Dear Julie,
another piece to show how Australian pollies (and coalition are the worse offenders) really have no grasp of what is the fate of the world.
You say "while you do not subscribe to the theory that the US is in an irreversible decline" It is.
Then you say "Whoever wins the election will face a massively challenging environment, as the US balances its mounting debts with the need to stimulate growth."
Now stimulating growth sounds good but is doomed to failure. There is no way that the oxymoron of sustainable growth can work. The world is running out of just about everything and the population is increasing at a gallop.
There will come a time, quite soon, when the supply of consumables will start to run out and the demand from the population will continue to increase. It is hard to work out the catastrophic effect.
It will make not an atom of difference who wins either of the "elections". Armageddon is approaching.

As for a "massively challenging environment" - the U.S. economy appears to be cascading down a one-way street.

Last November there was a bit hoo-hah when their debt to GDP hit 15 trillion.....it's now nearly 15.8 trillion and closing in on the 16 trillion mark - in 8 months!

http://www.usdebtclock.org

Julie lives in a world of make-believe. The capitalist system, which rests on the twin pillars of greed and exploitation, is all but dead and buried and here she is hoping for its rebirth.

She should move to Disneyland. That's where dreamers who dislike reality congregate!

Last December, David Ignatious from the Washington Post Writers Group commented on the Global Trends 2030 study which explored how well the US is prepared to shape the global future. The key is how the US responds to adversity. Relative to its competitors the US still has an adaptive financial system, strong global corporations, a culture that can tap the talents of a diverse population and an unmatched military. The nation's chronic weakness he concluded was its political system which is nearing dysfunction. If the US can elect better political leadership, it should be able to manage problems better than competitors.

The same applies to China and Australia.

There is no way that the USA can balance its need to reduce debt versus the idea that it must stimulate its economy. the marginal productivity of new debt in the USA already went massively negative a couple of years ago. Go here to see the amazing graph:

http://economicedge.blogspot.com.au/2010/04/guest-post-and-more-on-most-important.html

What that means is that any borrowing to stimulate the US economy actually now REDUCES GDP!

The US economy will never grow again (other than in terms of additional "printed" currency) since it no longer has the additional energy required to do so. The ultrahyped shale gas bubble is now bursting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1386Jt17myY

The world economy needs energy to grow Julie - when you finally understand that you will understand the true depth of our problem.

Julie, as usual you show your complete ignorance to reality.

America is in decline, like the Roman Empire it may take some time but every social, economic and environmental criteria show that this country is in irreversible decline.

No matter the result of elections in the US and China, how about placing your focus on the myriad issues facing this country.

I am just dumb-founded by your ignorance.

I could go on and on, but what is the point, you never respond to any of the comments on OLO, perhaps you could get one of your minions to respond on your behalf on occasion.

For the record, global per capita growth is over, caput, just think about this for a minute and next time you post something, put some rational behind your blinkered view of the world.

Get real Julie, President bush handed out tax breaks to people who didn't need them, then made up for the revenue shortfall he created, by funding all his military misadventures on the credit card.
The position that President Obama wrestles with, was one he inherited
Even as the American economy was going backwards under President Bush, America was shelling out over 70 billions PA, for oil imports.
Every western style economy rest on just two economic pillars, energy and capital.
And the unregulated capital market stole debt in the form of un-repayable derivatives, 64 trillions worth?
Used in too many cases; to make, [cooked,] books look much better than they really were; and or, grow too big to be allowed to fail; and, kick the debt can, a decade or two down the road.
It's so typical of conservative administrations, to create the problem, either as entirely incompetent administrations; or blame shifting road blocks, when in opposition?
They way forward for the Americans is to set aside the blame shifting and simply crack on with transforming their economy to a carbon neutral/free one, with much lower energy costs.
This will allow money currently being consumed paying for fully imported or far too expensive energy, being used to pay down debt.
It'll take two or three decades
Capital gains tax needs to be much higher, to prevent the sort of multi trillion dollar speculation; market cornering, that has driven energy prices far too high to sustain!
The very wealthiest need to at the very least, pay the same percentage of their income, in tax, as wage earners.
The top tax rate in a post war America was 91 cents in the dollar!
It was also a time, when America went through a period of unprecedented prosperity.
Prosperity that has been progressively wound back by by Republican administrations; and or, to satisfy unmitigated, unsustainable, personal greed!
Rhrosty.

