Ricechex, I wasn’t going to go there in my previous post, but you are spot-on: the world (especially America) is in for one helluva ride in the coming years. Only a fool would be blind to the fact that our economy is being held together at present with paper clips, gum and hope. The dollar is breaking new, historic lows EVERY week now, the stock market is on life support (even with billions being pumped into it weekly by the Fed), and you can’t even give away a condo in Florida these days. Rappers and supermodels are rejecting the dollar in favor of Euros. Starving African nations in search of food and aid are doing the same thing! And yet the average American doesn’t have a clue or care to have a clue about what this will soon mean for them. Why? Because they still have another $900 of available credit on their cards, fajitas are still being served up at Chili’s and the “Dancing with the Stars” finale is coming up next week (I think).
And Arraya is 150% correct about the insidious effects of denial on our populace. People literally will not wake up to the fact that the train is hurtling off the cliff as we speak — because they happen to be in the caboose and don’t realize the first 5 cars have already tumbled over the edge.
People, the next few months are going to be very strange, very sad and very scary, indeed. We may limp through the holidays with gas less than $4/gallon, and Wal Mart and JC Penney may squeeze the last few bucks out of the consumer. But this will be the last “happy” holidays for a long, long, LONG time, my friends. Come January 2008, people are going to bitch-slapped in a major way, suddenly and unexpectedly, and the real effects of a falling dollar are going to make themselves known.
And of course, Americans will turn to their leaders and ask, “Why didn’t anyone tell us this was happening???”
We are so deep in crap at this point, I don’t know what kind of rope we could possibly find to pull us out. The Dem candidates know this; the GOP candidates know this. At the end of the day, they are all fighting to become the next leader of a banana republic. Let’s be clear: Ron Paul can never possibly get elected. But it is just cathartic to hear him raising the only issues that matter now. And when the SHTF, he can honestly look into the eyes of Americans and say, “I warned you.”
