No, We Are Not A "Banana Republic"

Powerline asks:

Are We A Banana Republic?

No, we are an arugula republic. You guys really need to keep up.

 

Comments

[WBestPresidentEver]

We are in deep do do. That is what we are.

[Greg Toombs]

Arugula republic - heh.

Wagyu nation is sooo last month.

[lonetown]

Wait till ACORN knocks on your door for the census, then answer.

I believe your answer will be in the affirmative.

[ajacksonian]

We are a Republic that has gone bananas.

Totally different.

Banana Republics get plays, poems and t-shirts showing bloody killers on them and lionizing them.

Republics going bananas seek to place blame on those in power and those playwrites, singers, sweet killers supporting them.

Both get you revolutions, the latter gets you one *against* the people who wanted it... the first common, the second rare. And we are one, fine, Shays away from the second, and always have been. And with the Feiler Faster Thesis in play, the second will go very much faster this time around.

[Todd]

We've been a banana republic in the making for decades ever since we started piling on debt in all sectors of the economy (government, corporate, consumer). This has been a ponzi scheme for a long time and the surprising things to me are 1) it lasted as long as it did and 2) that people are shocked, shocked that it's all coming apart. You can't borrow your way to prosperity - you have to earn it. It took many years to arrive at the financial abyss, so it will take many years before we find our way out of it. All of these financial schemes being proposed depend on spending money we don't have, and trying to juice up the consumer to spend money they don't have. It just seems like an exercise in futility to me.

To answer your question, Dan, we aren't a banana republic yet (the Chinese and others still lend us money). We will be a banana republic when that stops.