>Oz and the US have clearly gone mad. If this is growth, we don't count it
>right. If this is an economy worth upgrading, we don't lend right. If the
>world market depend on ongoing debt-financed consumption like this, its
>future is to be measured in months.
>From a Business Week special issue on "The Debt Economy":
"The U. S. economy stands atop a mountain of debt $25 trillion high - a mountain built of all the cars and houses, all the factories and machines that have made this the biggest, richest economy in the world. The stunning thing about the debt economy is how rapidly it grew.... Consumers raced through the liquid assets they had piled up during [World War II] and, having spent them, borrowed so they could keep on buying. To meet their demands, corporations began piling up debt at an accelerating clip. Meanwhile, federal spending - and borrowing - stayed high, and borrowing by local governments became a new fact of life for the financial markets."
The piece goes on to wonder how long it can all persist. It was published in October 1974.
Doug