How in heaven's name (anyone else's?) did we get sold a bill of goods that if borrowed to buy stuff we would be building a strong economy? Essentially that we could borrow our way to prosperity. It's nuts.
And on top of that we are participating in one of the greatest transfers of wealth in the history of the human race ... due to the speculative frenzy in oil futures ... which in turn is due to the FACT that the globe is awash in US dollars that have to find a "hedge" against inflation ... which in turn is due to the fact that the government cronies (Treasury Department, Federal Reserve Board, ... U.S. Senate ... ) of our global financial services sector wizards are "printing" money faster than we ever thought possible ... because the whole house of cards they are trying to hold up is too big to allow to fail ... even though we all know it is going to.
And when you think of where our dollars are going for the petroleum products we use ... such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, Venezuela ... even if not directly ... and their sovereign accounts which can then be used to buy up our national assets ... this is not only crazy, it is traitorous -- in my opinion ( ... which is why I agree with blarneyboy about hanging our speculators from streetlights.)
We are being lied to on so many fronts ... the Consumer Price Index (inflation) has been "adjusted" ... the rate of unemployment is not a true measure of the unemployed ... and talk about our federal deficit:
What's the real federal deficit?
By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY,Updated 8/4/2006 9:55 AM ET
The federal government keeps two sets of books.
The set the government promotes to the public has a healthier bottom line: a $318 billion deficit in 2005.
The set the government doesn't talk about is the audited financial statement produced by the government's accountants following standard accounting rules. It reports a more ominous financial picture: a $760 billion deficit for 2005. If Social Security and Medicare were included -- as the board that sets accounting rules is considering -- the federal deficit would have been $3.5 trillion.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-08-02-deficit-usat_x.htm
Our kids are already shaking their heads at how shortsighted we've been ... squandering their future ... selling our birthright of liberty for another shopping trip to the mall ... and now money we spend on the gas we use to get to the mall goes to sovereign accounts so they can buy the malls where we shop ... brilliant!
