Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of the accompanying video from professor Peter St. Onge.
In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the then-chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, Simon Johnson, warned that the same dysfunctional policies he saw in basket case banana republics had taken hold in the United States.
He warned that if we didn’t act fast, we would plunge into a “quiet coup” as the American financial system effectively captures the government, bailing itself out until we run out of money.
Well, we didn’t act fast. In fact, it got worse. And here we are.
In recent videos, I’ve talked about the trillion dollars of distress in the financial system, the common thread being that you, the taxpayer, will be bailing them all out. We saw this in the 2023 bank…
