Is Near Depression Like Near Beer?

The IMF admits that the West is stuck in "near depression".

Near-depression sounds so much nicer than Depression. The PIIGS are still squealing. There are riots in Spain over the austerity measures put in place to try and deal with the debt crisis. It looks funny to me that the Euro is holding up so well -- even against gold. I don't see how the European economic union is going hold together. At some point the Germans have to bail on the bloodsuckers.

Bernanke and the Fed are still fighting deflation -- supposedly. What they are really trying to do, good Keynesians, is kick-start some inflation -- their target is probably in the 6-8% range. The federal government cannot afford deflation -- not with deficits in excess of a trillion per year as far as the eye can see and no way to pay. A wiser group of people might start thinking that maybe a cattle prod is not the fix for a dead horse.

I'm beginning to think maybe we need a new horse. Maybe instead of taxing people who earn money, we should tax the spending of money. We definitely need to get rid of the capital gains tax and all estate taxes.

I'd like to see Medicare -- which is broke, and Medicaid replaced with increased competition and catastrophic medical insurance policies. If we were to go to the Fair Tax, medical savings accounts would be unnecessary, as would employer subsidized health insurance.