GOT MONEY?

With Obama Economics now solidly in place, what can the average American citizen expect ahead? Certainly, politicians and press will sing optimistic duets, and, therefore, there will be an inclination to be positive about matters. Still, upon sober reflection, it appears that the buying power of the dollar is going down and that taxes are going up. If true, then the average American is going to be spending basically on basics. There won't be too much "free" money to go elsewhere. This should be the natural result of spending several trillion dollars of borrowed dollars to stimulate the economy and achieving success thereby. Uncle Sam has played the role of a "Candy Man," and we all feel good - for a little while. Hey! Maybe we'll need another hit, doncha know?



With all that interest to pay on the borrowed money, the "loan sharks" are going to want their "vigorish." Where can Uncle Sam go for that money? To another "loan shark?" Not likely, but not because he's unwilling to go; at some point the lending purses will close. He is going to his own "bad boys" (IRS) to get the money he needs to pay the interest on his debts. The result will be that taxes are going up, probably across the board, and more audits will be made. The returns from such audits should break all IRS records. The IRS may well hire a boatload of new people for this purpose.


With many of America's former jobs now situated in various nations overseas and with many domestic employers, even in the less-well-paying service sector, laying off workers, free spending from the American people seems to be unrealistic. Yet, Mr. Obama's "money doctors," politicians generally, and the press assure Americans that the terrible state of the economy is the people's fault for not spending - and also for not saving. Crazy? Surely you do not think that they are going to shoulder the major burden for the economic wreckage?


Years of "Free Trade" have annihilated broad, deep areas of industrial America. The citizens were told that we were unloading polluting, heavy-handed industries - sometimes likened to dinosaurs - for high-tech, intellectual enterprises. The latter are also migrating to overseas locations. Recently, I chatted with a man in India about a problem I was having with my computer. Such events are common nowadays. The glorious "It's a small world after all" praise of the course which has been set for the American Ship of State does not speak to the possibility that in the "world community" the Americans may find themselves born "on the wrong side of the street."


Mr. Obama's team of “money doctors” seems to believe that the worst of the disease is now past. The entirety of the world's economic system will probably not collapse into a black hole of debt. By adroit use of "monetary Viagra," the money doctors believe that Uncle Sam's "manhood" has been saved.


What if Uncle Sam's romance with his trading partners went cold, because his "vigor" had just melted away? What if the economic implosion picked up steam? In that scenario, money would be scarce. Then the rich would get richer, as they buy up "fire sale" properties, which must be unloaded by desperate people trying to avoid their own personal collapse. Overall, money is scarce. How is Uncle Sam going to pay for all the trillions of dollars of debt newly entered upon?


Usually, under these kinds of circumstances, an American president thinks of distracting everyone by engaging in a major war. Iran is right there. A nation such as America, that has energy issues, might think of warring against a "wicked" nation, or nations, defeating them, putting puppet regimes in place, and then saddling the defeated nation with very generous allotments of oil to the U.S. (and to its allies) as reparations. After all, the wages of sin are reparations.


Mr. Obama is a man possessed of exceptional oratorical abilities. His words are assuring. Yet, they are like a "Potemkin village" - a facade hiding reality; there is nothing behind the glorious words.


Caveat emptor.






August 26, 2009