All this talk of cliffs is misleading, since it implies there’s a pile of something at the bottom of the cliff. Bruised and torn bank notes, wrinkled credit reports, ripped IOU’s, contracts, stuff like that. Makes you think OK, we’ll carefully go through, reconstruct it, and go forward from there.
Just wishful thinking, like when the towers fell on 9/11. We sifted through the debris pile for personal effects, remains, even DNA but, tragically, could only account for a very small percentage of the victims.
Stranger still, we were hoping to inspect the various steel members, supports, joinings and so on to reverse engineer the collapse, to impute and better understand the physics that worked so devastatingly to destroy those buildings.
Just one problem: hardly anything remained. Barely 10% was left to examine. No computers, file cabinets, desks, chairs, sinks, toilets, glass, you name it. All gone, turned to dust, dust to nanoparticles, then fumes. Then poof! Gone.
In my view, this is exactly what we can expect if we keep going down this road of fiscal irresponsibility, spending like there’s no tomorrow. We’ll wake up one morning and poof, it’ll all be gone. The value of the dollar, the stability of the markets, the full faith and credit of the United States: decimated, deflated, destroyed.
Retirement accounts will fall by half, maybe two-thirds.
Home values will shrink. Net Worths will tumble, such that over half of upper classers/upper middle classers will fall down the economic ladder to middle/lower middle levels. A new societal structure will rise with less than 2% elite/rich. The rest of us the working proletariat.
In many ways we’re already off the cliff. Government has become too big and entitlements too large a proportion of the budget. The beast we’ve created grows hungrier by the day. The fed furiously feeds it by printing money in an effort described as quantitative easing, recently announcing it will print even more, about $85Bil/mo, buying bonds, etc
If we were playing Monopoly this would be like the banker announcing to all the players don’t worry, I’m loaning all of you $10,000 so you can keep playing. If that runs out, I’ll loan you another $10,000 and so on. Kind of defeats the whole purpose of the game, don’t you think?
That’s where we’ve been for years, with no turning back. Unlike Monopoly, the government ran out of money long ago, so its printing house, the Federal Reserve, prints more as fast as it can, to keep up with spending. (See above)
The value of something is driven by supply and demand, which in turn is driven by relative scarcity. In Monopoly if there’s $100K in the bank & 4 players begin by borrowing $10000, that’s $40,000 in float and $60,000 in reserve. If they all borrow another $10,000 there’s only $20,000 left in reserve, so the value of the dollar increases, because next go round there isn’t enough for everybody to borrow a full $10,000. Limited supply, or scarcity, is the mechanism making the game fun and determining who wins or loses.
Of course, in Monopoly there are no taxes levied and no freeloaders going round the board collecting money from normal players. If there were, the normals would have to borrow from the bank, the bank would run out of money, and soon the game would stop with everybody broke.
As government runs out of money it borrows. When it can’t borrow any more it prints the stuff. When that runs out it prints more, over and over. Debt now surpasses our gross domestic product (GDP) and like Japan this is a harbinger of insolvency, loss of debt paying ability, even bankruptcy.
Dollars hold value and our respect because they’re hard to come by. Work must be done, time expended or something of value given up, to earn/obtain dollars. The only other way is borrow, but one must have either an earnings capability or hard collateral to qualify.
When more and more people don’t have to work to get dollars, or can get food, goods and services for free and/or can borrow too easily without qualifiers, respect for money is lost, and the value of the dollar goes down. Since government prints it at will there’s an unlimited supply so scarcity no longer controls. Value, respect, buying power all gone.
We’re most of the way down the national toilet bowl of fiscal insanity, swirling round, soon to disappear in the maelstrom of that monetary commode. Once flushed, we’ll enter the political sewer system of the 3rd world, bouncing and bumping our way along until we’re unceremoniously disgorged soiled, soaked, at the financial mercy of China.
Greenbacks will no longer be the world’s reserve currency, domestic economy will hyperinflate and we will no longer be the world’s leading economy. Preeminence? Gone. Reputation? Shot. Economy? Broken. I said at the outset this is not a cliff, or bits and pieces we can paste together. This is an economic disintegration, like the WTC Towers on 9/11. There was nothing left: nothing to salvage or inspect.
