I’ve been thinking about this for some time now and I think that it deserves some discussion.

Over the last however many months we’ve all seen the serious decline in America. Whether it’s a waning economy, unemployment on the rise, the fall of the dollar, the real estate market or whatever I’ve missed here, it leads me to what I’m sure is to be a very dark and controversial theory.

The government planned for all of this and allowed it to happen!! It was the only way to save the country and take it back from the profiteers and other countries influence. It was the only way to stop the ship from sinking in the abyss.

Consider the facts as we know them:

With the dollar devalued, more American goods are purchased abroad. It eases the grip that the foreign countries have on this country. It also makes them more agreeable to new trade agreements (and annual purchases that US companies make to get…say…textiles from China and India) that will favor the US better in terms of pricing and delivery. They do not dictate to us anymore, we get to set the guidelines because they need us as consumers more than we need them.

With the economy sinking, oil prices had to follow and are now at record lows making it easier for us to manage our pocketbooks again. But before this happened, when oil and LNG prices were at all time highs, the laws were put into place to allow domestic drilling and help ease the dependence of OPEC, while they were raping us (and the rest of the world) for record profits.
PETA and other environmental organizations are in an uproar, but it also takes care of them as a matter of national long term survival. The special interest groups, that in my opinion have done more damage than good, by blocking votes via these special interest groups, have been quieted down. Do we need to take care of the environment better, the answer is yes, but not at the cost of bankrupting the country to foreign oil. The extraction of oil and gas now has newer technologies in place to make it cleaner and easier to do. These companies will have to be held accountable to the highest standard and should be.
Simply put, you cannot have a country like ours in the US; with the standard of living that we enjoy and take for granted and have no cheap energy to run it. We as citizens simply cannot shoulder the burden of high gas and food prices in the long term. Something had to be done.

Detroit, which has been a sinking ship for decades now, is finally getting in line. There are so many theories on how and why they are where they are, that I’m not even going to go there. The point is the hopefully in a few years, that problem will be solved and with better, cheaper products coming out of a restructured Detroit, maybe we will all be willing try to “buy American” again. Again this auto slowdown is affecting the whole world, especially Japan, who has enjoyed record profits from auto sales over the past decades. Maybe we will actually have a balanced trade sheet with them as a result of this restructuring.

Wall Street crooks and other fat cats who break the rules are being caught up in this whirlwind of inflated values and stock prices. Stock prices are getting back to their falsely inflated prices and Dow is back to a more reasonable number. I understand that this is painful, as my own portfolio has lost half of its value, but it had to be done for the fix to happen. The whole world has been caught up in the greed fueled era and now we all have to adjust. I think that quite a few of us have been living beyond our means on credit cards and assumed bonuses. We are all to blame, to some degree, for some of this countries mess, financially speaking.
Some of the jobs lost in our economy will be replaced with jobs that we do anymore.
Example 1: Maybe it’s time to have more people get back into the “blue” collar sector instead of the cushy “white” collar ones. These are typically the jobs no one wants because their collage prof told them they wouldn’t be around long term.
Example 2: Maybe it’s time to pick our own fruits and vegetables instead of thinking that job is “beneath” us and let illegal aliens do the work while we turn a blind eye. By the way, record numbers of illegal aliens have gone home in the last few months easing the burden of INS and the insurance companies.
Example 3: Maybe it’s time to start making TV’s and cell phones and such on US soil again. That would create a lot of new jobs. We are a tech savvy country; why not make the products here?

Real estate giant’s ripping off the nation’s poorest people for nothing more than greed. That chapter is now closed and the housing market will recover in time. More importantly though, credit lines are now back where they are supposed to be. One cannot simply get a home loan with out having a job. That’s not the way it was ever supposed be, but lax oversight and greed got in the way. That is now corrected and the companies have seen justice to some degree.

With the US not buying as many Chinese good, especially toys, the people over there are rioting and there is civil unrest. The milk scandals didn’t help them either. China, the world’s biggest growing economy is now grinding to a halt. A stop to the Dragon’s assent while the US regroups reinvents and rebuilds itself. It also stops China from buying more of this country up from under our noses and in effect, owning us.

Is it really possible for our government to be so reckless as to sink the whole country? I find that extremely hard to swallow. The people in power would suffer most from the disintegration of this country. I think that a planed was green lighted to make all of this happen and fix the most serious problems in one fail swoop.
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Massive restructuring was needed and this may be the result. This plan, if it is really in place, is not a short term fix as you well know. It will take years for the pieces to fall into place to make this country strong again.

