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Read other letters about this article
Junior Wells hit close - but only part of the story.
I really wish it were 1932 all over again. Because if it were he's what we would have in our favor right now:
1. A giant manufacturing infrastructure, largely gone now with Detroit about ready to give up the ghost. We are now a nation of people selling each other insurance and hamburgers (and, up until six months ago, financial instruments). Of this, a going economy cannot be sustained. Financial instruments were really driving Wall Street in the last 20 years. Now what?
2. US National Debt Jan 1933: $22,538,672,560.15. Percentage of GDP: 56.4.
2008 estimate: $10,024,700,000,000. Percentage of GDP: 72.5 (est). If you want to know who is holding the knife to our throat that we gave them, check this out:
http://www.treas.gov/tic/mfh.txt
3. Bountiful natural mineral resources now depleting at accelerated rates. Peak oil is real. Don't believe me? In a few years it will be self-evident. And everything that makes modern society modern originates from oil. Check out: http://www.kunstler.com
4. A healthy climate now eroding thanks to global climate change that will also have great negative impacts in the coming years. The methane is now being loosened from the Russian permafrost. Few are discussing this but the ramifications are very serious.
5. In 1932 we had deflation. Now, as long as the Treasury and the Fed continue to vastly inflate the nation's money supply to bail out all of Wall street's thieves, banksters and failing US industry the result will, most likely within the next YEAR be hyperinflation. Think what's left of your portfolio will keep up?
6. In 1932 we had FAR more localized agriculture, i.e. despite the poverty we could still feed ourselves. Now the nation depends on vast factory farms which are wholly dependent on petroleum for their high yields and imported food. Shake up this system just a little and watch what happens - especially in the cities.
7. In 1932 we had healthier oceans from which bountiful sea harvests were taken. Now, thanks to commercial overfishing and pollution (check out the giant plastic toxin waste dump in the North Pacific gyre) many parts of the oceans are rapidly becoming devoid of sea life.
8. In 1932 the military-industrial complex did not exist. Now it does and is sucking the remaining life out of our economy and our standing in the world. LBJ could have Vietnam and the Great Society to some extent. Now? Not anymore. And that leads to:
9. In 1932 we had a well built and comprehensive infrastructure that had largely been built in the years immediately following The First World War. Our railroad system, once the envy of the world, would, as James Kunstler is fond of saying, shame Bulgaria. If trucks at some point become too expensive to run, how do we move the same volume of goods? And people? And now look at the condition of our roads and bridges - these are the stuff of modern commerce and they are starting to collapse.
10. In 1932 there was no IMF or the interlocking control groups that manipulate so much of the world's finances and governmental decisions.
About the same thing we have in common with 1932 is that banksters and marketeers will always give into their dark side - it's human nature. But then we got FDR who wasn't always correct but at least got legislation passed that corrected most of the problems that caused the Great Depression. During the last 10 years, our completely bought and paid for Congress got rid of these laws with all too predictable results.
To those who tap their heels three times and repeat "the market will come back, the market will come back," I ask: how? With what capital or WHOSE capital? How will it be created? Out of the same thin air of debt that the Fed is creating in massive stinking piles now? Will the market value of homes and property just somehow start appreciating again? How? Can US manufacturing ever hope to raise enough export revenue again? Who the hell is going to be able to afford the personal and business taxes this would take?
How in the hell can this country hope to ever pay back the national debt, let alone cover the still largely hidden losses of the nation's banks and financial corporations which will eventually boggle the minds of both economists and mathematicians.
Taken all the above into account, well, get used to a new way of living folks, You will eventually, whether you like it or not.
