Reboot the economy with a plan that looks forward to a time when things will be much different.

Well,the big news is that the stock market is way down again.  Surprise surprise.

At this point, I would like to revisit my thoughts on an economy based on growth.

Much of the blame for the recent drop in the market seems to be focused on the poor jobs reports and the continued difficulties in the Euro Zone.  While that is probably a righteous analysis, the blame for the economy being in the state it is needs to be spread more widely and analyzed in more depth.

People's confidence in the financial system and the economy has always been seen as an indicator of the direction of the economy.  Confident consumers equals consuming consumers.  Increased consumption equals a growing economy.

Well, the finance elite would have you believe that this bad news in the jobs report is the most important factor in the wavering confidence of the average consumer.  The more they tell you that, the more likely it is that you will believe them.  Somehow, they are hoping that the recent story about a JP Morgan Chase fiasco, which had them losing 2-3 billion dollars or more on the same type of complex derivatives that sent us into the morass we have been in since 2008, is seen as having nothing to do with it.  Hmm.  The lack of humility of Wall Street's major players, and their effects on the economy in the past and the potential effects that they may have on the economy in the future are much more troubling to me.

So we need consumption to get the economy growing faster in order to create more jobs.  People increase consumption when they feel that they have disposable income and are confident that it will stay that way.  Instabilities in the financial markets decrease confidence in the future.  This decreases consumption and the economy slows, decreasing disposable income, decreasing consumption...  Is it unreasonable to consider excessive consumption an unstable base on which to perch our economy?

I believe we need to analyze our economy based on comparing the present situation in all of its complexity to what we can try to predict about the future economy when important changes will have taken place in the makeup of humanity.

There will be a time when the human population level is effectively stable if not shrinking.  The undeniable fact that our planet is limited in size frames the positivity with which I tell you this.  When it will occur depends on the rate at which we approach that limitation, and the extent to which we are able to adapt and provide for the growing populace.

Some, myself included, believe that we are either approaching or have already exceeded the acceptable carrying capacity of our planet.  We have huge problems created by the huge growth in human population.  Our resource depletion and the costs and effects of obtaining them, using them, and disposing of the waste is putting a huge strain on many aspects of the ecosystem.

Putting these realities in the context of the economy over time, should steer our thoughts on how to deal with the economic planning and regulation. The future will be one of population stability. We need to phase our economy over time to accommodate that future.   The sooner we can do that the better, but it can only happen smoothly if the changes are well thought and enacted in a timely and predictable manner.  One must always keep in mind that change typically happens slowly and the immensity of the changes we need to our systems requires an understanding of that need and a commencement of action as soon as possible.

The paradigm of growth as the ideal model for the global economy must be replaced, in a controlled manner over time, with one where the goals are decreasing the amplitude of the bubble/recession cycle and increasing economic stability at very low growth rates.