G-20 and the big-ass elephant in the Euro-US economies

No one wants to talk about the big-ass elephant. They all pretend the elephant doesn't exist. The metaphor is cliched by now, but it's appropriate to the European/US economic situation. Decades ago Europe, for the most part, decided that orthodox Marxism and liberalism were untenable, so they developed a Third Way, and soon the US followed in our own "American" way. The common premise has been that orthodox Marxism/socialism failed and capitalism is unjust and has to be controlled through political means -- the ability to take the political path is accomplished through democracy. If a big enough political alliance is created then the anti-capitalists can control capitalism through political means and put its wealth creation to political use. Economic means are put aside.

What Europe and the US failed to accept is what the Austrians knew, capitalism can't operate by political means, at least not for long. Both Europe and America have intervened in the economies of the different States until the unintended consequences have eventually created widespread stagnation and crippling debt. The rest of the world will not allow the US and Europe to continue borrowing and spending without replacing what is consumed with what is produceed. Reality will not allow this either -- reality, like the elephant in the economies that no one wants to talk about.

I watched Obama give his G-20 speech and the pundits analyzed it, and the European functionaries blamed America, and Obama blames Bush, but the fact is that European and the US governments will not allow capitalism to work, and the consequences are dire because there's no more wealth to redistribute. The schemes are failing -- no one knows what to do, and if they do know, they will not allow the solution to develope because it would destroy their worldview built around social democracy.