Chapter Twenty-Six
A REALISTIC SCENARIO What must be done if we are to avert the pessimistic scenario; a list of specific measures that must be taken to stop the monetary binge; an appraisal of how severe the economic hangover will be; a checklist for personal survival—and beyond.
The pessimistic scenario presented in the previous chapter is the kind of narrative that turns people off. No one wants to hear those things, even if they are true—or we should say especially if they are true. As Adlai Stevenson said when he was a candidate for President: "The contest between agreeable fancy and disagreeable fact is unequal. Americans are suckers for good news." So, where is the optimistic scenario in which everything turns out all right, in which prosperity is restored and freedom is preserved after all? Actually, it is not hard to locate. You can find it every day somewhere in your newspaper. It is the shared faith of almost all politicians, experts, and commentators. If that is what you want to hear, you have just wasted a lot of time reading this book. There is no optimistic scenario. Events have progressed too far for that. Even if we begin to turn things around by forcing Congress to cut spending, reduce the debt, and disentangle from UN treaties, the Cabal will not let go without a ferocious fight. When the Second Bank of the United States was struggling for its life in 1834, Nicholas Biddle, who controlled it, set about to cause as much havoc in the economy as possible and then to blame it on President Jackson's antibank policies. By suddenly tightening credit and withdrawing money from circulation, he triggered a full-scale national depression. At the height of his attack, he declared: "All other banks and all the merchants may break, but the