Copyright 2012 by John T. Reed

If anyone cares, and all indications are that no one does, there is yet another excellent analysis of America’s race to federal bankruptcy on page A19 of the 9/17/12 Wall Street Journal. (“The magnitude of the Mess We’re In”) It is an op-ed by five, well-known, Hoover Institute senior fellows. I actually think they understate a little to avoid sounding overly alarmist.

They don’t want to be accused of yelling “Fire” in a crowded theater, even when the theater is on fire.

Here are its next-to-last paragraph and the first sentence of the last:

The problems are close to being unmanageable now. If we stay on the current path, they will wind up being completely unmanageable, culminating in an unwelcome explosion and crisis.

The fixes are blindingly obvious.

The remainder of the last paragraph is a list of eight basic policies that are required for prosperity and freedom. Same kind of stuff my unelected president does in the novel I am working on.

Which major candidate’s platform most resembles that list? Romney. But even he is demagoging free trade, declining to be specific about tax reform, and advocating entitlement reform that will take a generation and a half when we only have four or five years at best. Even if he wins, he will probably not have an adequate mandate to fix the problems, nor is he likely to control the Senate, almost a sine qua none in today’s hyperpartisan gridlock.

So what are you doing today? Writing a check to the Romney campaign? That might result in a better deck chair arrangement.

Me? I’m going to buy more long-shelf-life food to try to withstand the hyperinflation “explosion and crisis” the Hoover fellows are warning about—a course of action more analogous to getting into a life boat if the Titanic had had enough for all the passengers.

Meanwhile, on TV, they are talking about Mitt Romney criticizing the president in a matter “beyond the water’s edge,” whether he will release his tax returns, how many rounds of golf Obama plays, gaffes, whether pollsters are not choosing the right mix of people to poll, whether there is a double standard in the media for Republicans and Democrats, and more.

These sorts of discussions were well described in Paul Simon’s song Mrs. Robinson:

Going to the candidates’ debate. Laugh about it. Shout about it. When you've got to choose. Ev'ry way you look at it, you lose.

Or you can behave as recommended in my book How to Protect your Life Savings from Hyperinflation & Depression

$34.95

 

and in my web articles at www.johntreed.com/headlinenewsarticles.html. Move your rainy day savings abroad. Stock up on food and other necessities. Minimize dollar-denominated assets. Etc. (my book is 320 pages long—hyperinflation protection is a complex financial issue) In which case you are less likely to lose everything.

At the outside, we may have four or five more years before the ’flation hits the fan. But the second edition of my book, which is now at the printers, starts with the same first sentence the first edition did:

It could happen tomorrow.

Skip this afternoon’s deck-chair-arrangement debate on the Lido deck [simulcast on your TV news]. Get your family into a lifeboat instead.

John T. Reed