History shows that a dominant industry won’t get off its butt and take power until three things have happened:
- Interests opposed to it take power.
- The economy gets driven into a ditch costing the dominant industry equity value.
- The government, rather than being embarrassed by this stupidity, vows to create more trouble.
When I first started researching political and economic history here, back in 2006, I saw generational cycles. I even saw that these cycles were driven by economics. I did not see that a political crisis continues until the newly-dominant industry seizes power.
The last time this all came together, in the form of an election, was in 1980. Ronald Reagan took power on behalf of the energy and media industries. The first was most important. The first provided the money.
Oil was handed considerable power under Nixon, in the crisis election of 1968. They got this almost without asking. They had been with Johnson, they stayed with Nixon. There were oilmen in the Ford Administration as well. But Jimmy Carter was elected in defiance of oil’s interests. He tried to rein-in the power of the oil barons, and their Middle East allies. He wore that cardigan sweater, symbolizing his opposition.
The industry organized against him.
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