash for clunkers program mostly likely cant afford a new car anyways. So even though they are getting money back to buy a new car they are still spending way more then they would if they would sell the car on their own and just purchase a better used care instead of a new car. So i agree with your article and points because we keep just going into debt like its no big deal and are not making progress in the right way
I totally agree with this article and everything that it talks about. It drives me nuts how our country thinks that we can just sit around and pretend like nothing is going on. It is time for everyone to get a dose of reality and wake up to these HARD economic times that we are in. Our government needs to stop sending money to the bail everyone else out and put that money back into our economy. Our national debt continues to rise and our quality of living keeps going down. This has to stop soon, WAKE UP AMERICA!
I also agree with what Professor Stamm wrote. While the money that the government is investing in our economy is helping us right now, it is only a temporary fix. Even though money is being invested, it only prolongs the inevitable of an economic depression comparable to the Great Depression. Many people think that we are coming out of a recession, i believe we are still in the downward spiral of it and have a long ways to go before hitting the bottom. While i don’t have the answers to this econmic problem i know that we need to continue putting it in God’s hands.
It’s interesting to see how an analogy is drawn between Peter Pan and people who live in an idealistic world and cope with their problems and reality by drowning them out.
I agree with what was said in the article about the U.S. having to pay back the “pixie dust” that was borrowed; however, I don’t know if we are willing to wake up and face the reality of this economic crisis. America has been trying to cover it up, but I think that the time is coming soon where reality is going to hit home.
The analogy between Peter Pan, Michael Jackson (both from Neverland), and the U.S. economy is well put. Part of the predicament the U.S. economy finds itself in now is the ongoing matter of Americans, including myself, in concordance with our level of awareness as to what is going on with our own economy. We can blame the government for not being forthright with information, blame the media for telling us only what we are wanted to know, but ultimately, it is due to our dull awareness of the problems staring us in the face every day, as we interact in society, in retail, in our jobs, with other cultures/co-cultures, and with our families. What will it take to change our self-denial?
I agree. The “pixie dust” is bringing false hope to those out there that feel the economy is turning around. I have yet to agree with the ridiculous amounts of government bailouts that have only brought this country deeper into debt. Week after week we hear of another multi-billion dollar bailout. Does anyone understand where this money is coming from? We are only causing this economic crisis to last longer. At this point we need come up with the alternative to passing out money.
This article sums everything up that the U.S. is currently struggling with. We cannot continue to live the way we do, the debt that our economy is in is overwhelming. Is it that we are still trying to tell ourselves that we are not headed or head strong into a recession? I think we need to snap out of it, and help our country to realize that big changes need to be made if we are going to still be known as the Land of the Free, because the little things that we’ve been addicted to doing for so long aren’t helping us.