History is a funny thing.  It gets written over and over and with each iteration of the story, the perspective changes.  For example, if you read a history of World War II in an American school it is a story of the victory of the Allies over the Nazis made possible by American troops and war material.  But if you read the history of the same period from a Russian perspective, it is one where the Allies were doomed until the brave Russians, in spite of horrific losses, held on and crushed the Nazi war machine.  Which history is right?  The answer is that they both are.  In the end there is no truth, only perspective.

This is evident in the debate that swirls around our economic situation right now.  The president and his followers believe in the FDR model - save the country from the worst of the Great Depression.  They believe quite sincerely that had FDR not intervened into the economy in the massive way that he did, the Depression would have never ended.  This is the history that was taught to me in public school as a child and the one that still dominates most people's understanding of the period. 

However, there is another perspective and that is that the Depression was already on its way out in 1933 when FDR threw us right back in through his policies.  By taxing, regulating, and spending he turned a mild depression into a huge one lasting nearly 15 years.  Which perspective is right?  In my view, it’s the one I stated last, but the consensus believes otherwise and when I say believes, it is with a religious fervor.  I long ago learned not to debate the facts with true believers in anything from economics to global warming.  They don't argue; they get mad. Why enter into a debate with someone who already has their mind made up?  There's just no point.

So here we are, sliding back into recession, the growing popular term for this is "Double Dip Recession" and the press is starting to finally notice.  You are going to hear more and more about the possibility of us going down again.  As always, the press is behind the news.  We have never really climbed out of the last recession and instead just masked it through massive government spending.  The money for that had to come from somewhere else through taxes and borrowing.  Those places, where the money came from, are always more efficient than where the government spends it afterwards.  Think of a man taking a bucket of water from the deep end of a swimming pool and then carrying it to the shallow end, spilling a third of it along the way (representing the percentage of tax dollars wasted on administrative costs) and then dumping the water back into the same pool.  The now reduced amount of water ends up sloshing right back into the deep end but the overall depth of the pool in general gets lower and lower.

But the president and his advisors are true believers in this nonsense and the majority of Congress too.  Even most republicans endorse this sort of thing, just in a smaller way, and this is why the last time they controlled things they spend money like drunken sailors. The only thing different about the democrats is that they spend money like drunken sailors on crack.

All of this of course is beyond our control, and given that there is so little difference between most, but not all, members of the political parties there is little that will change in the fall election.  No, things are going to have to get a lot worse before the true change is even considered. To do what is needed now, like drastically downsizing the federal government and reducing regulation to a bare minimum and deeply cutting taxes are all regarded as radical and therefore most experts would say, even if they agree with the sentiment, that this "will never happen".  Ever the' optimist, I say in reply what Winston Churchill said; "Men change when they hear the gong of their own self-preservation".  True and lasting change will come when things get bad enough. What is radical now will seem reasonable in the future. 

So we just need to soldier on, follow S.O.S. and get our affairs in 21st Century order, and be ahead of the curve instead of always chasing it.  Then when things finally are put right and we are the richer for it, we can remember something else Churchill said.  "There is nothing so exhilarating as being shot at, and missed!"