Sunrise Sunset

Changes in American administrations are a relatively smooth affair, and 2009 is no exception. Maybe this is because, in many respects, we are only changing the overlaying topography and can never seem to rid ourselves of the problems deeply woven into the fabric of our society. For those who are trusting a new batch of politicians to lead us to a better future – I wish you the best of luck.

Change will certainly come to America, but the bar has already been set much too high for Obama. Even if it’s the good kind of change he brings and it’s just what they are looking for, his supporters are still likely to be disillusioned. They have simply placed their faith in a politician – that tends not to go too well.

But what is the underlying economic framework of our country, and just how does the world work? It is by its nature, complex, and difficult to analyze since we take it for granted. Perhaps we will be given the opportunity to more clearly study how the world used to work when it stops working so well.

Still, there isn’t likely much change coming from an economic perspective. President Bush had already begun the Keynesian renewal… infrastructure spending and bailouts for all… telling us to go shopping after 9/11 (as if prosperity comes from spending). It’s true, our new president has made statements in the past that sound more Marxist than just Keynesian, but we will have to hope that we have simply misunderstood. Perhaps the best case scenario is for more of the same.

More of the same, though, is no comfort. It might, in fact, be disastrous. And though we have had good decades and bad, the words of Thomas Jefferson still ring true:

If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.

Jefferson was seldom wrong, but we can always have hope that we are not truly on the path he lays out for us. The “issuing” power he speaks of was given to the banks in 1913 (in the middle of the night two days before Christmas), with the creation of the Federal Reserve – it’s been a bumpy ride ever since.

Hold on tightly, it’s about to get a lot more interesting.