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The saddest part about the "Decade from Hell" is that we didn't learn anything from it. We're losing manufacturing jobs because our companies are non-competitive. Our solution: Make them less competitive. The country is burdened by enormous debts. Our solution: Spend (mostly waste) record amounts of money and pile on even more government debt. The social safety nets are woefully underfunded. Our solutions: Massively increase entitlement benefits. We don't save any money. Our solutions: Drive interest rates to zero, drastically increase tax rates on investments and encourage more consumer spending (cash for clunkers, etc.) The Fed continually creates debilitating asset bubbles: The solution--create some more.

yup.. The mother of all bubbles is currently being blown. Enjoy the ride while you can and prepare for the worst. Uberinflation over the next 5-10 years followed by great depression #2 combined with a collapse of the welfare state. There is no way to "reform" the current system.. We need a complete implosion and realignment in perspective to get back on the path to sanity. It aint gonna be pretty.

all empty words cap. status quo will continue

not indefinitely.. It can't. There simply isn't enough wealth to fund the global welfare state that has been developed. Something's gotta give.

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Originally posted by Capitalizt not indefinitely.. It can't. There simply isn't enough wealth to fund the global welfare state that has been developed. Something's gotta give.

wtf is a "global welfare state" supposed to be? there's only one idiot country with economic woes related to welfare: yours.

It's all of us pk.. Every place on the planet is embracing the welfare state mentality and Keynesian insanity. We're doooooomed.

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Originally posted by Capitalizt It's all of us pk.. Every place on the planet is embracing the welfare state mentality and Keynesian insanity. We're doooooomed.

Deficit spending during times of economic prosperity is not Keynesian economics. The actions taken during the crisis certainly were but I'd have to say, you can't have your cake and eat it to. The government can't follow Keynesian economics during downturns and Reagan economics during upturns. And have you call that Keynesian economics. It's not.

I welcome a bubble. If there were no bubbles, investing wouldn't be fun would it? If there were no recessions, prices would be perpetually high all the time, why buy any asset? Inflation is the least of our worries and when it does show up, there is plenty of room to raise interest rates and take other similar measures.

I get the sense you're looking short term krypt.. The long term medicare/social insecurity shortfall was already into the tens of trillions before they added the new healthcare benefit last month. There is simply no way to fund any of it..nada. No matter how much we raise taxes, it won't come close. Epic devaluation of the currency is going to be our only option, and I think once people see faith in the dollar collapse, it will have a cascade effect on other paper currencies..as the rest of the world realizes they are in much the same situation. Only the fiscally sane countries (like China) who have a trade surplus and are using their extra cash to build infrastructure and gobble up hard assets like property and commodities will come out on top.

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Originally posted by Capitalizt It's all of us pk.. Every place on the planet is embracing the welfare state mentality and Keynesian insanity. We're doooooomed.

Australian economy is in awesome shape.

Yeah..from what I've seen the Aussies are one of the few places in good shape.

we'll even have our deficit paid off sooner than predicted

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Originally posted by Capitalizt I get the sense you're looking short term krypt.. The long term medicare/social insecurity shortfall was already into the tens of trillions before they added the new healthcare benefit last month. There is simply no way to fund any of it..nada. No matter how much we raise taxes, it won't come close. Epic devaluation of the currency is going to be our only option, and I think once people see faith in the dollar collapse, it will have a cascade effect on other paper currencies..as the rest of the world realizes they are in much the same situation. Only the fiscally sane countries (like China) who have a trade surplus and are using their extra cash to build infrastructure and gobble up hard assets like property and commodities will come out on top.

None of that can be called Keynesian economics. This epic devaluation of the currency that you talk about. The government doesn't regulate the value of the currency. So they can't just print away to pay for benefits. They fund it through the bond market and it's the bond market who decides if the government's programs are to be funded. They have so far been all too willing to do so. China has the luxury of having a surplus economy because they can pay their workers such low wages, we can't compare, contributing to their exporting surplus status. China will eventually become a consumer/services economy and face the same problems we do today.