We could assist the American economy to recover, and assist ourselves as well, by exploring and exploiting the massive hydrocarbon deposits that lie to our immediate north.
This will earn trillions for us in annual earnings and allow energy consumers to transfer their energy use, to a form, which creates four times less carbon, than fully refined fully imported sulphur laden rubbish. i.e. Canadian tar sands or already once refined Middle Eastern/Russian rubbish?
We could, for example, sell practically ready to use, naturally occurring diesel, [sweet light Australian crude,] for a hundred dollars a barrel, or, around 75 cents a litre?
This would generate profits of around 80.00 a barrel.
The Townsville trench by itself, as just one example, has reserves estimated as somewhere between 5-15 billion barrels, and if exploited by the govt, or govt employed tendering contractors, on the peoples' behalf, could earn 40-120 billions inside a decade.
How much are we currently earning from the tourist trade, the opposing greens continually tout?
Well bugger all, or simply not enough to stop a number of resort closures or bankruptcies!
Moreover, much larger longer equally promising trenches, lie further out. Albeit, in relatively shallow water!
The trillions we could earn on an annual basis, would pay for the complete conversion of our own economy to a progressively carbon neutral one, and the substitution by others, to much lower carbon producing fuel types, would give them the breathing space, the time and the capital, to convert their own economies to carbon free ones, without also crippling their own economies.
We could find, if we but bothered to look, that we have hydrocarbon reserves to our immediate north, to rival or even eclipse the entire known hydrocarbon reserves in the Middle East?
We should and must tap into this liquid gold or economy recovering wealth, even if it means our govt getting into the highly lucrative energy business!
Other much more pragmatically led countries and or extremely conservative administrations already do!
Rhrosty.

"Uncertainty" seems to be a word that's bandied
about so easily nowadays. And probably for good
reasons. None of us really know for certain what's going to
happen globally and how it will affect us. Australian
voters will have to take a close look at the policies on
offer prior to the next election and decide for themselves
which Party can serve their country best.

Economic experts seem to agree that when it comes to
winning in politics it's real policy debate over
economic issues that matter not silly political debates,
distortions, exaggerations - repeated over and over again.

So if Mr Abbott is elected as Australia's next PM he'll have a
complex economy to oversee. He will face issues of
productivity, labour force adaptability (WorkChoices is
dead, buried, and cremated - right?); an over-regulated
business sector, the issue of middle-class welfare, taxation
distribution between states, core roles of government, and
so on.

Nothing new there - except as we're told - the world is
moving so fast and is so interlinked that Mr Abbott is
going to need the best brains around him if Australia is to
measure up.

And that's a big concern. Mr Abbott is not known for his
policy work. He was at best a wayward minister and hiw
wild policy gyrations in Opposition on coal-fired power
stations, coal seam gas exploration, asylum seekers and
industrial relations for instance suggest chaos rather than
stability. There is no underlying sense of economic
competence.

His front bench economic team is threadbare at best.
Frequently offering us confusing, contradictory and
nonsensical sounding messages. They lack a sense of purpose.

As Norman Abjorensen says, "The scattergun tactics in
Opposition which can and do rattle a government simply
do not translate well in office.

Whether Mr Abbott is what he appears to be, a "One
Trick Pony," is yet to be seen. Unfortunately the voters
might learn this fact a little too late.

Well currently the US & Oz [& the EU for that matter], have government leaders about as bad as it is possible to get. At least we can believe it can't get any worse from here.

What a lot of those commenting don't appear to realise is that the nation building phase here & in the US occurred with mere existence wages, no health & safety, no welfare state, no state health care, & minimal state schooling.

