Writing like this at least informs the public. My only hope is that two factors will soften the free-fall into depression...
- First, the U.S. will quickly run into difficulty selling it's Treasury bills. That's already begun to happen. There's a reason that Secretary of State Clinton made an entreaty to the Chinese to keep buying our t-bills in her visit to Beijing a couple of days ago. China's export-driven economy is slowing so dramatically that they will have to spend their extensive treasury reserves in their own country to address the problems caused by burgeoning unemployment, closed factories, etc. Without the trillions of borrowed dollars that would fund our Congress's stimulus and spending plans, we will have to bring all but essential spending to a screeching halt. That would be a discipline that our Congress hasn't had the gumption to submit itself to for over a decade.
- Secondly, I believe that Americans are still big-time closet consumption addicts. All it will take is a little good news, maybe some new credit availability, and we may begin to spend again and be able to "consume ourselves" into a recovery of a sort.