Social Security is the latest focal point for the “worse than expected” rhetoric: “The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reports that Social Security will effectively run a $45-billion deficit in 2011 and continue to run deficits totaling $547 billion over the coming decade.” I am amazed at the lackadaisical attitude of all Americans concerning this slow train wreck occurring before our very eyes. The Social Security deficit has begun five years earlier than predicted.
The record deficit of $1.48 Trillion for the Government for this year hardly gets any media attention. Ben Bernanke keeps throwing newly printed money at the problem without much success. If it were not for other countries in worse fiscal condition, the U.S. Dollar would now be in the tank.
Japan’s creditworthiness has been downgraded by Standard & Poor’s. Remember when the Japanese were buying America? It takes only a couple of decades to turn a robust economy into a mess. The Japanese Government have allowed their financial institutions to carry toxic debt on their books for years but that did not fix the problem.
Living on perception and illusion can last only so long before the denial of reality changes to anger. The average man will become desperate and begin challenging the status quo. A confrontation is coming and I regret that it will be looking pretty ugly. Some 3,000,000 homes will foreclose this year after the government’s program to save most of them failed. Real Estate will continue to have this albatross hanging around its neck for years to come. We have yet to see the bottom of the real estate prices.
Because of the predatory practices by large financial institutions, the Feds are implementing about 300 new consumer regulations for community banks. This will have a crushing blow on many of the smaller banks. They will respond by charging consumers fees on anything and everything. One of the banks I have an account with now charges $5 for a noncustomer to cash a check written against the bank. What happened to “payable on demand”? I suspect there will be another Tea Party uprising when these fees finally take up more space on our bank statement than the checks we write.
Simplification will come either by decision or by collapse!