'The Best is Yet to Come' World Shift to Free Market Model Portends Strongest-Ever Global Economic Expansion

Speaking like the true supply-side economist he is, Dr. Barry Asmus closed the CoreNet Global Summit November 20 in San Diego by crediting Ronald Reagan with 20 years of economic prosperity, save the mild recession of 1991.

Yet the nation and world are poised for another round of expansion even more substantial than the 1990's brought, the National Center for Policy Analysis senior economist predicted.

"The best is yet to come," Asmus stated. "The next business expansion cycle will be even stronger."

Pointing out that the U.S. economy grew at a rock-steady rate of 3% from 1983 - 1999, Asmus reminded the audience of real estate executives and asset managers that the stage was set for today's economic slow-down by a white-hot growth rate of 9% in 1999, thanks largely to Y2K and the one-time-only outpouring of capital that came with the huge technological upgrade at the century's turning.

Combined with interest rate increases, the anti-trust case against Microsoft and the "irrational exuberance" of dot.com valuations, the stage was set for the "Perfect Economic Storm," Asmus recounted. It's a storm that frankly could have been much worse, he implied.

We're about to emerge from the bad weather, according to Asmus, who joked that economists predicted eight of the last three recessions.

"We're now embarking on a business cycle never seen before," he observed. "There's turmoil where we are now," he said, including the current fight for freedom from terrorism and against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. "Will it be worth fighting for? Indeed, it will," he commented to strong applause.

Much like business commentator Stuart Varney noted in his opening session remarks, Asmus believes the economy and stock markets will improve markedly once the Iraqi threat ends.

Yet there are forces beyond the potential U.S. and allied actions against Iraq or the Al-Quaeda terror organization, Asmus explained, that will result in a more global economic boom. Whereas "the 20th Century was good for the U.S. but not the whole world," Asmus theorizes that growth in the 21st Century will include other countries, for several reasons.

"There will be more wealth created in the world in the next 20 years than in the last 250," Asmus predicted.

One factor is the dissolution of top-down "command and control" style governments seen largely in the former Soviet block but in other regions as well. "In the future, nations will give commanding height to capitalism, not to governments," said Asmus, who is rated as one of the top five most-requested speakers by USA Today.

Another reason many countries beyond America will join in the next wave of economic expansion: Asmus cites privatization as an empowering force. He used Chile as an example, and former General Pinochet's decision to privatize the nation's social security system, which has netted an average $500,000 retirement fund for its people since the government-based model was changed 20 years ago.

"Any country can choose prosperity if it wants," he emphasized, listing as the key growth factors privatization, deregulation, cutting tax margins and lowering trade tariffs.

"You'll see economic miracles through Asia," especially in Taiwan and South Korea as a result of these entrepreneurial philosophies, Asmus envisioned. "It will be a win/win for the U.S."

The introduction of formal individual property rights within the African nations will bring economic growth to that continent, too. "Titles, deeds and articles of incorporation are the very essence of free market collateral," Asmus added.

"The world is moving from a political to a market model," he explained, and the U.S. should follow the example of other countries to fix current problems including social security, education and health care mainly through privatized solutions such as individual retirement accounts, tuition tax credits and medical savings accounts. "We're in a solutions world [where] people want to buy solutions. It's an added value world in which service is the competitive edge. Service is a world where good enough never is."

Low interest rates for the next five years will lead to stable prices and wages, combining with forces that will lead to another "Perfect Storm," an economic progression of greater depth and breadth than we've ever known. Add one more ingredient and economies will really start to hum: the demographic and monetary shift of 50-somethings whose kids are leaving home to start their own lives, and the trillions of dollars in wealth that will be freed up as a result - a softer, or more human, version of the one-time Y2K bubble, perhaps, though more prolonged.

"The best is yet to come," he concluded, thanks to interest rates, demographics and free market moves.