See? This Is Really How I Am

Okay, so pretty much *right after* that fascinating Rubicon article, I run across this piece which explains why wage stagnation has been necessary to keep America from being fiscally taken over by foreigners because of the oil economy. That probably sounds a little long and involved, and it is, but you should read it. The teaser about Rubinomics, Clinton's plan to shift the engine of foreign investment from government money to technological money, is the best part. (It almost worked. We *almost* got free from the financial shackles of oil.)

This is great stuff. I almost wish I could go back and become an econ or polisci major.

Anyhow, the point of the piece is that we're in for a further consolidation of reactionary forces because of the particular characteristics of the oil economy. But to me, that's only the means. Reactionary forces tend to *always* be consolidating and ascendant. That's what reactionary forces *are* and what they *do.* They want to control things. They dedicate themselves to that. Reactionary forces were mightily ascendant long before there was oil, and they'll find a new way to work the system long after oil is gone.

But it *does* look particularly grim these days for The Little Guy and whatever dispirited, bleeding liberals we've got left.