If one believes economic activity is peaking, is this the only alternative? I am not very familiar with the conditions that would cause this, but that's what I keep coming back to as a possibility, looking at the dollar, commodities, job etc.
I've been a believer that all along the current economic situation is one of stagflation (ever since the recent Year 2000 collapse). Look around you. Compare prices today versus those in the past. Electricity up. Gasoline up. Food up. Automobiles up. Medical insurance up. Housing up. And on and on and on. The CPI trend says it all. Will wages keep up with rising prices? Will the American consumer change his/her spending habits to cause prices to fall? When monetary and fiscal policies try to stimulate economic growth in band-aid temporary solutions, one can only shake his head. Artificial stimulation does not always work and the problem often has to be revisited with a new approach. Will government learn from its past mistakes or continue to navigate down a path of destruction? My view is that this is a period of "normalcy". In the long run, deflating the dollar in hopes to increase exports and dependency from other countries to rely upon our goods/services is necessary to compete and win. It's a cold, calculated, high reward gamble needed to maintain leadership in the throes of economic globalization. Support corporations that reinvest back into themselves to grow in emerging markets. Stay away from the selfish corporations that act like pigs feeding themselves with lofty compensation packages and paying themselves with non-expensed stock options. Those that act selfish, will lose institutional sponsorship and have no place to dump their own form of funny money.