Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Gradual insolvency about to speed up
The Orange County Register ^ | March 24, 2012 | Mark Steyn

Posted on 03/24/2012 1:33:16 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued

"We are headed for the most predictable economic crisis in history," says Paul Ryan. And he's right. But precisely because it's so predictable the political class has already discounted it. Which is why a plan for pie now and spinach later, maybe even two decades later, is the only real menu on the table. There's a famous exchange in Hemingway's "A Place In The Sun." Someone asks Mike Campbell, "How did you go bankrupt?" "Two ways," he replies. "Gradually, then suddenly." We've been going through the gradual phase so long, we're kinda used to it. But it's coming to an end, and what happens next will be the second way: sudden, and very bad.

By the way, that decline in the U.S./Australian exchange isn't the only one. Ten years ago the U.S. dollar was worth 1.6 Canadian; now it's at par. A decade ago, the dollar was worth over 10 Swedish Kroner, now 6.7; 1.8 Singapore dollars, now 1.2. I get asked with distressing frequency by Americans where I would recommend fleeing to. The reality is, given the dollar's decline over the past decade, that most Americans can no longer afford to flee to any place worth fleeing to. What's left is the non-flee option: taking a stand here, stopping the spendaholism, closing federal agencies, privatizing departments, block-granting to the states – not in 2040, but now. "Suddenly" is about to show up.

(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: marksteyn; steyn
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-32 next last

1 posted on 03/24/2012 1:33:23 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Kaslin; AuntB; SJackson

It’s mind-boggling. Obama & Company have racked up more debt in three years than the Bush Administration did in eight. Our national debt is the size of many countries’ entire Gross National Product. This can’t go on forever. Yet the Democrats refuse to even offer a plan at all, other than to attack any plan the Republicans offer.

Obama and the Democrats need to be ousted by landslide margins at all levels of government. If that happens, we have a shot at coming out of it OK. If Obama is reelected, I’m not certain that the United States can survive another four years.


2 posted on 03/24/2012 1:36:27 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued (A chameleon belongs in a pet store, not the White House)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Clintonfatigued

It’s bigger than 90% of the countries, on this list:

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_gro_nat_inc-economy-gross-national-income


3 posted on 03/24/2012 1:39:50 PM PDT by Carriage Hill (I'll "vote for an orange juice can", over Barry 0bummer and another 4yrs of his Regime From Hell!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Clintonfatigued
Is this the same Congressman Paul Ryan who is actively working to get RINO’s elected to the U.S. Senate and against Tea Party candidates?

We will not see a change in this government until the people take it back from the RINO's and the liberal socialist! McRomney is already saying he is going to repeal Obamacare then REPLACE it! Nothing more than tinkering around the edges, just enough to say he worked on changing the government, but, not really changing anything! Same ol same ol government. Government needs to get the hell out of Americans health care altogether, period! Enough said, but the RINO's in government will not allow that to happen, way too much power behind controlling America's health care and telling them what they can and cannot do! Paul Ryan, McRomney and their RINO ilk can all go straight to hell on the donkey they all rode in on!

4 posted on 03/24/2012 1:53:20 PM PDT by paratrooper82 (We are kicking Ass in Afghanistan, soon we will be home to kick some more Asses in Congress!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Clintonfatigued
..w
..e

..a
..r
..e

..s
..c
..r
..*
..w
..e
..d
..!!

5 posted on 03/24/2012 1:55:59 PM PDT by Gritty (When even casual sex requires a state welfare program, you're pretty much done for - Mark Steyn)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Clintonfatigued

The Hemingway novel is “The Sun Also Rises” not “A Place in the Sun.”


6 posted on 03/24/2012 1:58:56 PM PDT by Kenny500c
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Clintonfatigued

...I don’t see spending slowing down any time soon...


7 posted on 03/24/2012 2:10:16 PM PDT by Tzimisce (this sucks)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kenny500c

>>The Hemingway novel is “The Sun Also Rises” not “A Place in the Sun.”

Yeah, respect for Steyn went down two notches with that mistake. I did my thesis on that novel.


