By Steven Tanner

Ask anyone what they think about President Obama’s efforts to stimulate the economy and you’re likely to get one of two responses: (1) It doesn’t go far enough to actually create jobs, or (2) We’re leveraging our children’s future with debt when we should be cutting taxes instead.

If you ask me, both responses are based on false assumptions about the trajectory of Western capitalism.

Everyone would like to see a full recovery back to what we mistakenly perceive as the “normal” state of things. But we’re trying to save an economy built on infinite growth and cheap energy at a time when such frontiers no longer exist – instead of laying the necessary foundations for an austere economic future that will depend on locally driven solutions.