But there are some deep, dark clouds on the horizon although not the ones mentioned in this article. The tsunami of future entitlement spending and runaway government pensions is very troubling. The amount of borrowing and taxation to pay for this future spending is unsustainable. The prospect of future high energy prices and energy shortages is troubling. The mandates and subsidizes for biofuels and renewables could make the US economy much less competitive. The litigation and regulatory environment are also onerous.
Not to worry. Goldman Sachs, the defacto fourth branch of the US government, together with their Federal Reserve underlings will take care of it.
You make some darn good points about the future.
I’ll try to give my takes on them:
One thing we do have going for us in the upcoming entitlement wreck is that most of Euroland has the same problems and worse.
Energy prices: the cure for high prices is more high prices. A (oil price induced) recession takes oil back to below 40 IMHO.
Energy policy: Here even Canada and Euroland are actually smarter (less Luddite) than us on this one.
Litigation and regulation: probably what holds us back right now the most.
I’d also add that are corp. taxes are second highest in the industriaized world - not good.