We have socialised so many costs that we simply can't afford them.

Look at any state that has such a social welfare system, & you will see another failing state. It is simply beyond the capacity of a society to have so many taking without contributing in return.

Yes I know the bleeding hearts will call me all sorts of things, but I am just telling it as it is.

Those now receiving have done very well, but what will be left but debt? We have just about sold all the farm to pay for our indulgence, so where now?

It is nice to have free medical treatment. Thanks for treating my 3 heart attacks for me, but we can no longer afford such generosity, even for me. It is not practical to stick replacement hearts & lungs into recipients who will merely be a continuing drain there after. That warm & fuzzy feeling is just too expensive.

We have encouraged many to become just a waste of space. If we don't demand a suitable return for our generosity, it will not be long before it bites us beyond recovery. We are just going to have to say to folks like me, pay for your own treatment. Sell your house & move into a tent if necessary, our kids future welfare requires it.

Democracy has failed...susceptible to curruption...tits fundamental flaw...and we have arrived at this point of world population consumption energy balance/imbalance within parameters effected by combined democratic process of countries of the world, most countries have democracy as its governing process as its image to world...

http://m.guardian.co.uk/politics/2002/mar/19/usa.world?cat=politics&type=article

Democracy continues to be promoted and enforced by power if required worldwide...latest is Egypt lybia and soon Syria...countries which on close look works....food, education, health, law, stability...

And similar pattern of attack is developing....world corporate media starts a demonixing campaign...at some point UN joins in....country starts getting destabilized from within(NGO's usually used by American Got as it doesn't have restrictive legal barriers official govt bodies....why Egypt closed all of them down)...then highly televised 'population uprising....and voila democracy...

Democracy or whatever then it is...the effect to country is total disruption of existing culture morals and behaviour...live for now, I'm only important, consume consume consume...and magically countries policies become aligned with western countries...

To how is democracy corrupted to become a tool of enforcement? ...dats an big book...basically...the elected representative of the population are not the ones effecting the democratic control over us...eg....carbon tax(tax on air we breath effectively) was rejected by majority of Australian population but legislated anyway which by definition impossible in an democratic country...yeah?

So what now? Well...to me I see this...we have an enforced image of democracy within which we are expected to be productive citizens...extrapolating....the end is...population is totaaly monitored and controlled on an individual basis by unknown all powerful figures.....just waiting for the required technology to develop...hmmm...what a world...

Sam

Hi Julie,

Well, there you have it! If you really want to know how the world really works and where the world is going, all you have to do is post on OLO and read the words of advice from the resident sages.

I’m old enough to remember the scorn my parents poured on the introduction of credit cards, I remember how long we had to have a savings account and a sizable deposit to get a mortgage, I remember values such as if you want it bad enough save up for it, I remember the risks associated with debt and the need to have backup in the event of the unexpected. In particular I remember the dread associated with the prospect of losing your job.

My three kids and our grandkids think of us as old fashioned however, all of them have come to us at some stage for advice or guidance in relation to financial issues. The reason for this is because the way they do their finances and planning (sic), is very high risk.

At a macro level, I think there are direct parallels with the way the western world has developed its socio-economic policies, particularly in the last 40 years. It “sort” of works for them, it “looks” OK on the surface, they “seem” to be financially sound and hey, this is their world. But they keep screwing things up.

Today’s generations socialize all their problems. They blame it on lack of equity, social justice, gender, corporate greed, capitalism, peak oil/population/food production, persecution of the poorer nations, and on and on they bleat.

They have lost their reference points and have an excuse for everything and guess what, it’s never their fault. What they are completely oblivious to is the fact that in the grand scheme of things, nothing has changed since humans first started swapping flint spear tips for dried fish.

The post WWII generations, recovered, rebuilt, created wealth and helped drag much of the third world out of poverty.

Now we have a bunch of well educated but not intelligent whiners running things.

Julie, owing to your limited perspective, you believe, incorrectly the problem with a lack of growth is caused by defective national economies.

