I keep thinking about that Lear Capital article that was posted on here a couple of weeks ago:-

"In 2004, China legalized gold ownership by its citizens, then openly encouraged all citizens to take a portion of each paycheck they receive and invest it in gold. That's ironic. We encourage our citizens to spend their paycheck on foreign goods to bolster the economy. That definitely sounds like a contradiction of word and deed.

I just heard our national savings rate is a negative .4%. In contrast China's rate is 20%. My don't we make a nice couple. At this rate they may soon own all the gold. And you know what they say about he who holds all the gold?"

I can't see that getting further and further into hock would ever turn out well, whether it be micro- or macro- in scale.

Europe suffers now largely because each country insists on over-paying on their health care and on their pensions - never mind the huge remittances that get channelled back to home countries whose citizens then use the dough to try to blow them up.

It just seems to me that the debt holder makes the rules, end of.