| Unchecked public debt fuels corruption and bad governance. We are on the verge of facing a polycrisis, which is the simultaneous outbreak of multiple catastrophic events, and that is exactly what we are seeing with global public debt. Over the past several years many countries are reaching an overwhelming debt and facing disastrous distress. And the United States is not behind; on the contrary, it is the most indebted country in the world. |
The Looming US Debt Crisis and What Lies Ahead
by Doug Casey **
The government’s running a $2 trillion per year deficit right now. That’s ironic, in that Trump has always identified himself as the "king of debt."
The only way out is to totally delete these agencies. Just replacing the personnel with "better people" is a mistake. Why? Because cutting costs means you’re just filling the piggy bank, so the next administration can gleefully empty it, and be heroes when they hire even more of the very same zombies that you fired.
The only way to solve this problem is to abolish these agencies. Don’t reform them, but make sure they cease to exist. Pull them out by the roots and sow Agent Orange in the soil where they grew.
The US Constitution has mostly been interpreted out of existence. Or blatantly ignored, like the 9th and 10th Amendments. The government is a force and should be limited in a civil society. The implies a military, to protect citizens from force from abroad.
Police, to protect them from domestic crime. And a court system to adjudicate disputes without reverting to force.
All the other requirements of society should, could, and would be handled by entrepreneurs. In fact, a good argument can be made that the "essential" tasks of government are too important to be left to the type of people who are inevitably drawn to governments.
Let me make a radical proposal that will shock almost everybody reading this now. I suggest defaulting on the debt, for several reasons.
Number one, it’s immoral. It’s criminal to impose the repayment of that debt on the next generations of unborn Americans. The debt is so large that they’ll be turned into serfs or indentured servants to pay it back.
And the question is: Pay it back to who? We don’t "owe it to ourselves," which is what the liberals always used to say. It’s owed to particular people and institutions who have enabled the government to do all the destructive things that it does. They should be punished. I have no sympathy for the owners of government debt. In fact, these politically-wired people have enriched themselves at the expense of the average guy, who has few assets. It’s correct that they be punished.
There’s another reason. The debt the US government has is like a 100-story building that’s wobbling and is about to fall. There are two possibilities. You can wait for it to fall randomly and unpredictably. Or you can devise a controlled demolition. That’s the best alternative.
Of course, it can be "repaid" by printing. That’s the runaway inflation option, which would be as disastrous as a nuclear war for both the United States and the world at this point.
However, there’s a very bright side to the default scenario: After a government default, all the real wealth—farms, factories, mines, buildings, technologies—would still exist. They’d just change ownership. Various government assets should be sold off.
There’s obviously much more to be said about all this. I’m simply pointing out that the king has no clothes.
** Doug Casey has a proven track record of predicting major market movements. He knows what’s coming, and he puts together a strategy to help people not only to survive under a crisis, but thrive.