America -- WTF Is Going On?

I believe Henri Ford made a similar speech in the 1920's about paying workers a descent wage so that they can afford to buy the products they produce!

 

the more things change, the more they stay the same. this has been going on since 1789 and there's no change in the forecast. you can't have recovery without a recession. wild growth leads to bubbles and bubbles burst. the alternatives are even worse. stagnant growth or constant decline.

 

Mike,, this is a very decent post.

What I'm reading here is that America has either been unwilling or unable to change its economic strategies while Asia has been rapidly emerging as an economic powerhouse.

Maybe Amerca has been trying to only be the global economic leader, not changing strategies to getting inline with Asia and their strategies.

I remember America being the world's industrial giant. Industries were booming. To me, the pendulum has swung towards Asia.

 

China has it's own boons and busts to deal with. we have ghost towns, they have modern ghost cities that have never been lived in.

 

Human nature, we just like screwing it all up. We don't even understand how or why we do it, we just do.

Though I think it mostly comes down fear and a lack of communication, or maybe it is an unwillingness to communicate with each other.

 

I think the biggest reason for the current problems is not so much that the government changed, but rather that the structure of the economy has been changing; outsourcing of factories and jobs, and a large influx of poor immigrants.

The USA government is also in 14 trillion dollars of debt. The mere creation of this debt creates inflation. The fractional reserve banking system has gotten out of control. The banks are allowed to hold US treasury bonds, instead of paper notes, as their required reserve. Many banks and financial institutions were allowed to be exempt from the 10% reserve requirement, meaning they are essentially allowed to "create" much more money in their bank accounts.

The Federal Reserve needs a serious audit from the Treasury Department. As of now, the only auditor that looks at what is happening is a private firm Deloitte & Touche, that was also the auditor for Bear Sterns before it collapsed from the massive mortgage-backed security fraud. The government is relying on a private firm, that was likely complicit in the fraud that was at the heart of the mortgage crisis, to make sure that there is no fraud going on in the Federal Reserve! When money is printed in the mint, the first place it goes is to the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve board actually decides how much money to print, then makes an order from the Treasury that prints it. The Federal Reserve pays only the cost of printing: 12 cents for a 100 dollar bill! The Federal Reserve supposedly can only order money if it holds onto collateral, but the only way the Treasury really knows how much collateral they hold is from the audit done by the private company! This system needs reform.