WARNING: The following will not encourage you!
If I told you my family and I increased our debt load over $700,000 every single minute, would you say things were "looking up" for me? I'm guessing you'd have to go with the reply of "no". If that's the case, why in the world do I keep hearing all this silly talk about "economic recovery" and statements like "things are starting to look up"? Folks, I hate to be "Debbie Downer" here, but this whole "I think things are looking up in this country" idea is just ridiculous!
With that, I'd like to share three simple reasons why I believe America is in desperate trouble. By the way, I could list far more!
First, until that debt clock reverses direction, things are NOT looking up. I may be going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing you'd be hard pressed to find any economist or financial adviser worth his/her salt that would give a thumbs up to a "spend more than you have" approach to life. Sooner or later, regardless of who you are, that mindset will land you in deep trouble. Bottom line: America continues to borrow money and we have no way to pay it back.
Second, there has to be a reckoning day for a country that persists in printing worthless money. Here's a fun fact for you: On average, America prints around 35 million notes each and every day with a face value of approximately $750 million. And what grand item of value do we have to back up that daily addition of paper and ink? You guessed it! NOTHING! Check behind door number one, two, and three and you'll find nothing more than a boat load of empty D.C. promises! What about gold you say? Oh dear friend, that ship was abandoned long ago.
Dr. Mike Walden, North Carolina Cooperative Extension economist in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University, puts it this way:
"Of course, it used to be that you could cash in, so to speak, your cash - your dollars - for gold, but that's been long gone. Now there is a legal stipulation that dollars and coins printed by the U.S. government must be accepted as payment. But I think the real reason that the merchants that you talk about take your paper money, the real reason they do that, is simply trust. They trust that everyone else will take that paper as payment. So when they turn around and buy something, that person that they are buying from is going to take that paper money."
You see, it really is all just a sad game we play. I promise to accept your worthless piece of paper, if you'll accept mine. But keep this little tidbit in mind, printing money will always, at some magical point bring about an ugly little condition economists have termed as "inflation"! And what happens when a country is up to its eyebrows in debt, yet still continues to wildly print greenbacks? It likely bypasses inflation very quickly and moves straight to its even more enjoyable big brother known as "hyperinflation". You know, where your $20 is actually only worth $2.50, and the price of necessities such as gas and food move beyond your ability to purchase. Fun, Fun, Fun!
And finally, last but not least, let's not forget that you and I have a seemingly clueless president that continues to bless us with helpful "initiatives" grown in the fertile soil of stupidity such as Obamacare. Also, we have the good fortune of enduring a worthless, do nothing congress that refuses to work together to bring about even the slightest bit of change.
All in all, a recipe of disaster!
Friends, a train can't stop on a dime, and unfortunately this train we're all riding on is nearing a cliff and no one knows or apparently cares where the brake is. In the end, this whole idea that America is on the rebound is nothing more than a pleasant placebo we all continue to down in an effort to avoid the truth. That being, this country is big trouble, and still the train chugs happily along.
I wonder how many rounds of "kumbaya" we can get in before the lights go out.
