US presidential election predictions - no contest

Obama/Romney/Bush/Clinton/Bush etc...(it only gets worse) make me glad I have no children.  I fear for my nieces & nephews though.

A great election result. There's a lot of room for improvement in our system but there is also a lot for which we can be proud. Now lets tackle our deficit.

They will tackle the deficit the same way they always do - through massive currency devaluation, leading to the hidden tax of inflation.  The only "advantage" (and it is not really, of course) that I have is from stupidly large student loans such that I am "shorting" the US dollar right now...so I borrowed more valuable money and will pay it back with devalued money.

That said, don't let anyone ever sell you the idea that student loan debt is "good debt" - it is not.  Especially when the interest rate for the students is over 6%, but somehow the banks that caused the financial crisis get theirs at basically 0%; and if you account for inflation, they are literally getting it for below zero.

How people can ignore the effects of monetary policy and the fact that it never changes irrespective of who is in office amazes me, since it affects everything that we do & make/spend.

And your solution for the financial situation is what, exactly?

steve

Superb post ... I think you have summarised it perfectly, Clay. 

The interesting thing for me as an outside observer is what the Republican Party does now. Romney started off on the swivel-eyed Right in order to get himself nominated, and then (rather too obviously) shifted towards the centre.

However, the majority of Americans still rejected his agenda. An agenda, one notes, that was loudly endorsed by disreputable and discredited bullies like Rupert Murdoch, Donald Trump and Ted Nugent.

It seems to me - some of our American friends on here may wish to correct this impression if it's wrong - that the Grand Old Party is now the party of plutocrats, old white folk and a rump of the rural working class. It does not seem to acknowledge that the US will, within a few decades, have an Hispanic majority. The Republicans seem to be hellbent on sticking with pleasing an ageing and shrinking demographic and unless they change they may find themselves in the political wilderness - just as Labour did in 1979-97 and the Tories in 1997-2010.

Political principle (if the GOP can be said to have political principles, which I'm sure many of them do) is one thing, but if one cannot adapt them to demographic reality then one may find oneself out on the margins, unelectable.

I'm Canadian, which is the same as American, only slower, but I'll have a go. As you say, the GOP are out of touch. Obama targeted women, minorities, the lower wage earners and the young, as in 2008 and increased his support within these groups.

As a side note and in part reply to Steve's question on finances, Colorado and Washington voted to legalize marijuana for recreational use. Legalize it and tax the hell out of it ; think also of the savings in enforcement costs. It worked for alcohol.

Jan

I think you got that right, Jan.

I'm a Welsh/English mix, which is the same as American, only cynical, but i'll have a go...

Romney targeted very smartly dressed people with perfect teeth, men who wear suits and hats, women who wear dresses and salon hair, staunch heterosexuals, Stepford Wives, any religious right wing Christian Church, the Ku Klux Klan, Texans, the gun club, and rich people.

Debs

In response to Dr Mark's post at the top of the page...I assume the figures for the UK and other Western economies would look broadly similar?

So if economies need to spend more and more but income is relatively fixed, inflation is potentially the only way out right? What then do these economies inflate against?

I mean, it used to be that Sterling could devalue against the Dollar, Mark etc. but if Sterling, the Euro, the US Dollar and Yen all need to 'devalue' for many years, what is it they devalue around? Won't be China they have inflation already and a 'funny' economic system, to a point. And if everyone can't afford to buy their stuff but the workers have expectations now, they'll have their own problems (which may be solved by tanks again I guess).

Bring back the gold standard? Now, where did I put those Krugerrands?

Or is time to become 'Cultured'. (Quite liking the new one by the way, off topic)

Personally, I think it will be a variation of a theme in the reduction in numbers (George's favourite topic..!), Darwinism in action perhaps.

Hey, I've just noticed that the spell checker on the forum is American, wtf?

Aluminium. Colour. Humourless. Centre. Yep.

I think the spell checker is part of your browser. I might be wrong.

The same solution that you and I have to live with; stop spending more than you make. For the USA I would start by stop waging useless wars that we cannot afford, killing Pakistani women & children, and feeding the war machine.  Ah, but we do love our wars...

The problem is the politicians, in an effort to purchase the votes they covet so much, have promised everything to everyone.  This is also done to make the masses dependent on them for everything. George Orwell was right, he was just a few decades off. The corruption of the system is so endemic that it will never be fixed.  Hillary Clinton telling Putin he is corrupt - that is the pot calling the kettle black if ever that metaphor was accurately applied!

Truly, there probably is no solution, beyond a total reset, which will happen eventually.  All societies and empires have their demise; history proves that time and again, and the USA/Western Civilization will be no exception to the laws of the universe...to think otherwise is just arrogance and attributing more to our present society than is warranted...we are no more ethically advanced than were Neanderthals.  We just like to think that we are.

Obama is just as out of touch - he goes golfing with Jamie Dimon, and he & Holder will never lay a finger on the very suits to which you refer.  Basically, he is their b*tch just as much as Romney.

One thing that has been most instructive in my now 2 years in pharmacy, is that I have seen how to game the system...because it is happening at a frighteningly alarming rate...I never dreamed it was so rampant as it is until I saw it with my own eyes. Previously I thought, "Yeah, it happens, but it can't be that much."  BS - it is really a WAY higher percentage of the system than it should be.

But these folks have shown me the way, and at some point I might just tire of fighting a battle I cannot win, & just liquidate my assets, say "f*ck it", and then live out of my fellow citizens' pocket for the rest of my life.  Easier to do than you might think.  You won't live large, but you won't be busting hump for nothing either.  Too bad I have that nasty ethical & responsibility streak my parents imbued in me.

Borrowing within reason is OK - being unable to pay it back (which is where we are already) is not.

What you are espousing is a variant on the "Broken Window Fallacy".