“It’s difficult for us to imagine, but our exceptionalism may not be permanent” (p.63 of Jeffrey Madrick’sThe End of Affluence).

The other day:
Walmart sales dropped.
The dollar fell off.
The Dow Jones fell ca 150 points.

Just a blip? or a harbinger of what lies ahead. Most of us will hope for the first, but an underlying anxiety remains.

We’ve been told over and over that our economy is consumer driven, but people must have money to consume. Have they been borrowing to spend? Are their credit cards maxing out? Sooner or later the bills have to be paid; ignore that and there will eventually be a rude awakening– a “hard landing”. What about no bottom?

Just don’t think about stuff like that; it isn’t pleasant! and we’re entitled to pleasure; aren’t we?

What’s true of the individual is equally true of the nation!! The debt mounts up day by day, year by year– until???

When we no longer have the means to consume Chinese goods, they may stop lending us money, and the interest rates will go sky high. Do you know what happens when the dollar is worth 10 cents, and a loaf of bread $10. Read about post war Germany; it wasn’t pleasant. It will never happen here, or will it?

Also read Isaiah; he understood these things. Times don’t really change very much.