It’s getting to the point that even the business press can’t avoid the flood of financial disaster that is sweeping through our economy. This is from Igor Greenwald at SmartMoney, a publishing venture of Dow Jones.

We have nothing to fear but fear itself, unless it’s two more “house for rent” signs on the block and the sight of the fuel oil truck in the driveway. Any day now President Bush will declare that recession talk aids terrorists and ask the nation to troop down to the mall and charge it.

——–

But economic crises don’t just happen on a whim, and are not generally an indicator that everything is fine. We’re about to discover how much of our recent prosperity was an illusion built on too much cheap credit. And the market is telegraphing its thinking on the subject with a string of minus signs.

——–

So as we sit in our spacious and chilly houses this winter and crawl in traffic in those thirsty SUVs past the for-rent signs in strip mall after strip mall, we should let our minds wander a little from the narrow path our economic masters have laid out.

——–

Whole industries have been cosseted by anticompetitive deals intended to limit consumer choice and shut out outsiders. Telecommunications is one such field; utilities and health care also qualify.

The “war” on terror has predictably increased business transaction costs; Iraq and the whole shoes-off-at-airports comedy routine sap tax dollars and run up the GDP without increasing national wealth, as such.

When a political system is more proficient at generating corruption scandals and hereditary dynasties than it is at balancing the budget, it’s fair to call that system dysfunctional.

The shocker in the World Economic Forum’s recent Global Competitiveness Report wasn’t the fact that the U.S. ranked No. 1, thanks to investments laid down in happier times. The real shocker was that in health and primary education The Superpower came in 34th, in a virtual tie with Montenegro. In macroeconomic stability, a.k.a. balancing the books, we were No. 75, just behind Venezuela and Suriname.

Read the full text of this spot on article Here