When Does "Managed Perception" Become Reality?

05-02-2011 • OfTwoMinds.com/blog

The Federal Reserve is quite open about the ultimate purpose of all its machinations: to "manage perceptions" so the citizenry believe the "recovery" is real. The Fed reckons that belief will cause people to start a new debt-consumption orgy that will fuel a self-reinforcing cycle of expansion. Put another way: the Fed is trying to induce a reanimation of "animal spirits," i.e. a restored faith in future prosperity that inspires households to load up on more debt and buy, buy, buy. The difference between blatant propaganda and "managing perceptions" is... well, there isn't any. The Fed and Federal machinery are both engaged in a massive propaganda campaign to obscure the gargantuan risks implicit in their various trillions-dollar campaigns to mask systemic failure and risk and construct a facade of normalcy and "recovery." Meanwhile, even the staid MSM flagbearer The Economist is noting that America's "leadership" hasn't fixed anything, and has no intention of doing so: What's wrong with America's economy? (Thank you, John R.) The U.S. economy is "recovering" like a drunk "recovers" by chugging half a bottle of rotgut: the terror of reality is replaced by the warm glow of a new high. The terrible reality is the U.S. economy has been hollowed out by financialization and the dishonesty, fraud and corruption that are the essential components of financialization--a process that invariably leads to a concentration of wealth and power.