The West in crisis: the economic roots of decline

The West's silent crisis: from money to the soul

Imagine a bar table in 1945. With the war won, everything seemed possible. Eighty years later, the question hanging in the air is: what went wrong? The answers range from the technical to the visceral. An economic analysis dissects the malaise without pulling punches.

The gold standard and the money-printing machine

One of the most concrete diagnoses points to 1971. Nixon's abandonment of the gold standard peine the door to unlimited fiat money creation. Without a real anchor, inflation and inequality soared, while financial assets became increasingly volatile. Today, the Western economy is a monetary house of cards.

Democracy: cause or symptom?

Another analysis links the decline to democracy itself: populist regimes and short-term decision-making would have accelerated the decay. Yet the capitalism of the golden years (1965) was no utopia for everyone either: the golden age clashes with the reality of the majority.

The cultural factor and collective immaturity

The diagnosis extends to society. It criticizes the infantilization of adults aged 40 to 60, and points to cultural figures like Bud Banny as examples of an empty culture dragging along uncritical trinc. For some, cultural alienation is the most visible symptom of a system that domesticates the population.

The analysis closes with the idea that there was no mistake, but that the system has worked as planned: an atomized, consumerist society with no capacity for revolt. The unsettling fact: despite inflation and inequality, mass protests never come. Perhaps, as the conclusion goes, the system has worked exactly as intended.