Federal Reserve – The Social Critic

Can the United States of America afford a decades-long war with ISIS? Can the U.S. contain Russia should it annex its neighbors? Can we confront North Korea if its dictator teams up with a nuclear-armed Iran? Will Big Government have an incentive to secure our borders if we need new and future taxpayers — legal and otherwise — to service the interest on our debt?

There’s no doubt the United States has the best-equipped military in the world. But that may not add up to a whole lot of security if we don’t get a handle on the national debt — before it’s too late.

“I.O.U.S.A.” is as relevant today as it ever was when it debuted in 2008 on the heels of former Comptroller General David Walker’s two-year Fiscal Wake-Up Tour. The only difference? Instead of ~$9 trillion the U.S. is running a deficit today in excess of $18T. That works out to a staggering $3 million per minute — for a figure currently in excess of $56K per American!

I.O.U.S.A. documentary

Last week: A late-model Qantas A380 jet engine disintegrates mid-air, with passengers lucky to have survived the ensuing in-flight trauma. This week: A two-year-old Carnival cruise ship is towed into a San Diego, California port after an engine crankcase spontaneously splits open, erupting in fire. Passengers in this case, too, were lucky that the worst they suffered was cold food, limited electrical power and non-operable toilets. And in what would have been shocking 10 years ago, news of contaminated meat, recalled produce and unsafe drugs are now so routine that most of us shrug it off.

In such situations, the finger-pointing tends to be brand, manufacturer or supplier-specific. Indeed, it is tempting to chalk up such news to a series of unfortunate flukes. But is that the best and brightest lesson we can draw — or does our mainstream news media tend to downplay or disregard the Big Picture?

Continue reading “Going Broke: Veterans of a Post-American Economy” →