Consequently, you believe that the world can resolve its economic problems including declining material living standards by fixing broken national economies.

You somehow believe we can restore continuously improving material living standards for our ever-increasing population by implementing some magic and enlightened economic and political initiatives.

You are very much mistaken.

The fundamental cause underlying our predicament is not economic or political, it is ecological. Our ever increasing non-renewable resource declines matched with increasing economic and political tinkering to gain ‘growth’ are merely manifestations of our predicament; they are symptoms, not the disease.

Economic and political policies, fiscal stimulus (debt) and monetary policy (money printing) worked for a while.

They now, however, do not work and they will never work again, because scarcity has become a global phenomenon.

Absent an “intelligent response” to our predicament, our economic, social and environmental and material wellbeing will continue to deteriorate and decline.

One day, perhaps you will learn that you can solve a problem but you can’t solve a predicament.

Geoff of Perth, many thanks. You are such a perceptive intuitor and helpful contributor.

Here I was trying to “explain” to Julie, just how difficult it is to explain the socio-economic constructs with which our modern progressives surround themselves, and you leap into the breach to provide a stunning example of the very essence of the socialization of modern thinking.

Firstly it is clear that Julia is wrong, she has a “limited perspective”, she is very much mistaken and cannot provide an “intelligent response to our predicament, our economic, social and environmental and material wellbeing”.

Well pardon me. And I thought that the progressive phraseology thesaurus had been abandoned? I had no idea you were going to produce it here in the form a monumental puke!

Geoff, I was just pointing Julie to the problem that your generation has with silly things like financial prudence, risk mitigation, productivity, social stability and the issue of “laying of blame”. Remarkably I just happen to be totally in tune with your sentiments.

As I already suggested, you “blame it on lack of equity, social justice, gender, corporate greed, capitalism, peak oil/population/food production, persecution of the poorer nations”. To which you respond with laying blame on the “lack of equity, social justice, gender, corporate greed, capitalism, peak oil/population/food production, persecution of the poorer nations”.

Some might be tempted to respond with “Perfect, you don’t even understand what it is you don’t understand”. But that would be unkind to your equal opportunity employer.

Rather it might be better to actually sympathize with our politicians by saying hey! People like this from Perth actually get a vote, which should ensure a wipeout for the ALP in WA next year.

Oooo yeah and thank you Geoff!

"They have lost their reference points and have an excuse for everything and guess what, it’s never their fault. What they are completely oblivious to is the fact that in the grand scheme of things, nothing has changed since humans first started swapping flint spear tips for dried fish. The post WWII generations, recovered, rebuilt, created wealth and helped drag much of the third world out of poverty. Now we have a bunch of well educated but not intelligent whiners running things."

Well Spindoc, you forgot to mention that your 'generation' was endowed with a once-only source of cheap energy which drove all that wealth creation, rebuilding and also supposedly saved the third world from poverty.

Too much you forget that your children, their children and their future progeny will result in a world so much worse off than the one you currently experience during your 'twilight' years. I would guess you have a “populate or perish” mantra somewhere in that old grey matter eh?

As to the "To which you respond with laying blame on the “lack of equity, social justice, gender, corporate greed, capitalism, peak oil/population/food production, persecution of the poorer nations”.' err, no I don't I just point out the facts, of which you seem unable to grasp.

Thanks Geoff, you're a star.

Two comments. What it is we seek to avoid, we create. And the March of Folly, the pursuit of that which is contrary to self interest.

Thank you and keep up the good work.

P.S. When you have reached rock bottom, STOP DIGGING! He, hee!

We need a new political party not controlled by large corporate interests.Both Labor and the Coalition have sold this country out.Labor are the worst by far.

Tell us Julie,if the US Federal Reserve can create money from nothing for the USA,why cannot our Reserve Bank of Austrlia do likewise for the people of Australia? These days they just create money with the click of a computer mouse.Why do we borrow money to express our increases in productivity as debt to foreign private banks? This means that they own our increases in productivity and we become their debt slaves.

