thing is tho, no 'monster' has suddenly appeared, and as yet, no lost confidence has manifested the only pop's been the $ rally, and while it may continue for a while, my expectation is for it to fall further later, so I'm looking or expecting for something tangible to be visible but nothing yet seems to exist that fits the bill
I think the only conceivable way forward for the US is a complete breakdown of the current system and the status quo. Is sovereign default the way forward? Possibly. Whatever it takes to get rid of the feeble minded shameless thieves and oligarchs that are making this country poor. I had hoped that the 2007/2008 start of the depression would loosen their hands from the till but the parasites have a strong grip. The Boy Who Cried Wolf, Timmy Geithner says this may be irrevocable -please give me some of that. Anything he is against, I am for. Talk about fucking evil. Time he wheeled out Satan's little helper Buffett to tell us that the end of the world is nigh.
House Republicans should not vote for any increase in the debt ceiling. This will guarantee the economy won't improve and will easily give the GOP the White House in 2012. Oh, in addition to the U.S. Supreme Court striking down Obamacare in June 2012.
Geithner is a joke, I can not understand how anyone can take him seriously. What does he think is going to happen should we continue on this path?
I have pointed this out ad nauseum. Always to blind eyes and deaf ears of course. Usually some idiot will respond by pointing out all the "wonderful" benefits we reap from our large military expenditure, such as being able to extort all kinds of concessions from countries that hate us.
cheap oil is the main benefit of US military spending. $10/barrel increase in the price of oil reduces U.S. GDP growth by 0.5% basically the military pays for itself if it manages keep the oil price under control.
Strangely I find myself in broad agreement with you, yet I think there is one place where you may have gone wrong in your thinking but reached the proper conclusion in spite of it. When you say: "The elephant in the room is that, since Reagan, the US has an economy fundamentally based on gov't spending. It is as socialist as you'll find in the Western world" It makes me wonder what planet you are on. There are two statements there that I would take issue with or at least like you to reconsider. One is that Reagan's economy was any less based on government spending then subsequent economies. That is highly questionable since borrowing as a percent of GDP was extremely heavy during the Reagan presidency. The money borrowed was pumped back into the economy largely via the private defense industry, and good times were had by all. However even though tax revenues increased with decreasing tax rates during this time (Reagan was a "supply sider" "trickle down" guy) it is likely that the revenue increases where caused by government borrowing and spending coupled with inflation rather than any effect of lower tax rates. In fact the latter most likely had a small negative effect on revenue if looked at in isolation. Secondly, government spending alone does not a Socialist State create. That requires social spending. The U.S. is an example of an extremely capitalist country that heavily subsidizes the sources of private capital with tax revenues and borrowing. This is hardly a socialist concept. I can't imagine anything that would have been further removed from Karl Marx's mind than the way the USA spends its tax revenues. Virtually everything that can be privatized is privatized in the US, even things that shouldn't be, such as passport issue, and prisons. To say that "it is as Socialist as you'll find in the Western World." is obviously an incredible overstatement, that you can't possibly mean or believe. I mean, what about Norway, Sweden, Finland, and all of Western Europe and virtually all of Central and South America and Canada? Or don't you consider these countries to be part of the Western World.
Perhaps that's the same kind of thinking that led to such a marvelous economic outcome for the old Soviet Union. Is this is an entirely new thesis of yours: military spending is responsible for keeping oil prices under control. Never mind that the U.S. Military is a huge consumer of oil. Shortie, have you been drinking again?
Maybe the U.S. should try paying for medical care and schools with tax dollars and financing the military with bake sales.