The above scenario would probably fit into a picture of people sitting around in a futuristic fantasy world with embedded electronic devices. Inflation will get out of control while higher and higher taxes are required to fund ever expanding entitlements. The decline will be exacerbated by poverty, cultural decay, loss of borders and language degeneration. We can expect the US to drift into a decline until Washington D.C. is sacked

Thanks.

Brilliant analysis by a genuine expert. Thanks, straightlinelogic. And even your novels sound superb. I'll be ordering.

Should the bubble burst before the current chairman-in-chief leaves, our Democrat troglodyte-brained elite betters will twist logic all kinds of inside-out in an effort to put all the blame Bush or at least the GOP. Obama's doubling the debt to Cloward and Piven "stimulate" the economy will go ignored--be forgotten, in fact. What may follow is pretty scary.

We, as a nation, don't see deficit spending as an issue. Financing anything is putting yourself in servitude to whomever is holding your debt.

Yes, I have had loans in the past, and have also used them poorly at times, and wisely others. (Wise is using someone elses money at rates I can make money from, or to cover an 'opportunity' where I can save more by financing it - hopefully short term - than the interest/overhead cost me). (Poorly was when I got into credit card debt in the late 70's - but getting it paid off was a breath of fresh air, and I don't want to go there again!) - Right now, no loans and don't want any if possible.

The problem is that we have already passed the mini-crisis stage. The only things remaining are major catastrophes.

And please allow me to add...
Next summer my Dear Wife and I have penciled in a cruise that ends in not-so jolly old england ( capital E rejected) and my plan if there is a J M Keynes statute, is to throw an egg and hit that idiots form in the head and celebrate I am alive and he dead.

I am in a big way in favor of state conventions demanding a balanced budget amendment. But something tells me....the leviathan must eat, the leviathan will find a way.

Hey let's have some fun!

Fiscal deficits would be easier to deal with now rather than waiting until they cause a crisis. I think we'll wait until it becomes a mini-crisis to make the decisions.

I am blessed to only have 11th & 12th graders all honors or AP so they can handle it.
Cheers

oh, gee, thanks - after THAT math?!
Seriously, I think your math lesson is practically perfect. What is the age level of your students?

Oddly enough our personal lack of debt, minuscule really (including whats left of our 15 year mortgage), will not save us from the impact of our government and our neighbors financial foolishness.

I'm amazed it hasn't popped already. The longer this current nonsense goes on, the bigger the crash (assuming the world keeps going further into debt, which looks like a sure thing; the only surer thing is assuming that when our dear leader opens his mouth, he's lying).

Yes, they are doing everything they can to stop the foundation of our economy--the individual entrepreneur.

I forgot to include the excerpt. Oh well, it looks like people found the article.

BTW large corporations never create net employment. The Kaufman foundation found that all net new jobs since 1978 were created by new companies (not small business). The real drivers of good jobs are new companies based on new technology. That is why SOX and the weakening of our patent system are so important.

Next year, at the latest.

I love this line "he serfs only had to cough up a quarter of their production. We should be so lucky"

Thanks for sharing. It's a sad statement of America today. And even sadder that so many of our peers go along with the "in the run we're all dead" foolishness.

Two ways I try to help my students wrap their minds around that continually ascending figure is tell them Labron James should pay off the debt than I divide his salary by the debt and they learn that he needs to make his current salary for over the next 3000 years.
Well that's not going to work so I target the top 1% and show them an article (wsj or biz week) and the best figure I can come up with is the top 16,000 families have a total wealth of 6 trillion.
We can take all the $$ from the top 1% and still would not even come close to paying the beast off.
Math is off the top of my head from a lesson I did last school year.
Have a great day!

Great article. When do you think the bubble will pop?