The US Fed is a private group of banks and their charter ends on the 23rd Dec 2013.This is 100 yrs since Woodrow Wilson sold his country out to a private cartel of Banks.

The Coalition can partially reverse our debt slavery by giving our RBA the power of foreign private central banks.Does the Coalition have the courage to stand up for all the people of Austrlia?

One thing we can say for certain is-- Empires have always risen and then Fallen.
I think we all get the feeling that the days of the mighty Western Empire is drawing to a close. How slow or quick that process will be is hard to calculate.

I just hope that whatever it is replaced with doesn’t plunge the human race back into the dark ages of superstition and unenlightened persecution.

I know people love to hate America and the West but in decades past it held up a shining golden idea of freedom of the people from ruling tyrants and warlords, And Religious tyrants and warlords who deserve a special mention for their contribution to the dark ages.

At least it aspired to this ideal and for a short Golden age almost seemed to achieve it. Now the dream lies in the ashes of the non-compliant capricious biology of human nature.

CHERFUL,We are headed for that new dark age unless we all get up off our backsides and become politically active.Obama and Bush have set in train via the Patriot Act,Preventative Dentention,legalised assasination and the National Defence Authorisation Act, for all this to happen.

Notice that neither of our major parties confront this loss of human rights.Fascism is at our door step.

Australia is no longer a democracy. It is a country run by the rich purely for the benefit of the rich.

Our politicians: Greens, LABOR and Coalition, are self-serving ideologues with low intelligence and few morals. They all worship the Citadel of Greed and Killing found in Washington.

These infantile articles by Bishop give the Australian people the finger! Then our mediocre politicians are giving us all the finger!

How much longer do we have to put with with her insults and those of her clan to our intelligence?

Far from being some sort of "miracle" the global economy has been just a huge Ponzi Scheme, created and co-ordinated mainly by the US for its own interests.

A history of toppling democratically elected regimes that do not bend to its will has finally created nothing for the US but a growing list of enemies.

While all attention has been on the Euro, the real problem is in the USA.

Forget the $16 Trillion deficit, the real total US debt is 20% higher than the entire annual Global GDP which means it will be in eternal debt - unless it creates a new currency for itself or we have a vast global conflict that will create temporary wealth from rebuilding whatever is destroyed.

I fail to see how cheering them on while ignoring their past failures will somehow create a better future when what is really needed is a complete global economic restructuring.

Historically the collapse of empires have always been the result of unserviceable debt and happens quite quickly once it begins. If the US dollar ever loses its global oil currency status it has nothing of value to back it up.

Saranian wrote:

>>You say "while you do not subscribe to the theory that the US is in an irreversible decline" It is.>>

Is it?

I don't think so.

On the contrary it looks to me as if America is going through one of its periodic and messy bouts of re-invention. No country seems to re-invent itself as frequently as the USA.

America's politicians are awful but the politicians are not America.

Nothing is forever but to me it looks as if the USA will be number one in the world for quite a few decades yet.

Sorry America-haters.

This piece in The Economist sums it up rather well.

Comeback kid
America’s economy is once again reinventing itself

http://www.economist.com/node/21558576

Some quotes:

>>….Led by its inventive private sector, the economy is remaking itself .. Old weaknesses are being remedied and new strengths discovered, with an agility that has much to teach stagnant Europe and dirigiste Asia.

[…]

America’s sluggishness stems above all from pre-crisis excesses and the misshapen economy they created….

…[however] in the past three years …has proceeded fast. America’s houses are now among the world’s most undervalued….And because the Treasury and other regulators, unlike their euro-zone counterparts, chose to confront the rot in their financial system quickly, American banks have had to write off debts and raise equity faster than their peers. (Citigroup alone has flushed through some $143 billion of loan losses; no euro-zone bank has set aside more than $30 billion.) American capital ratios are among the world’s highest. And consumers have cut back, too: debts are now 114% of income.

