Friday, December 4, 2009

Point:Counterpoint:Repoint, Part 3

 

Continuing where we left off Wednesday, here is the final response of this discussion series.

 I’m reminded of a speech Patton delivered to his men on the eve of a big battle. Basically, he told them that some would die, but not all. Better to just be honest.

America is like the Titanic in the last hours: Beginning to slip beneath the waves bow down, but it hasn’t snapped in two yet.

[I] thought the slight shake up in Dubai was interesting [the other day]. Piddly little country couldn’t pay its tiny $60 billion debt, and the global marketplace shuddered. The Dow lost 160 points. What happens when we can’t print enough money, and no one will loan us anymore? What happens when the U.S. $100 trillion debt collapses? Well, to put it in perspective, $60 billion is roughly 1/1,600th of $100 trillion; or put another way, $60 billion is roughly .06% of $100 trillion. And of course, when we go, Japan goes.

How could this happen? And why is it that only folks like Walker, Dobbs, Laffer, Payne, Beck, and a few others are screaming their heads off? Here’s how and why via analogy.

In the early 1970s Eastern Airlines flight 401 suffered a slight mechanical failure in its landing lights. For four arduous minutes, the flight crew screwed around with the lights not noticing that the auto pilot had been inadvertently turned off. They ignored audible warnings and falling gauges. In the last ten seconds, they finally realized that the alarms were going off and sat in disbelief.

If the captain or co-pilot had grabbed the yoke and applied full power, they might have made it. But instead they sat stunned in the face of all their instruments, of all their warning signs. Here’s the FAA YouTube recreation for all to see and learn from:

This country has sub-consciously known this financial disaster was coming since the 1970s. My brother used to warn me about it when I was a teenager. The alarms have been going off for decades and we’ve been busy dicking around with disco and pro wrestling. Well, now we’re in those last ten seconds, and we simply cannot believe our eyes. We’re unable to grab the yoke; we’re unable to apply full power.

I just don’t know what’s going to happen, and I don’t think turning to the readers will do a damned bit of good. I’d say go quietly, build a good survival kit, a decent .22 and a bunch of bullets, and invest in silver.

Some of Patton’s men did survive. Some of the people on the Titanic did survive. Some of the folks on flight 401 did survive. I’m not saying all is lost, but I am saying that it looks like excruciating days are getting closer.

Like I said, I don’t know what to write. But I don’t think writing “Barney Frank Started This Whole Mess” will do any good.

Besides, I already wrote that.

 Hope you enjoyed this series as much as I did. The two correspondents occasionally have exchanges like this via email, so if you liked this, let me know, and I’ll see if I can get permission to publish the next time they chew the fat online.

Stoutcat

[Via http://grandrants.wordpress.com]

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