While I agree with some of what you've posted, I have a few questions/points;
To All,
We cannot compare anything that is happening to a EU country to what may or may not happen in the US.
One of the big problems Greece had/has is that it is on the Euro.
The progressives want the US to be a part of one world currency system, if this does occur, where will we be then? In the same mess as Greece. With other countries in control of our economic successes and/or failures.
When a country begins to encounter a deepevent a good response can be to devalue its currency. This means that it is cheaper for other nationalities to spend tourist money there. The products produced in its factories become less expensive on the world market, and thus more competitive.
If the US were still a world leader in industry, I would agree that a small devaluation could be very good for trade and our economy. However, We are no longer that giant. We've given that over to 2nd and 3rd World countries. I fail to see how foriegn tourism is going to provide the rope that enables the US to pull us out of the quicksand we are in.
Greece (and Ireland) were unable to devalue their currency and thus limited in their responses. This compounded their problem.
This is also how China continues to stick it to the US by keeping its currency at a low rate compared to the dollar. See link below:
USD/CNY Currency Conversion Chart - Yahoo! Finance
The Yuan has come down from a whopping 6.9 to about 6.5 in the last two (2) years. This means it will always be cheaper to have something made in China over the USA.
China is intentionally lowering the rates to bring more foriegn $$ to it's economy and strengthen it's assertion that there should be a move away from the US Dollar as the World's reserve currency.
Our debt has the compound problem of putting a greater burden on us of making interest payments on said debt. Just like a credit card if your minimum monthly payment is $30 then about $25 (just a guess) is going toward interest and only $5 is actually paying what you owe.
Our debt is owed mostly to the public. This includes a broad range, but much of it is in YOUR retirement portfolio - if you have one. Out of about $14.33 Trillion $9.74 Trillion is held by private holders. So if we just wipe it out that will screw over a LOT of American citizens and companies. The remaining $4.6 Trillion is held by intragovernmental holdings. This means holdings by other branches of the US Govt, such as Social Security. Oops... We owe ourselves.
All of this ignores the 10's of Trillions of dollars we have in unfunded liabilities! Medicare underfunded. You don't know anyone on Medicare, do you? Military pension plans.
And yet, we continue to allow an agency (The Fed) that is not controlled by the government and seemingly not accountable for it's actions, to make the monetary decisions that control our future financial stability/instabilitiy?
The problem is that whatever solution we come up with is really going to hurt...A LOT! No politician wants to be the one to cut the pursestrings to their district/state - and yet that is what MUST BE DONE to control the fall. Because IF we do not force ourselves to amputate where we choose, then fate will dictate what is amputated when the free fall occurs.
In short - buy gold. It will always have some value. Buy guns - to protect you (and the gold)!
Agreed! In addition, whatever you can do to become more self sufficient and less dependant on the establishment, ie gardening, alternative energy etc, is a good thing.
Regards,
Doug