New strengths have also been found. One is a more dynamic export sector. The weaker dollar helps explain why the trade deficit has shrunk from 6% of GDP in 2006 to about 4% today. But other, more permanent, shifts—especially the growth of a consuming class in emerging markets—augur well. On the campaign trail, both parties attack China as a currency-fiddling, rule-breaking supplier of cheap imports (see Lexington). But a richer China has become the third-largest market for America’s exports, up 53% since 2007.>>>

American housing undervalued? They are still building new ones!
Perhaps those builders are operating at a loss, as a tax saving measure?
Australia has the highest median priced housing in the English speaking world; at least 60% overvalued, a bubble saved from bursting, by policies that ensure supply never keeps up with demand.
[The lunatics are running the asylum?]
We currently under-supply the local market by around 140,000 units PA.
Money for nothing?
Say like 26 billions PA in middle class welfare; or, paper shuffling brokerage firms or tax practitioners, who do little or no productive work, yet expect superior rewards?
We could halve the cost of living almost overnight, by factory-direct sales, that simply exclude the profit demanding middleman!
We are mired in the patently false belief that we need foreign capital?
The Australian dollar is way over valued due to our robust economy.
We should also note that both Spain and Ireland had quite robust success story economies, until foreign debt laden speculators oversupplied the domestic housing/property market!
And gormless govts spent billions of taxpayers' dollars trying with spectacular non success, to bail them out!
The way forward is through long overdue bipartisan cooperation and social credit, that is used to build income earning assets we/they still need. Once the performing asset is created, it cancels out the debit used to create it.
It's too easy, that's why myopically focused, blame shifting Pollies, never get it?
What won't work is the creation of (a) much smaller economic pie(s), and then handing out larger slices to a privileged few! [Austerity!]
We need to invest in our own people and their better ideas. Ditto, USA.
We need to invest in total energy independence. Particularly, if the local product produces FOUR TIMES LESS CARBON, than that which we import, [thanks to the GREEN blockade,] with increasingly scarce export dollars.
Having effectively tied up our own low carbon fuel supplies, [the Coral sea, the Great Barrier Reef,] the GREENS tell us we must reduce carbon!
As the Lamb chop munching Sam (kick-a-ball) Keckovitch would say, "you know, it just makes sense"!
Rhrosty.

Rhrosty wrote:

>>American housing undervalued? They are still building new ones!
Perhaps those builders are operating at a loss, as a tax saving measure?>>

Taken as a whole American housing may in some sense be under-valued. I wouldn’t know. There is no doubt that housing prices in the US have plummeted.

However, in case you had not noticed, houses are mostly immobile. A glut in some areas does not preclude a need for more housing in others.

CHERFUL wrote:

>>I think we all get the feeling that the days of the mighty Western Empire is drawing to a close>>

I'm not sure what the "Western Empire" is. I certainly do not have a feeling of a "Western Empire" on the point of collapse.

What I do see is the emergence of a sort of global civilisation. It will not be a smooth process. These things never are. But it seems to be happening.

Within that global civilisation I expect the USA to be at the very least a "first among equals" for quite a long time. (See my previous post)

Spindoc wrote

>>Now we have a bunch of well educated but not intelligent whiners running things.>>

Well, yes. But I think their time is nearly over. To me it seems that the youngsters of today – ie people under 35 – are far more savvy than my generation, or even the next generation, was at that age.

If we account for the debt the West is consumed by and the fact we have little manufacturing,I think China with a little more scientific innovation will be number one very soon.

This is what irks the Western Oligarchs.China was supposed to roll over and open up its banking system fully to their cartels.China opened up partially but still 80% of their money comes from Govt Banks.This is primarily why China has so little debt and can have enormous growth.

I think China won the scam.The deal was that the West lower tarrifs and give all manufacturing to China.China partially let the Western Banksters in but in 2008 the doors shut and the Western Oligarchs started demonising China and Russia.

This is all about bringing in the Western Oligarch's New World Order in by a few extremely wealthy people who will rule the planet under a totalitariarn World Govt,in which they decide who lives and who dies.

