Book Excerpt Of The Week: Part 2- "Empower The People" By: Tony Brown

"Investors are rational people, and they are not fooled by the government's printing-press scam. They simply do not want to be paid back with weaker dollars. Therefore, they only have confidence in the U.S. economy when unemployment is high enough to offset the debasing effects on the currency of the circulation of more dollar notes of debt.

In my opinion, this policy has placed our country on an unsustainable path because it ignores the mandate to invest in the future. Officially, the government strives for a sluggish 2 percent annual growth.

Why is the government deliberately stunting the growth of the American economy? 'Because we're in a growth tunnel,' says economist Lester Thurow. And the ceiling and the floor of this growth tunnel are bound by federal debt. For example, if output continued to grow at 4.8 percent annually, the hidden structural flaw in our economy would become apparent to the public. The process of inflationary printing would be exposed, as would maintaining enough joblessness among the poor to protect investments of the wealthy. Also, if the output of the rest of the world is growing about 2 percent, the United States would suck in so many imports that our trade deficit would soar. Professor Thurow says that with that kind of trade deficit problem, at some point 'the dollar falls out of bed' and causes hyperinflation of American assets. Therefore, our debt limits us with a growth ceiling.

The floor is made up of another kind of debt problem, Thurow says. For example, if our overdue recession occurs in 1998, Latin American, which sells most of its exports to the United States, will not earn enough to pay the interest on its debt. Latin America would default and, as a result, the ten largest banks in the United States would be technically bankrupt.

America's dilemma: Both the ceiling debt problem and the floor debt problem in our economy's growth tunnel lead to hyperinflation and ultimately a national disaster.

We lost 28 percent of our standard of living during the Great Depression of 1929. The loss I am describing will be four times as big as the biggest recession since World War II. Poor and marginal families will be hit even harder. To put it mildly, it will be an industrial-size mess. And that means is being intentionally created in the name of fighting inflation." -"Empower The People" By: Tony Brown