How Far Does The Lawlessness Go?

09-11-2009 • The Market Ticker

Out-of-control banana republic regimes usually wind up that way incrementally. Rarely does a madman come to power and simply seize the crown. Oh sure, it happens, but it nearly always incites immediate civil disorder and even open warfare, civil or (often) externally-promoted. When Saddam invadaed Kuwait it did not take long before the world responded with lots of guns, bombs and planes, as just one example. But the slow, gradual co-opting of a government from inside out is another matter. These sorts of regimes usually collapse of their own weight, but not before they take down huge swaths of the population with them, reducing them to squalor. Thus it happened in Zimbabwe, Argentina and countless others over the years. Has it happened in the United States already, but the people simply haven't woken up? Two years ago, five, ten I would have instantly dismissed such a proposition as preposterous. Now I'm not so sure.