A simple premise really -- what would you do if you specifically wanted to weaken a nation's economy:
How to Weaken an Economy
It is not easy to ruin the American economy; doing nothing usually means it repairs itself and soon is healthier than before a recession.
But don't despair: there are plenty of ways to slow down even an inherently strong economy. History offers plenty of examples. But as more contemporary models, take your pick of successfully ruined economies - the Venezuelan, the Cuban, the North Korean, the Greek, the Italian, the Portuguese, or pretty much any from Mediterranean Africa to the Cape of Good Hope. There are certain commonalities about why and how they fail. Let's review some of them.
Dr. Hanson then goes on to list such items as:
Government
The state can never be too big. Ensure that it is unaccountable and intrusive, in constant need of more money and more targets to regulate. The more government, the more people are shielded from the capital-creating, free-market system. Think the DMV or TSA, not Apple.
The Law
To ensure capriciousness and unpredictability for both suspect employers and investors, make the law malleable, even unpredictable from day to day, in the style of an Argentina or Venezuela.
Top Down, Not Bottom Up
Everywhere a War
Deficits
Interest
And I am just scratching the surface -- well thought out and written. Not news though -- we have been seeing this for the last four-plus years.
