Nice going R. This should be fascinating.
Forgive me if I open a can of worms. Why beat around the bush when you've got someone with the big picture?
The US economy has long had gaping holes in its pockets. As if the balance of payments as a result of the new rising economies wasn't enough to worry
about, the cost of the war in Iraq is widely projected to run into the trillions.
Then comes the sub-prime fiasco and the resultant credit crunch, not to mention suggestions the market has been allowed to operate in ways that at
best can be described as 'rule-bending', thus deepening and widening the rot.
To cap it all, the 'solution' to all these debt-related issues has been to lower the cost of borrowing, to keep failing institutions afloat by
injecting them with more debt, and to create ever-more astronomical amounts of money out of thin air.
So here is my question: Knowing every institution from government to the banks themselves are either faced with bottomless debt or defaulting (or
bankrupt) debtors, is it possible that the decisions to inject hideous amounts of money into the system are based on a deliberate intention of
inflating away debt, both on a national and an international scale? Would this, in fact 'conveniently' provide a solution, in that a currency not
pegged to anything but trust is potentially as elastic as its masters wish it to be?
Secondly, is a gold-standard currency (or similar) perhaps the only known way to avoid such inflation-related upheavals/machinations in future?
Thirdly, if there were sufficient political willingness, could the markets be regulated/policed with sufficient strength to avoid the kind of
malpractice seen in the sub-prime market? Should certain practices that are today legal perhaps be totally outlawed, for the sake of transparency and
stability?
Fourthly, what do you think the G20 is moving towards here? -
www.g8.utoronto.ca...
And finally, who is going to win the election?
(You seem to be able to predict every other future event.

)