The 21st Century Global Economics Experiment

Not since the days of the Cold War has there been such a clash of national economics policies. The UK has made an abrupt U-turn away from deficit spending, embracing the hair shirt of austerity. Elsewhere in Europe, big spending EU governments have followed suit, although not with the fervor of true believers. Keynesian economics may be disproved, or not.

America is caught in political crosscurrents, with fiscal policy stifled by a prairie fire of populism. The Federal Reserve is the only show in town, and the financial markets believe the Fed will put on a dazzling performance. Stock, commodities and bond valuations all presume that the Fed is going to walk into the joint and be a real big spender. Monetary policy is at the plate, and no one is on deck. The Austrian school of economics may be disproved, or not.

In China, an ad hoc amalgam of state controlled enterprise and fiercely capitalistic forces has propelled the Chinese economy into a meteoric rise. The Communist Party in China has craftily exploited market forces to raise living standards, thereby legitimizing its continued control while it gradually jettisons a failed ideology. The Chinese are wittingly or unwittingly recreating an updated version of dynastic China, where government played a large role in the economy but allowed private trade and commerce to spark growth. Imperial China was for over 1,000 years the wealthiest nation in the world, so this model has a history of success. If China continues its upward trajectory, free market ideologues may be discombobulated. Or not, if the heavy hand of state control of the economy and political freedoms smothers the individual initiative needed for lasting prosperity.

Since economists can't conduct controlled experiments, the world today is about as good as it gets for students of comparative economics. Ten or twenty years from now, tentative conclusions might be possible. Or not, since nothing in economics is ever truly resolved. Schools of thought mostly go in and out of fashion.

But what if they're all wrong? What if austerity in the Old World produces stagnation or even recession? What if the Fed's forthcoming liquidity dump fails? The financial system already has a trillion dollars of unused liquidity on deposit at Federal Reserve banks. More liquidity is likely to be just the proverbial push on a string, while stagnation continues. And what if China's real estate and credit bubbles burst, pushing China into the stagnation experienced by Japan and now America? With China's severe demographic problem of too many old and not enough young, any slowdown in China's growth could upset the entire apple cart the government is trying to push along.

If all models and all schools of thought are wrong, we have a problem. There wouldn't be any credible paradigm in which to find solutions. We might find ourselves mired in slumps and malaise, with struggling to muddle through the only strategy. But Americans are good at muddling. Every major crisis in American history, from the Revolution to the Civil War to World War II to the Cold War, was a painful muddle. Even if all the economists are confounded, Americans can still have faith in themselves, and that's always proven to be enough.