Too Fragile

As Bernie Sanders continues his ascendency as the candidate of starry-eyed college kids, 1960s-era progressives, and those on the hard-left, the mainstream Democratic party and it's dishonest and corrupt flag bearer, Hillary Clinton, rely on a southern "firewall' to stop Bernie's advance.

As a cyrpto-communist, Bernie's socialist narrative is wrong on most things, but not everything. His suggestion that "too big to fail" is dangerous resonate with most voters. His argument that Wall Street continues its irresponsible development of financial instruments that benefit no one but Wall Street and its very big money investors is largely accurate. With that it mind, there is a way that Sanders could be propelled into the presidency.

Allister Heath writes:

They bounce back after terrorist attacks, pick themselves up after earthquakes and cope with pandemics such as Zika. They can even handle years of economic uncertainty, stagnant wages and sky-high unemployment. But no developed nation today could possibly tolerate another wholesale banking crisis and proper, blood and guts recession.

We are too fragile, fiscally as well as psychologically. Our economies, cultures and polities are still paying a heavy price for the Great Recession; another collapse, especially were it to be accompanied by a fresh banking bailout by the taxpayer, would trigger a cataclysmic, uncontrollable backlash.

The public, whose faith in elites and the private sector was rattled after 2007-09, would simply not wear it. Its anger would be so explosive, so-all encompassing that it would threaten the very survival of free trade, of globalisation and of the market-based economy. There would be calls for wage and price controls, punitive, ultra-progressive taxes, a war on the City and arbitrary jail sentences.

In the main, U.S. economic fragility can be traced to the massive growth of government (and the consequent diminishment of the private sector), our $19+ trillion national debt, our financially unstable entitlements, and the notion that "moral hazard" no longer applies to the financial sector. Over its eight years in power, the current Democratic administration has done nothing to moderate any of these things. In fact, through bad policy and irresponsible ideology, it has made things worse—much worse.

If another 2008 crash occurs in the short-term (and it might), Bernie Sander's anti-capitalist rhetoric will resonate across the electorate. It could propel him into the presidency.

Of course, the socialism that Sanders advocates won't fix a thing. In fact, it'll make a bad situation even worse, possibly irreparably worse. But that won't matter. If people are angry today—and they are—they will be infuriated if another crash occurs. Let's just hope it doesn't.