Is it possible that our government is planning for civil unrest?? I’m sure that there is a plan for that as well. Will there be more freedoms taken away…possibly, but hiding out on some mountain in protest because you took a survival course is really not a good answer. I also think that, along with a good number of you, these people who claim that they are going to do this are the biggest bulls##ters on ATS or any other website. I think that most people are so tied to today’s technology that they would be unable to hunt or even start a fire with out a match. That is not a viable option and you (they) know it.

Maybe with a new administration in the White House, government will get back to doing the nation’s business and we can all breathe a sigh of relief. Who the hell knows as I did not vote for the coming President, but is guess I want to believe. I need to think that the four years will get better. In time, I hope that we can trust the people who run this country again.

My friends, I don’t claim to have the answers and I’m just speculating here. I’m sure that there are plenty of holes in my theory and I’ve missed things that you yourself may be very passionate about. Take your time and form your own opinions about this.

I look foreword to hearing from you all.


One final parting shot….Did you see Bush’s face when the shoe almost got him???
I want to give that guy an “at a boy” a slap on the back!! You gotta love it!

In the late 60's a band was being formed.
When Jimmy Page was assembling the group, Keith Moon (drummer from The Who) got word of his plans and predicted the group would go down "like a lead balloon" (this is a common English expression). Bassist and keyboardist John Entwistle thought it would be "more like a lead zeppelin." Page took the phrase and manager Peter Grant changed the spelling to "led" in order to avoid mispronunciation.

The outcome? The band Led Zepplin..which is just what this post appears to be!!!

I thought that there would be at least a little interest.

Oh well...be seein ya!

Maybe I'm wrong but i thought that the US population was somewere around 350 billion I would have to question the amount of 24000$ ???
I think of this everytime we give aid, or get a break like this......
It is very disturbing, to me......The way I got it figured every soul in the US could have a million dollars and there would still be over 300 million left for the feds......... Prolly just my broken old calculator.....dunno...

I also thought it was 70 trillion not 700 billion but who knows "noy me"

You are joking right???

I also thought it was 70 trillion not 700 billion but who knows

i thought that the US population was somewhere around 350 billion

Which country are you from Doc?

US Population is closer to 330 Million. The bailout was for $700 Billion, USD. Doing the math, that results in $2,121.21 cents for each citizen of the US. I have no idea where you guys are getting your numbers from

Now, if you look at the hidden $8.5 TRILLION that the Fed has printed and givwen away to... well, who knows since they're not telling, the "trickle-up" number would be $2,575,757.58 for each man woman and child making every citizen and instant millionaire! The reason that would not work is that inflation would balloon so fast that it would kill the economy all by itself.

No, the RESPONSIBLE thing to do would have been to prop up the banks who have acted responsibly, allow the irresponsible ones to fail but prop up their depositors during the failures and THEN issue $10,000 checks to non-taxpayers, $25,000 checks to those earning $50,000 to $150,000 and $10,000 checks to those earning over $150,000 a year.

People would have used that money to a.) pay off debt which 1.) gets debt off the banks books and converts to liquid assets, 2.) allows people to keep more of their money each month from payroll since they are not paying usuary charges on debt and spend it; and b.) go an spend it which would stimulate the economy.

Remember this is OUR MONEY to begin with! Why not return it to the hardworking people who are suffering the most. The bastards that ruined the economy are hardly hurting at all with their hundreds of millions of dollars - they shouldn't receive help. Just look at the bastard in charge of Lehman Bros. - he believes he should receive a $10M bonus because "The losses could have been much worse if not for [his] leadership." Bullocks! HE FAILED AND SHOULD RECEIVE NOTHING!!!

My propsed bailout would have cost less than a third of what has been spent already - which has accomplished basically nothing!

WEELLLL (tic) I must admit I made a congressional move but only by not checking the facts or using a calculator.....sorta quoted from something I overheard somewhere...........HEY I guess Im qualified to serve in Washington DC........aint that the way they do in DC?

Our real debt in this country is 53 trillion and rising. That's 53,000,000,000,000. Lots of zeros.

Divide that by 330 million.

That equals over 160,000 per person.

That's 160,000 PER PERSON.

It's freakin nuts man.

And they want to keep spending more money? Come on. Stop the spending....drastically. Bring the all the troops home. We are ruining this country.

How in the hell am i supposed to pay back 160,000 that i shouldn't owe in the first place...it's madness!