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As I was watching the latest news at 4 a.m. this morning, I watched video after video of the quake, the tsunami and the aftermath.
The thought occurred to me that this could be construed as a warning. It's easy to view all this thru the lense of our finances as a nation.
We could be seeing what amounts to our metaphorical future... except, it's a future I believe we can avoid... if we're willing to pay the price.
As a country, we are rapidly spiraling down to destitution. Government spending and the printing of worthless paper is making our money the laughing stock. Our $14 trillion dollar debt exceeds our economic output.
What happens to a family when that happens, with no end in sight?
Bankruptcy.
In 1986, when I left Germany for the last time (having completed my second tour in the Army), the exchange rate was around 4 marks, 20 pfenning for one dollar.
What is it today?
According to the currency converter in the left column of this blog, it's 1 mark 40.
And it's hard to believe that rate is going to be getting any higher for the dollar any time soon.
We are spending ourselves into oblivion. And at some point, that either has to stop, or that will be the goal we achieve.
The question continues to remain: will those leading our government have the courage to do what must be done?
That's a rhetorical question, of course: Ridgefield Barbie has no courage of any kind, so we can't count on her to lead.
Our US Senators are aiding and abetting what seems to be our obvious destruction.
Who will pick up the mantle? Who will demand the multi-hundred billion dollar cuts... the trillion dollar cuts needed to right our listing ship of state?
As it is, that ship truly is the Titanic and we are closing on the icebergs.
If we hit that ice, there will be no saving us. And the problem is that the closer we get to that ice, the more radical the turn to save us from gutting ourselves on that frozen water.
It would be one thing if we didn't know the ice would be ahead. It would be one thing if we didn't already know what the outcome will be when, if we keep the current course, we DO hit the ice.
But we do know.
We will have the fiscal equivalent of Sendai.
We will not only cease to be the only super power... we'll cease to be ANY super power. We will become a somewhat more modern version of the hyperinflation of Zimbabwe.
The only thing we've got going for us right now is that almost everyone else is even worse off.
But we are rapidly climbing the latter of stupidity only to fall off the top. And then what?
Government is already lying to us at almost every level, sticking us on stupid.
In sober moments, everyone involved knows we have to do SOMETHING... and it must be done now.
But who will have the courage? Who is willing to put their political future behind the needs of the people? Who is willing to stand up and tell us the truth? Who is willing to make the cuts we need to survive? WHo will demand the harsh cuts in the so-called entitlements? Who will demand the massive cuts needed in the federal workforce? Who will demand the end to the extortion of public employee unions.
In 2011, we can't even get our allegedly Republican county government to require county employees to pay a part of their health care premums.
How is it that in this day and age, the people of America cannot see that our future is very much like the tsunami-laden future of Japan... only our destruction... our drowning... will be financial?
Why is it we don't seem to care?
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3 comments:
Deficit spending works - it’s a mathematical certainty.
However, the equation MUST be balanced:
(1)Taxes should repay the principal within 5 transactions.
(2)The spending circle cannot be broken.
(3)Total productivity has to be positive.
Stated another way:
(1) Are tax rates high enough to replenish the stimulus but low enough to leave commerce unaffected?
(2) Do we sell as much overseas as we buy foreign goods?
(3) Is business as efficient as bureaucracy is unproductive?
This is pretty delicate stuff and everybody has to be onboard to make it work. Folks that exploit the situation endanger us all.
If you look over the past thirty years, you'll notice that the waves have gotten bigger and bigger.
Now it is 2011,the economic wave has pulled back and we're seeing where normally would be regular dollars being soaked up and being put back out into the foreign market. With this pullback, you can see the land far out as the eye can see.
And eventually, the world or whoever owns our debt comes to collect on those markers in, or the dollars finally come flooding back into the United States or we finally are so low because of all the cash that is floating around, the final nail will come and the economic tsunami will hit us square.
If you REALLY want an example of what could happen to us in the future, look at the disaster that Japan is in right now. Go take a look at the drops that the Nikkei is having. Forget for a moment, the tsunami damage, the radiation leaks and the further earthquake aftershocks.
Look how this nationstate is miring in what the United States could be?
This commenbt was left at 6:31 a.m. by Blogging Around the Northwest and I inadvertantly deleted it:
Blogging around the Pacific Northwest has left a new comment on your post "A fiscal tsunami is coming: when is Congress going...":
Kelly, I am sad to say that I TOO was up that morning watching the destruction unfold. And I also have a huge family stake in the island state of Hawaii. (and no, they are not rich, just good, common folks, which makes up about 80 percent of the island residents.)
They too suffered some minor damage, a very early morning tsunami siren warning. How would you like to not get any sleep for two or three days? The state may be a lush paradise but its one of the few regions of the United States outside of the Eastern Coast that suffers from earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes and cyclones. So you might say, you get out of those low lying areas or you are a direct target.
How would you like to watch on online media idiots sitting and bathing on waikiki beach with 15 minutes of when the tsunami was supposed to hit?
My prayers and heart go out to those that were hurt, being exposed to radiation and other things in Japan, Northern Australia, New Zealand and many other island nation chains in the Western Pacific region.
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