8 posted on 03/24/2012 2:13:12 PM PDT by struggle (http://killthegovernment.wordpress.com/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Clintonfatigued

The fact is that while many people SAY they want the deficit reduced, they always oppose the specifics. The Libs (and RHINOs) know this. In fact, as things get unmanagable, look for the spending and freebees to accelerate. That’s right. Because to keep people on the crazy train (as it careens toward the cliff), they’ll have to offer more and more enticements.


9 posted on 03/24/2012 2:22:54 PM PDT by rbg81
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Clintonfatigued

I like the quote. Unfortunately, Steyn got both the book and the author wrong. Frightening article, just the same.


10 posted on 03/24/2012 2:29:56 PM PDT by beelzepug ("Blind obedience to arbitrary rules is a sign of mental illness")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Clintonfatigued

11 posted on 03/24/2012 3:03:13 PM PDT by Heuristic Hiker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Heuristic Hiker

Clever posting!

This is the most important election that will happen in our lifetimes.


12 posted on 03/24/2012 3:10:54 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued (A chameleon belongs in a pet store, not the White House)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Clintonfatigued
Its been said a lot around here that "The House holds the purse strings". If that were indeed the case, the House would have put an end to this wild deficit spending as soon as the 'Pubs took back over.
The spending continues unabated.
Our (The American citizen actually paying taxes) problem is both parties and has been for a while. Both parties want to "cut" in different areas of the Government, but only to satisfy spending in areas based on party base/support. Spending MUST be curtailed across the board. Everything takes a hit. Entire agencies (we all know which ones) simply need to vanish, poof. gone. Entitlements need sever cuts and taxes need lowered immediately. We need the federal government out of the business of retirements, energy and education. I'll go a step further, if its not enumerated in the Constitution, it gets zero funding. Our problems would be over in less than half a decade.
13 posted on 03/24/2012 3:24:47 PM PDT by Michael Barnes (Obamaa+ Downgrade)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Clintonfatigued

“This is the most important election that will happen in our lifetimes.”

Unfortunately if the choice is between Obama and Romney, the outcome of the election will not matter.


14 posted on 03/24/2012 3:27:22 PM PDT by Soul of the South (When times are tough the tough get going.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: beelzepug

Oops. Book wrong, author right. Similar titles, too many years since I read either. Still, not like Steyn to get it even half wrong.


15 posted on 03/24/2012 3:29:38 PM PDT by beelzepug ("Blind obedience to arbitrary rules is a sign of mental illness")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Michael Barnes

...Homeland Security, Envirommental Protection, ATF, and more.


16 posted on 03/24/2012 3:35:17 PM PDT by beelzepug ("Blind obedience to arbitrary rules is a sign of mental illness")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Tzimisce

Not a penny of the debt will ever be paid off. It is just debasement of the value of the dollar, any savings in dollars( all those decades you saved....puffed it’s gone ), pensions.

The printing, excuse me, quantitative easing is a tax, a taking on holders of money. A tax on the rich, near rich, middle class and working class.

The thing is Both the Bush/Lott/Hasteret and now Obama and maybe soon Romney and forever will continue. This is just the beginning of the beginning.

I don’t think we will make any serious reforms unless we have a event that makes 2008 look like a ice cream party on a summer afternoon.


17 posted on 03/24/2012 3:58:47 PM PDT by Leisler (11% GDP of borrowing this year alone, gives 2% ( yeah, right ) GDP boost! Woohoo!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Clintonfatigued
The subtitle behind the link is also interesting and says much.

"Including the unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare, the United States owes 911 percent of gross domestic product, more than even Greece."


18 posted on 03/24/2012 4:19:34 PM PDT by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of rotten politics smelled around the planet.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: paratrooper82

Congressman Paul Ryan is owned part and parcel by JPMorgan and the NYFed Board of Governors.

He doesn’t try to hide it, he simply omits this fact until confronted with it.

And I mean owned, not just rented like most of the whore politicians in this country.


19 posted on 03/24/2012 4:53:31 PM PDT by JerseyHighlander
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Clintonfatigued
Our national debt is the size of many countries’ entire Gross National Product.

Current US GDP= $15.320 TRILLION

Current US debt= $15.579 TRILLION

20 posted on 03/24/2012 4:55:34 PM PDT by mountn man (Happiness is not a destination, its a way of life.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-32 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson