[dennisw]

The problem is debt. Collectively, the U.S. government, the state governments, corporate America and American consumers have accumulated the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world. Our massive debt binge has financed our tremendous growth and prosperity over the last couple of decades, but now the day of reckoning is here.

Our economy has serious structural problems
In a healthy economy you are trading goods and services with money as an intermediary
Problem is we were/are trying to make wealth off of money (the intermediary) rather than by supplying necessary goods and services. More goods (tangible items) need to be made on US soil and lots of stupid narcissistic frivolous goods and services will be voted out by less wealthy consumers

Making wealth off of money is what the real estate bubble and Wall Street securitization & derivatives mania was/is all about

[JasonC]

Real estate isn't money.

Money is just one more good among others.

There is nothing magical about things you can hit with a stick, but the idiotic materialism of the populist set knows no bounds. If real assets were always more valuable than paper claims, then houses would be worth more than the mortgages written against them.

News flash, that idea being a complete crock was the bubble.

In the past decade, we made gobs and gobs of real assets called new houses. 12.5 million new units in 7 years. That was just about 5 million more than were justified by their actual money cost, at the prices they could actually continually sell for. You know, it imaginary useless unreal money...

[ichabod1]

Oh my god, so what your saying is, these bubbles happened because there were too many paper dollars chasing too few real assets because there weren’t enough real assets to spend them on? That’s the way it’s felt the last ten years or so.

[stephenjohnbanker]

“Making wealth off of money is what the real estate bubble and Wall Street securitization & derivatives mania was/is all about”

Thank you.

A country that makes nothing, and creates nothing will not survive. We are asking for it.

[Big Horn]

You can not borrow yourself rich.