Topic: A world of financial ruin

[rickl]

The present U.S. administration, building, certainly on unpromising leavings from its predecessor, has shuffled from one delayed reaction placebo to another to anesthetize financial markets with a sequence of consciousness-lowering deferrals. First we were waiting for the Simpson-Bowles debt commission, which held any actual attention to the problem at bay for nearly two years. It reported quite sensibly and sank like lead weight, but without a ripple. The administration’s budget proposed a dynamic eventual freeze on 15% of federal government expenses, a solution that underwhelmed almost everyone.

The House Budget Committee chairman, Republican Paul Ryan, proposed a plan that only cut the deficit initially by a little over 10%, but cut very appreciably into future outlays and was at least something that could serve as an opening gambit. Barack Obama then pilloried the congressman on national television in strictures usually reserved for judicial or editorial condemnations of skinheads who steal the hearing aids and Zimmer frames of the elderly and the mittens of the new-born. Newt Gingrich — who succeeded the politically late Donald “the Stillbirther” Trump as the most improbable candidate for national office since the 1948 Progressive nominee for vice president, Glen H. (“The Singing Cowboy of Idaho”) Taylor (“Oh Give me a Home by the Capital Dome”), was so shaken by the implications of possibly having to do something about such bone-cracking deficits that he called for a “national conversation” about it, a tocsin that stirred the nation to the depths of its finger tips.

...

Unless the United States has the most spectacular cognitive awakening since Brunhilda, if not Lazarus, the laws of arithmetic are going to assert themselves in Zeus-like terms.

Meanwhile, the European Union is a water-logged vessel in a tempest, frantically bailing. In the six weeks since French finance minister Christine Lagarde last bravely proclaimed her personal fantasy that Greece would not default, the interest on Greek government notes has risen from 20% to 26%. Germany will not indefinitely remain so encumbered with guilt for the Third Reich that it will go on eating the costs of the false prospectus Goldman Sachs assisted Greece and others to file when they joined the Euro.

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[Weisshaupt]

Unless the United States has the most spectacular cognitive awakening since Brunhilda, if not Lazarus, the laws of arithmetic are going to assert themselves in Zeus-like terms.
Read the whole thing.

Good Article. Have to Laugh at this though:

The adaptability, durability and astuteness of the British should not be underestimated. Canada has inherited, refined and demonstrated some of those qualities, and has a North American work ethic and immense resources to boot. Both countries, as they shore themselves up and brace themselves for the disarray that the Americans and peripheral Europeans and Japanese seem determined to generate, should keep their nerve, stay in close touch, be prepared to embrace Germany and a few others when they tire of being Europe’s baggage animals, and get ready for great opportunities to lead and renovate.

The culture of both countries has deteriorated beyond recognition - from Banning radios hosts and telling them they must prove themselves innocent, to outlawing guns, to a green movement that can indoctrinate and blow up dissenting children in a commerical without anyone even blinking an eye. If anyone in Canada knows the defintion of free speech, much less advocates its practice thats news to me. And of course both counties have health systems to be admired as they let people die waiting for a gangrene operation or in an abulance because the hospital is full.   Both countries are pushing back a bit to the right now (which is still to the left of any RINO  you could mention) but they are as doomed as any other socialist system: Their people predominately believe in socialism, and are just as dependant and bribed as we are here, if not more so. England depends on Europe for trade - and Canada depends on the US. Granted Canada has that icky "dirty oil" from tar sands  to sell, and that might keep them afloat - but over 80%  of Canada population lives within 100 miles of the US border, they depend on the US for Military protection, and can't afford to defend thier own country  without pushing themselves into the same financail mess as us. Engalnd is even worse, having to borrow military assests from us- and then there is Borat TRYING to insult and betray them.
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