Patientrenter: Thanks for the compliment and right back at you.

I would certainly agree that the “American Dream” did begin in the 1950s and 1960s (or, more accurately, shortly after the end of WWII). However, what really “juiced” it up was the availability of cheap money and easy credit and that trend really began in the late 1970s and took off in the 1980s and 1990s. I think the Reagan Revolution also ushered in a period of American triumphalism and hubris that just ended with the election of Obama.

Forgive me for digressing here, but, in something of an irony, I actually do respect his junket in Europe where he essentially said, “Hey, we’ve been arrogant assholes and we need to do some fence mending”. I know some of my conservative confederates on this site will probably be cursing me for this, but I think it’s an important first step.

Anyway, back to the point: I think American hubris, our willingness to game the international finance system and really abuse our position as the holder of world’s reserve currency (allowing us to essentially borrow trillions on our own terms), our overweening ambition (wholly unsupported by any economic or financial reality) and our false sense of entitlement have led us to this place and our politicians are too chickenshit to call bullshit and tell us the truth. Until that happens, we’re going farther and farther down the primrose path and, at some point, it will be impossible to come back.

Is Obama the guy to lead us out? I don’t know. I hope he is, but there’s a crass expression about shit in one hand and hope in the other…