America's Economy Really Is Screwed Up, And The Problem Is Corruption

America's Economy Really Is Screwed Up, And The Problem Is Corruption

by Raul Ilargi Mendoz

Over the past few days, Henry Blodget at Business Insider posted a number of graphs, here and here, which depict something about the US economy that everybody knows to some extent or another, but that most of us won't have let thoroughly sink in. For some because the consequences are too opaque, for others because they are too scary. But make no mistake: we can only continue to ignore or misinterpret them at our own peril. And even then it's terribly late in the game.
The essence of Blodget's argument is this:
"... over the past 30 years, we've generated about $1 of economic growth for every $3 we've borrowed."
So while real (inflation-adjusted) GDP growth looks sort of strong over the past 6 decades: