The financial news these days is just amazing. The Fed is slashing interest rates to de-constipate freaked out banks who don’t trust each other enough to loan each other money. The Government wants to send each American — sorry, I mean “Consumer” — a big fat check so that they’ll “consume.” Meanwhile, the government continues to spend more than it takes in in taxes, adding to our monster national debt, which will tick over $10 trillion this year. Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to import far, far more than it exports. Meanwhile, the Fed continues to helicopter drop money into the U.S. economy in order to make certain it is sufficiently “liquid.” Meanwhile, home values are dropping nationwide, while millions of Americans are on the verge of losing their homes because mortgage rates are “adjusting” upwards. Meanwhile, the world fears that the U.S. economy is on the verge of recession. Meanwhile, the war in Iraq is costing us upwards of $275 million per day (which is low by some estimates). Meanwhile, babyboomers are now officially eligible for retirement benefits.
Is it just me, or does it appear that our government is running out of fingers to stick into the cracks in the dike which is the U.S. economy? Meanwhile, inflation is going up (no matter what the discredited official government inflation numbers say — they exclude energy (oil) from their calculations, something that I can not do in my real life budget).
What really truly honestly bugs me is that no presidential candidate, other than Ron Paul, is talking about our country’s big, gigantic, huge financial problems. I fear that we may never have the political resolve and courage to address this problem. The U.S. is living like a family who is charging their daily expenses on credit careds, and hopes to make their monthly payments by charging them onto a the same credit card.
How long can this house of cards continue? I am truly beginning to wonder. Like you, I do not want to wake up one morning and find out that our money is worthless. But I can really now begin to see how that could happen?
What will happen when all of these expatriot U.S. dollars being held in “foreign reserve” begin to return home? What will that do to inflation? What will that mean for foreign ownership of U.S. assets? What will that mean for our independence as a nation?
Where or where is the political leadership to address these problems, that continue to mount with interest? If the Government is planning to “inflate” their way out of the problem, then let me know now so tha tI can dump the U.S. dollar and buy some gold.
Another thing that really chaps my rear end is when I hear Government officials blaming everyone but themselves for these problems. The Fed, who created the housing bubble and the subsequent bust by keeping rates so unbelievably low for so unbelievably long, blames the stupid people and unscrupulous lenders. The Government blames the dumb consumers for the slowing economy.
The Government must get its financial house in order and raise revenues to cover what it is actually spending. It is unfair to ask our children to pay for the excesses of George Bush’s failed, discredited administration.
Mr. Cheney — deficits do indeed matter. You and Bush have demonstrated this to the world.