Oh, please. For as long as the world has been in existence, there have been worry warts (sp?) who could not seem to go a day without predicting some sort of inevitable doom. Of course, if you are consistent and predict gloom and doom constantly, then eventually you may be partially right.
When I hear all this, it sounds so familiar to the same crud I have heard all my life. First thing I remember was the fear of a nuclear war with Russia. Then it moved into deficits and debt.Then terrorism. Now it is currency. It is always going to be something. And eventually, sure, something at some time will cause some economic catastrophe.
You say there are experts much smarter than you that agree with you. But I contend that there are plenty of experts much smarter than you that disagree, No one can predict the future. Anyone who tells you different is selling something.
Are you telling me that the Soviets were not a threat? Their nukes were not poised at us? Ever?
These threats failed to happen because some people changed the path sufficiently to dodge the bullet. Like Reagan and the Soviets. (The Soviets were logical compared to today's Islamic Iran, so don't equate the threats).
The Soviets falsely appear to have had greater destructive power because of their huge nuclear capability. The currency threat was not even on the horizon until the suicidal Islamic groups, in the form of suicidal countries like Islamic Iran, instead of individual suicide bombers, came into power. Hamas and Hezbollah verge on this "me too, martyrdom" scene too.
Had Carter won a second term, the deficits you mention with disdain would have happened the way the "gloomers" stated. Luckily someone else won. Happened to be Reagan, who also deflected the nukes events from the Soviets.
You and I have had the good fortune, sporadically, to have had some people in power who took action against these "doom and gloom scenarios" and made them go away or alleviated them.
Kennedy and Cuban missiles for instance. Or was that, too, just crying wolf? It wasn't and would have had dire consequences.
This does not mean the doom and gloom, like the warning I am shouting out as loudly as I can, is invalid. It needs action to remove it.
What's horrific now is that we have the most insane finger on the "destroy the world" button since Hitler, facing not Reagan but the most absolutely anti-American, appeasist group of Dems ever, like Pelosi, Leahy etc., who will self-destruct the USA to get Bush.
Like burning down your barn to get the rats. (Pun in there somewhere?)
You, like so many of us, have lived through good and bad times, where the bad has been "softened" to where it has been bearable. Only just in the 1930's. So you argue optimistically, based on good luck and some power plays by men like Bush - like going into Iraq and preventing oil disconnecting from the dollar to some other form of payment. Doesn't matter what that is as long as it is no longer the Dollar.
For the first time in my fairly long life, given the prevailing factors, I no longer believe we can achieve this with the givens we face.
Which we have NEVER had to face before. And around which we totally fail to wrap our minds.
Your optimism is laudable and a brave positive aspect of America but there is a time and place where whistling in the dark no longer suffices and we are not walking past a cemetary but past a bunch of lunatic murderers ready, willing and sadly now able to pounce and slit our throats.
Right now the only viable option, horrible as it may appear to be, is to do whatis outlined in "Iran, Final Justified Solution" on http://www.antimullah.com (check View Archive Details for exact link).
But first we have to realize the extent of what we face - with only Hitler as a "prior" and long forgotten indicator and dig deep to find the reolve to do what needs to be done.
The world is currently in a similar state to a patient with fairly advanced cancer, which the doctors either failed to spot or have avoided badly needed surgery. Now they can have second, third and thousandth opinions to avoid doing what MUST be done.
The result? Eventually send the patient home to die as the cancer will no longer be operable or thepatient dies due to their indecision and neglect.
You and I and every other American - and millions of other nationals around the world - are the patient.