The economic doom-and-gloomers: ' Pessimism Porn'

You have read here that I believe that one of the major causes of our current economic troubles has been a crisis of confidence.

This has been fed by the constant drumbeat of over the top economic negativism for almost two years, much of which was instigated by the desire to scare the public (ultimately successful) into installing a Democrat in the White House to lead us to the hard left in matters political, social, and economic.

Led by such "luminaries" as the execrable Paul Krugman nationally, and by people like Ed "The Ace" Cone locally, they got their wish. They've now switched their wailing and moaning about the situation into extending government control over every aspect of public life, starting with the financial world, telling absurd stories to justify more and increasingly onerous government intrusion.

What (besides driving the worldview agenda) could cause these fools to continue doing this?

Simple.

Many of these fools suffer a form of pessimism porn.

Here's just one example of the malady:

"This is cruder stuff than I usually go for. Abstruse financial analysis provides a more satisfying jolt of fright, dread, and incomprehension. One god-awful prediction that dances through my head at three in the morning is the 'coming dollar debasement trade,' which will happen when the Chinese and the rest of the world give up, en masse, on our currency as a reserve. The leading nightmare peddlers see it as nothing less than the end of civilized America."

....and:

"Like real porn, the economic variety gives you the illusion of control, and similarly it only leaves you hungry for more. But econo-porn also feeds a powerful sense of intellectual vanity. You walk the streets feeling superior to all these heedless knaves who have no clue what’s coming down the pike. By making yourself miserable about the frightful hell that awaits us, you feel better. Pessimism can be bliss too."

I think people like Cone and Krugman suffer from a variation of this perversion.

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