I saw today where the Japanese government has downgraded again its economic forecast due to its huge disaster. Also, all sides in the U.S. agree that if there is no increase in the U.S. debt limit then the U.S. is in danger of default on its debt. This means that everyone, dems and reps, agree that we need more debt to service the debt that we have. Therefore, we do NOT HAVE THE WILL to tackle our spending problems, which are primarily driven by programs benefiting the white middle class (mostly in the form of government funded jobs (see Wisconsin) and post-retirement medical benefits). Only, a relatively small percentage of our federal budget goes to “giveaways to the minorities” that we all like to vilify. I.e., to responsibly tackle the debt we need to cut ALL government programs by enough to:
1) balance the current budget and not add to the debt (this means by 0.8-1.5 trillion per year – the current deficit), and then
2) begin to repay our current mountain of existing debt (probably another 1.0-1.5 trillion per year). This means that the federal government would have to go on an extreme diet, if we ever hope to address this issue. Of course, it will not do that as no one wants to really tighten their belt by firing a bunch of white voters.
So we are destined to spiral into a hyper-inflationary period that will resemble Germany after WWII (when the world piled a mountain of war debt on Germany that everyone knew it could not pay – the result was Hitler!). So, whether or not the U.S. (and therefore the world) is headed for an extreme depression is not even in question – the only question is when – i.e., how long can our “skillful” politicians be able to pacify our greed and put off the enevitable! Have a nice day. (:-{