War is a method of controlling aggregate demand. I don't know if anyone mentioned it already. Also, viruses were used in ancient times for the same purpose.
How about lying? Using mis and dis information in the medical sciences to change demand. Tobacco, e coli, are a few examples. Hazard waste classifications? Lead, PCB,s, asbestos. Zoning laws. Daylight savings time (extending the time frame). Controls demand of daytime activities. Obfuscation. Designing monetary policies which are impossible to implement.
Agreed. Absolutely agreed. I was pointing out the idiocy of the fella who dreamt of a pure time before the England managed its economy. There's little debate that govt often screw up economic management and resulted in millions of death (makes a 9-10% unemployment look pretty painless, doesn't it).
Don't necessarily agree with that. What makes you think we'll be in those kind of periods? I'm not being facetious - seriously asking.
In England, there is a high level of economic and political discontent. There have been riots and suggestions of more. In addition the private debt is enormous. A total of one and a half trillion pounds, remember our gdp is only around that. That is not including public debt which is around eight hundred billion and the overall debt with pension liabilities is four point eight trillion. We also have a terrible ageing demographic. On top of that it is likely the Euro will crash.