I know. That is why I said that I knew that is what you wanted. But my view int too. Sorry. Are you angry with me?
absolutely not if you post a copy of that article on money illusion. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=3317610#post3317610
Sorry I only just got your pm. I have been doing housework. I got some mold on my window cill I wanted to get rid of it before it got bad.
Actually Argentina did control their currency and at one point during the crisis ran out of the special paper used to print currency. During the crisis citizens spent their pay the day they received it, because they knew that in a few days prices would be higher still. Crime rate increased dramatically. And while I would suppose that initially property values may have risen some due to rampant inflation this was offset by a lack of buyers. Eventually property values plummeted. The Argentine government could only borrow at extremely high interest. Eventually a long term rescue plan was agreed to by the international community. It was agreed that creditors would be paid much of what they were owed, but they were going to have to wait in line for a very long time to get their money. The U.S. situation is quite different for two reasons: 1. the U.S. dollar is still the reserve currency; thus the world is afloat in dollars. Other countries have a vested interest in seeing that the dollar does not collapse. (Foreign holders of dollars will try to buy U.S. assets to obtain inflation protection. That process is on-going.) 2. In a global economy, the economy of any one developed country in isolation is no more important than the economy in relation to other developed nations. There is a global recession now, there wasn't when Argentina experienced its credit crisis. In spite of the advantages that the U.S. enjoys, it must do two things to avoid a possible run on the dollar and loss of its reserve status, which would result in a world-wide calamity. In any case, such a crisis is a long ways off. These are the two things that the U.S. must do (both of which, in my opinion, will be politically impossible without a serious crisis occurring first.) 1. The U.S. must get its fiscal house in order. If that is done, some decrease in the size of government will be unavoidable. To do this intelligently, it will also have to be recognized that entitlements are not the problem, and to use entitlements as the means of obtaining fiscal balance will only result in other problems. The real sources of the fiscal strain in the U.S. are unsustainable military and medical costs. U.S. military costs are nearly as high as those of the entire remainder of the World combined. Germany spends about $300 per capita per year whereas the U.S is spending ten times that (actually more when you include interest and veteran's benefits). Additionally medical costs, which are at minimum double what other nations spend for health care, and range up to a factor of eight-times more, must not only be contained, but must be reduced by close to 50%. There are only two routes to do this. One is to nationalize health care and move it entirely to the public sector. Many find this unacceptable, but ignore the reality that in countries with nationalized health care the cost is far lower than in the U.S. with similar health outcomes. The other option is to break the back of the medical cartel and open it to competition, with the government playing the role of referee and of information provider. 2. The second thing the U.S. must do is rebuild a strong middle class and reverse the polarization of wealth that has occurred over the last thirty years. There are many mechanisms for doing this, but it must be done, because contrary to popular opinion, it is not the wealthy that create the most jobs, but he middle class. (for information on this see the Kaufman Foundation studies). Consumption is normally a huge part of the U.S. economy. Without money in middle class pockets and a large and vibrant middle class, there can be no recovery from the current recession. Without a strong middle class there will be too few who can purchase U.S. manufactured goods and too few jobs.
greece etc. is the next Argentina followed by US. here is a sequence of event. http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/08/news/international/greece_euro_argentina/index.htm?iid=HP_LN
Argentina wound up locked out of the international lending scene.. that actually is a good thing. If you can't be a lender at least don't be a borrower...