I sent out two letters to the editor yesterday: one to the Deseret News, the other to the Daily Herald. Below are the letters as I sent them, with red strikethroughs showing what the editors removed (and green showing what was added).
Saying the ‘R’ word Just say it: Recession
There is a word in our economic vocabulary that has become taboo as of late. Economists and government leaders fear saying the word, as it would decrease “consumer confidence” and cause financial panic to ensue.
What is the word I’m referring to? Recession.
Depending on whose statistics you prefer to believe, we are either heading into or are already in a recession. Much of the blame is to be laid at the door of Congress and our executive branch, whose careless fiscal and foreign policies have destroyed the dollar and inflated our currency to astronomical proportions.
By one projection, the amount of currency circulating in the economy has risen by 42% in the past two years alone. This new money means that every previously existing dollar is worth less, thus increasing prices and the cost of operating business. It is this result (the cause of which is loose fiscal policy) that creates what we call a recession.
It’s time to start saying the ‘R’ word a little more often, if for nothing else than to wake people up to our economy’s status and induce people to boot out of office the people who got us into this mess.
“See no recession”
It seems that people are becoming like the three wise monkeys with regard the to the economy. Instead of evil, however, the subject is recession. Thus, people take the stance of “see no recession, hear no recession, speak no recession”.
Or, put differently, we have an economic elephant in the room that few are talking about.
Yes, we’re in a recession. Some are lucky enough, depending on where they live, to only be entering a recession. But as a whole our economy is performing quite poorly, largely due to the inflated dollar that is spiraling downwards.
We could point fingers all day long (it’s not hard to figure out, once you stop “seeing no recession”), but it would be far more constructive to pursue policies that would aid a weakening economy, support a declining dollar, and reassure the worrisome taxpayer.
How do we start? Stop the printing presses at the Federal Reserve, curb deficit spending, and terminate foreign military adventurism. Those three things, if pursued aggressively, would have an immediate and noticeable positive impact in our economy.
As we go to the polls this fall, it’s important to vote for those people advocating a similar economic remedy–not just a “stimulus” that does little to fix the recession.
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