[mick]

I tend to agree with you that there is something out there we are not being told about. But that “something” may just be that the world is waking up to the realization that the Federal Reserve Notes that we Americans mistakenly consider real money is nothing more than debt instruments....IOU Nothing...as one wag put it. That most of our so-called “wealth” is in instruments of debt ( bonds) and pieces of paper with fluctuating values according to the mood of the market ( stocks ) or, worse yet, loans to banks ( demand deposits )is a secret so dark that even to think about what that would mean if we all understood it might be what is frightening out political leaders. That may be the dark secret Paulson told the president.....if the people ever see that their money is bogus and their wealth an illusion we are all dead men. Sadly, it is true but few realize it just yet. But when the country does there will be hell to pay and lamposts may be used for something else then lamps. It's happened before in other countries when the people realize they have been robbed !

[MHGinTN]

There is only one way out of this morass, and it has several strings: the only thing we have to pay our debts is our natural resources (which include our genius for technology development), but if we are going to open them up for the exploitation needed to pay our debts and make us net energy exporters, we have to get rid of the democrat party controls which pander to the enviro wackos and secular commies, and open up the field to allow not only drilling and building of refineries, but open up research fields which show promise for technologies to end our dependence upon liquid petroleum products. The morass of regulations democrats have put into law to placate their wacko constituencies must be swept aside and a different way to oversee production, building, and research must be put in the place of the Democrat’s present Gordian Knot.