PCG Absurdly Compares USA to Sri Lanka Crisis

As is well known Sri Lanka is currently stuck within a severe economic and political crisis. PCG has published an article about this crisis. However instead of explaining what is happening the crisis is exploited to imply that the United States may also soon end up like Sri Lanka. (Richard Palmer, Could America Soon Look Like Sri Lanka?, April 20, 2022.)

Palmer says Sri Lanka has a corruption problem. But many nations have problems with corruption and they are not falling apart like Sri Lanka. That does not explain this situation in and of itself.

Palmer says Sri Lanka is allying itself with China. He says Sri Lanka has been making trade deals with China and not getting good deals with them. But many nations have made trade deals with China and they are not falling apart like present day Sri Lanka. That also does not explain this situation in and of itself.

Palmer says Sri Lanka has a lot of debt. But many nations have a lot of debt without falling apart the way Sri Lanka is. That also does not explain this situation in and of itself.

Then finally Palmer mentions something truly specific to Sri Lanka.

The government also made things worse, abruptly banning the import of pesticides and forcing the country to switch to organic farming last year. In the long run, moving away from pesticides and herbicides has a lot of advantages. But it’s not a change that can easily be made at the drop of a hat. Food output plummeted, and the country had to import more, worsening its economic situation.

That is what really set Sri Lanka onto its path to catastrophe. Back in April 2021 the Sri Lanka government banned certain pesticides and essentially ordered the nation's farmers to switch to organic farming. With this sudden switch productivity declined to such an extent that it began to cause many other horrible negative consequences that are now sorely evident to everyone. 

But PCG relies on a lay membership mainly based in the United States so Palmer has to scare monger that a similar situation will occur in the United States.

The big difference is, the U.S. dollar is the world’s reserve currency. Despite a series of horrible decisions, people are still willing to buy it: They need to, to engage in international trade. Even so, inflation is starting to bite, at 8.5 percent.

No one thinks that corruption, inflation or debt are good things. But it’s easy to lose sight of how destructive they can be. Sri Lanka shows that they have potential to be nation-destroying problems. And the U.S. is walking down the same path.

It is very unlikely that the United States could collapse in this manner. Especially since the US has not tried to impose all farmers to organic farming. It is unfortunate that PCG tries to scare a predominantly  American readership by absurdly implying that something similar to the crisis in Sri Lanka will soon happen to the United States. Since their founding in 1989 PCG have produced numerous false prophecies that have failed miserably. There is no need to fear PCG's dire predictions about the future.