Our scientists back in the 1980's had the West convinced that CO2 and over population would destroy the planet.This was the green light for the Oligarchs to bring in their New World Order.

Arjay, the Oligarchs number about 1 in a million. We, the people, if we put our minds to it, could rid the world of them in a few days if we put our minds to it, then spread their wealth among all the world's people!

Sure, they have lots of armies at their disposal but most of the folk fighting their endless wars are relatives of ours who might, just might, fight for us.

There is too much pessimism in our world today, most of it fueled by the propaganda machines run by the Oligarchs.

I don't swallow their line. We, the people, can have any kind of world we want. All we need to do is to take control, eradicate the parasites and predators, and start again ensuring that equality is for everyone!

stevenlmeyer:
you may not think that the US economy is in irreversible decline but I am sorry to say you are wrong.
I for one am not an American hater but I do dislike the way that they have allowed their country to be hijacked by the 1%.
They have now reached the stage where it only needs a nudge to tip them into an New Orleans type of Armageddon.
With a true unemployment of about 27%, a debt of $trillions, a rapidly disappearing manufacturing industry, a gathering environmental storm, deep involvement in a never ending series of unwinnable wars and to top it off, peak oil.
They cannot run their economy without a large supply of cheap oil and the current hype about shale oil is just smoke and mirrors.
I am sure that there are a lot of good people there but it seems that the scum always rises to the top and takes control.
I am also sorry to say that we here in Australia are slavishly following them down the same path.
In our case we do not have to. We have sufficient natural advantages at the moment to have a good life here. But by straining to increase our population , selling off valuable resources that in some cases cannot ever be replaced, selling off what is a finite amount of good farm land to overseas interests, we are placing our necks in a noose.

Steven,

Maybe a little wishful thinking on your behalf regarding the U.S. (all good things....)

You might be interested in this article by Wolfgang Streeck titled "The Crises of Democratic Capitalism".

http://newleftreview.org/II/71/wolfgang-streeck-the-crises-of-democratic-capitalism

I have to agree with many of the comments above.

Do not be fooled, China is in the process of accumulating massive amounts of gold, in 2009 they reported reserves somewhere in the vicinity of 550 tonnes, they have not reported since.

Given internal gold production and their on-going and recent gold buying I would suspect that they will release 'gold holding' information in 2013 or 2014, people need to realise that they intend to subsume the US dollar, revert their currency backed by gold (which by then will probably amount to some 4,500 to 5,500 tonnes) and turn the US dollar into worthless paper.

The direct affect will send the price of gold to around 4 to 5,000 dollars and negate their existing US treasury holdings and ensure their currency becomes the new reserve.

This has been intentional for sometime, the US is completely defunct and our economy has been driven and continues to be driven by debt fuelled resource extraction.

We are unknowingly and unwillingly being pulled by a multiple of strings that will lead Australia to no-where's-ville.

Our banking and housing sector is soon to see the biggest shock that one can imagine, be prepared, get out of debt, keep your job, avoid government intervention where possible and realise we are about to live a completely different life to the one we currently enjoy!

Hey Spindoc:

"Thanks Geoff, you're a star.

Two comments. What it is we seek to avoid, we create. And the March of Folly, the pursuit of that which is contrary to self interest.

Thank you and keep up the good work.

P.S. When you have reached rock bottom, STOP DIGGING! He, hee!"

I have yet to hit rock bottom, my organic garden, free energy system and my lifestyle may raise your heckles, but not to worry, you have your current 'industrial, government supported, market calibrated' lifestyle that you think will ensure you a secure retirement, good luck pal, you are going to need it, and then some.

For those of us who are prepared and open to all the options, it is pretty obvious that the 'growth model' is defunct and moving forward we will meet our limits, whatever that may be.

Perhaps you should alert your children and their children to the very different future you have enjoyed to date, reality is sometimes hard to accept, no doubt you will wallow in your pride as your per-capita 'wealth' evaoporates in the years to come, good luck, you are going to need it.