Maybe we had an economy until the day men gained the ability to create money out of thin air. Then, there aren’t many reasons to manage resources rather than outspend your competitors in order to acquire more resources. This is true until hyperinflation hits you….
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Does the west have an economy ?
I invite you to sit with that question for a moment. It's kind of an odd question. Odder still is the statement: "...The west does not have an economy." It would be so easy to dismiss that statement.
Think about that word.
Greek oikonomia "household management, thrift...".
The old meaning of the word implied, "saving" , spending sparsely. The modern expansion on the meaning is more about large systems and their interactions and less about their budgets or austerity.
Just sit with that for a few moments and how that affects how we think about the direction of society and ourselves in it, in the first place.
We already do not operate in an economy. Economists are not experts in nor do they study an economy. They study spending.
The suggested antonym for economy is "waste" or "Extravangance", no direct latin opposite exist, that is how alien our situation is.
Perhaps we are thus in an Ex-onomy, with Exonomist experts advsing policy, making news media, directing war.
All pretence of former things are completely gone. An entirely new science is needed to study this artificial thing. Unrestrained Excess means unrestrained death.
Yes, we could spend 1 trillion on war and convert the world to Coca-Cola, but why ? If for instance, synthetic direvatives and insured debt, CBDC's, Peta-billions in interest payments actually work, and "save" the economy, it will not really be economic, will it ?
We need new words, new science, new language.
Discussion
In a way, developing countries that have their debts tied to natural resources end up in a better situation than un tamed spending.