Great post, bb81. It’s important that we know what we’re not allowed to know, ya know?

I really don’t think that the ‘self fulfilling prophecy’ theory of consumer confidence is such a large factor though. The people are just reacting to the economic reality around them, and wisely so. The real problems of our economy start with the tremendous loss in the manufacturing sector, the true source of any nations wealth. In an attempt to keep up our standard of living despite this, we’ve run up an untenable about of debt, both as individuals and as a country. This is not a temporary liquidity problem that can be solved by lowering interest rates and pumping money into the system, which only devalues the dollar. This is a solvency problem. I’m afraid that many of our financial institutions, a significant portion of consumers, and our government are all insolvent. We simply can’t pay our debts. Our once proud nation will soon be asking the world, “buddy can you spare a dime”? Seems to be perfect timing for the introduction of the Amero and a NAU, but that’s just got to be pure coincidence, right?