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There could be a constitutional amendment that says the government can only borrow for war expenses. This should have nothing to do with political orientation, just survival. If the US credit rating ever gets downgraded, what are we going to do to pay our expenses? I guess we could just print more money which would destroy our currency if it isn't backed with anything, or we could just refuse to pay back our loans... either way, that is not good. If we run a trillion dollars a year deficit, how long will it take before there isn't any money left to do anything but pay interest on the debt?
I can guarantee that the politicians in DC won't stop spending money which means that we would likely have to scrap the dollar and start over with a new currency. How long would it take the US to regain its world position if it had no wealth other than our land?
WIth the bulk of the Social Security debt coming due in the next couple of decades, we need to be saving, not going further into debt. I don't think that the US will collapse, but there will be some tough decisions to be made in the near future. I did not vote for Obama, but I am hopeful that he recognized the magnitude of the situation we are facing.
<p>There could be a constitutional amendment that says the government can only borrow for war expenses. This should have nothing to do with political orientation, just survival. If the US credit rating ever gets downgraded, what are we going to do to pay our expenses? I guess we could just print more money which would destroy our currency if it isn’t backed with anything, or we could just refuse to pay back our loans… either way, that is not good. If we run a trillion dollars a year deficit, how long will it take before there isn’t any money left to do anything but pay interest on the debt?</p>
<p>I can guarantee that the politicians in DC won’t stop spending money which means that we would likely have to scrap the dollar and start over with a new currency. How long would it take the US to regain its world position if it had no wealth other than our land?</p>
<p>WIth the bulk of the Social Security debt coming due in the next couple of decades, we need to be saving, not going further into debt. I don’t think that the US will collapse, but there will be some tough decisions to be made in the near future. I did not vote for Obama, but I am hopeful that he recognized the magnitude of the situation we are facing.</p>
2009-01-06T14:47:23-08:00
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2009-05-18T14:15:49-07:00
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I'm glad your in good spirits about our new President, but if he gets his way, he's going to spend $1 trillion we don't have in the next two years to give us more of the hair of the dog that bit us. I doubt it'll be the end of the US as we know it, but considering our national debt is about $10 trillion and Obama wants to increase it by 10% in 2 years, it's not looking so good. He's probably going to force Bernanke to run the printing presses as China finally comes into recession with the rest of the world. If China won't have resources to buy our bonds, who'll allow us to borrow? Bernanke will go to the printing presses and we'll see high inflation. This will "fix" the housing problem by raising values, but it'll make it harder to get out of the recession as companies find ways to cut costs to save dollars now rather than invest and earn (less valuable) dollars later. We'll come out of it, but eventually we'll have to stop the debt-driven economy. It's going to be painful unfortunately.
To your point about a Constitutional amendment, I'm on board with it, but you know that people who believe the dollar should be manipulated to maximize employment will not tolerate losing that degree of freedom. It'd be a great idea, but there's always the concern that they could just print more money, which technically is not borrowing. A few things would have to happen in conjunction, but I like the concept.
<p>I’m glad your in good spirits about our new President, but if he gets his way, he’s going to spend $1 trillion we don’t have in the next two years to give us more of the hair of the dog that bit us. I doubt it’ll be the end of the US as we know it, but considering our national debt is about $10 trillion and Obama wants to increase it by 10% in 2 years, it’s not looking so good. He’s probably going to force Bernanke to run the printing presses as China finally comes into recession with the rest of the world. If China won’t have resources to buy our bonds, who’ll allow us to borrow? Bernanke will go to the printing presses and we’ll see high inflation. This will “fix” the housing problem by raising values, but it’ll make it harder to get out of the recession as companies find ways to cut costs to save dollars now rather than invest and earn (less valuable) dollars later. We’ll come out of it, but eventually we’ll have to stop the debt-driven economy. It’s going to be painful unfortunately.</p>
<p>To your point about a Constitutional amendment, I’m on board with it, but you know that people who believe the dollar should be manipulated to maximize employment will not tolerate losing that degree of freedom. It’d be a great idea, but there’s always the concern that they could just print more money, which technically is not borrowing. A few things would have to happen in conjunction, but I like the concept.</p>
2009-01-06T17:29:19-08:00
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2009-05-18T14:15:50-07:00
1471