I remember the good ole days when western nations were rich and the developing world was poor. India, China, Brasil, and Russia used to be economic basket cases, utterly failed economies that were dependant on loan guarantees from the west just to keep their countries solvent. How things have changed! Now these former basket case countries are calling the shots and have the foreign reserves to back up their decisions, while most nations in the west are foundering on debt. We do not even have a domestic manufacturing base anymore to rebuild our economy. When the foreign creditors decide enough is enough, then things will get very bad here very quickly. If I had kids I would be teaching them to speak Chinese, so they have a chance to be successful in the new world. I think things around here are going to be very discouraging for a while since a downgrade in the standard of living is the only possible outcome now that we have blown the wealth of our nation and spent the last of the rainy day money to bail out crooks and failed institutions. You cannot have an entire nation of people that are lazy, spending beyond their means, with a sense of entitlement, and complete ignorance on where money comes from and how wealth is created. The system has gone off the rails and those who count on the government to make it all good again are going to have one hell of a nasty wakeup call coming.

cheers!

mike