swaps

There's No Way to Go Back to Business as Usual

It took Rome a few hundred years to actually recede into oblivion and I suspect we may too.

But there is no question our fiat money, consumption oriented dream world is just that...an illusion. Reality requires that we work productively, save more than we disperse. But we have been cleverly brainwashed into this new paradigm which made a lot of us feel comfortable in a belief we had never had it so good. But a very few people were accumulating incredible amounts of money and power as we dreamed along.

But now the big accumulators are really wealthy and the best of them have used their dream money to gain control of hard assets, whether a Colorado hideway or a coastal estate.

But this frantic shoveling of money into the banks is hopeless because it only tries to plub the holes in their balance sheet. On another board someone alleged HUD claims illegal aliens in the U. S. alone got a few million fraudulent loans. Banks cannot loan to a disappearing middle class that is strapped and now subject to really tough lending standards. And I suspect a few middle class people have realized that borrowing for consumption is not the way to permanent prosperity. They may stop applying for loans.

The only stable society may be a nation of mostly cottage farmers who grow their own food and have a little business or job on the side. But its not very exciting. Just realistic.