Sharing tea with the Mad Hatter.

As I get further into the book "the Banquet of Consequences"an exposé of the dire condition we are in financially, one is led to wonder where was the leadership which allowed us to get here.
We generally look up to and admire the people who rise to the top, attributing them with special powers. We do it towards our parents when we are growing up and only as we to arrive into adulthood and parenthood do we realise that they, like ourselves often muddle through as best we can.
This symbolism of elevating certain people with powers and foresight we don't have is risky. Power and authority are not always won fairly. Sometimes corruption plays a part and ruthless  hedonism, the driving force  not clarity of forethought.
With the unacceptable debt that all the leading nations now have around their necks, debt which  is increasing exponentially without seemingly any political view to future consequences one again asks where is the leadership.
Isolating oneself in a self contained financial bubble is one route favoured by the plutocrat. Even if everything crashes and burns they will be protected in so far as their risks are spread across a whole range of firewalls and cross investments. The very act of crashing is future proofed.
The leadership of Government in its national form is hand tied by the market, since the measures that need enacting are toxic to the mechanism to which they owe their stability and their electability. Place a regulation on your own financial system and the money flows to a competitor.
That is why one of the only means to trim the income/expenditure account and reduce national debt is to tinker with 'welfare' and so called 'entitlements'. The other method (other than more borrowing, trying to reinvigorate exports) which seems politically inexpedient is to raise "income tax" and ensure the income raised is used to bring down the debt.
Of course one of the arguments against that is that it reduces the disposable income on which the consumer relies, since the nation now depends on consumerism for part of its taxable income.
One is reminded of Alice once again, where reality is just too difficult and it's easier to share tea with the Mad Hatter.