The political underpinnings that served to drive our economic system, the free-enterprise capitalism paradigm the world admired/studied, will have collapsed, leaving us in political upheaval/chaos akin to revolution. We will not be able to start over, lacking certainty as to who we’ve become as a people. In all probability some centralized geopolitical power will step forward to exploit our predicament & con- trol our destiny > which may have been the plan all along?
Since we’re describing a kind of Armageddon scenario, or end game, I’m compelled to cite a few historical facts, and mention a few recent developments, all of which played heavily to bring this upon us, hastening our end.
I think FDR, LBJ and now the current BHO were/are all very misguided leaders who failed to appreciate the genius of the American founding, or why our system worked so much better than all others.
I think these men were/are utopiasts, believing that perfection is doable here on earth, and worked to achieve that end, no matter how illogical, or destructive the consequences.
I think it’s been obvious for about a decade there’s a schism or rift between two points of view: free enterprise, capitalistic individualism w/minimum governmental interference, versus a big government, high regulation, high tax welfare state. The former distributes power to the states and people, the latter maintains & grows federal, centralized power.
I think the following are dying or already dead: comity, integrity, probity, the art of bipartisanship, honesty, professionalism, statesmanship, citizenship. We’ve also lost our faith, family values and self esteem, as a nation.
I think 9/11 established, without doubt, our vulnerability and government’s willingness to withhold information and lie profusely, to protect its interests. I think any reasonable person with a healthy curiosity who looks in detail at 9/11 cannot possibly accept what we were told. I think this event was a major turning point & harbinger, heralding the path America would take in the 21st century.
I think the whole of government is rife with bias, favoritism and corruption. I think similar of congress, and I absolutely believe political bias has contaminated the Supreme Court.
I believe our various media outlets and most of higher education are heavily biased and doctrinal. I believe even our K >12 schools are populated with progressives and liberals who work to propagandize our youth. I believe the majority of our entertainment industry is highly liberal, introducing subliminal messaging in songs, movies and television at every opportunity.
I think the Justice Dept is completely politicized, allowing this bias to affect/influence its pursuit of justice, especially in cases like the Top Secret White House leaks, the Fast & Furious scandal, ACORN abuses, Black Panther poll stat- ion practices and, most recently, the FBI’s long advance
knowledge of CIA Director Petraeus’ affair, alleged unsecure use of emails/potential breech of national security, AG Holder electing for some reason to keep it from Obama.
I think UN Ambassador Rice is unfit to serve in that capacity, having impugned her reputation and professionalism beyond doubt by her actions, words & deeds on behalf of the White House in the Benghazi matter.
I think Secretary Clinton, whose State Dept has now officially held itself primarily liable for the Benghazi tragedy, its report citing specifically her highest ranking officials & managers as being negligent, incompetent and/or ignorant as to the various causes and contributory factors leading up to the tragedy, is a gross malfeasance on her part & should have dictated her immediate resignation in the days following the event, if not outright dismissal by the White House.
I think every White House aide or staffer who acted in ways to delay or hinder the full and truthful disclosure of the Benghazi tragedy is compromised beyond worth, has no concept of priority, holds political ends as being paramount to all other considerations, and did in fact hold our national interests, security and protection as being secondary to the re-election of this president.
I think David Petraeus, Hillary Clinton, FBI Dir Mueller, Susan Rice, the White House National Security Advisor, DOD Secretary Panetta, several of his top aides, generals and admirals, several of Sec’ty Clinton’s top aides, several of CIA Dir Petraeus’ top aides and advisors, various top aides & advisors of President Obama and Obama himself should all be asked/required to testify, under oath, before a special House/Senate Committee, as to their knowledge & awareness of the facts/circumstances surrounding Benghazi and in particular what they knew and when they knew it.
I think the American people must hold themselves accountable for having allowed so much time to elapse without demanding the truth from the president, the congress and the press. But they also allowed/put up with all the other non- sense and fiscal craziness I’ve described, and we’re already off the cliff and down the drain, regardless of what deal they make. So, what do I know?
You’ve been reading Shaneview
I’m Al Shane
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