[AndyJackson]

Tiger ping!

[KoRn]

Great read!

[AndyJackson]

See. It is not so hard to understand and it doesn’t even require conjuring tricks.

[Brilliant]

Fannie and Freddie as small change compared to Social Security or even Medicare.

[Chaguito]

H.L. Mencken was a true genius. “Politics, under democracy resolves itself into impossible alternatives. Whatever the label on the parties, or the war cries issuing from the demagogues who lead them, the practical choice is between the plutocracy on the one side and a rabble of preposterous impossibilists on the other.” Democracy “needs beyond everything is a party of liberty.”

Now, we'll see if McCain-Palin can forge a party of liberty that can convince the populace of the need for blood, tears, and sweat in achieving the blessings of liberty.

[Leisler]

The author is

Robert Higgs is Senior Fellow in Political Economy for The Independent Institute and Editor of the Institute’s quarterly journal The Independent Review. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University, and he has taught at the University of Washington, Lafayette College, Seattle University, and the University of Economics, Prague. He has been a visiting scholar at Oxford University and Stanford University, and a fellow for the Hoover Institution and the National Science Foundation.

[misterrob]

Politicians are not to blame for this, too many of the American people are. We have to redress racial inequality from years and years ago, we have to have fairness in asset and wealth, we cannot afford to have a recession that clears out excess, we cannot have a big company fail and we cannot allow people to accept responsibility for themselves. If you stand up and say you disagree then you are called greedy, uncompassionate, racist or anything else they can throw at you.

I am hoping that I can save enough money and have enough resources to deal with what is coming ahead.

[jalisco555]

There’s another fiscal time bomb ticking away that often goes unmentioned. It’s the underfunded pension plans for state and local government employees. These will soon begin to eat budgets, yet almost no one is talking about this.

[Yollopoliuhqui]

The board members of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be thrown against a brick wall and shot or find themselves magically beheaded on TV by our friends in the reformed domestic Taliban. Instead they will get a golden parachute, migrate to other boardrooms and live a life of ease and travel while their victims watch their dreams being raped,looted and pillaged by well-tailored vermin.

[TrevorSnowsrap]

No more corporate (or quasi-corporate) welfare. If organizations can’t make rational economic decisions they should be allowed to fail and die.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

In the future, we will see a similar breakdown of the U.S. government’s Social Security system, with its ill-fated pension system and its even more inauspicious Medicare system of financing health care for the elderly. These government schemes are fighting a losing battle against demographic realities, the laws of economics, and the rules of arithmetic. The question is not whether they will fail, but when—...

I hope I'm young enough when that happens. I'd like to have the strength to be part of the mob that chops the heads off of politicians that refused to privatize pension programs.

[bamahead]

Our political economy is rife with such catastrophes in waiting, yet the public always seems startled, and outraged, when the day of reckoning can no longer be deferred...



Libertarian ping! Click here to get added or here to be removed or just reply to this post!

[CarryingOn]

I wouldn't think that elitist and arrogant would be two words Barack would want to use. I think that some of his handlers are Republican saboteurs.

[Dick Bachert]

Some of us have been ATTEMPTING to curtail this MADNESS for many years.

Unfortunately, not many others felt it was – or would become – a serious problem. I can’t count how many LAUGHED at us during that period. Most of them have STOPPED LAUGHING!

Trust me, it is NOW A SERIOUS PROBLEM, one the feds may not be able to print their way out of.

This is what happens when man – or SOME MEN – play god with the immutable laws of nature and economics. History teaches that they do so at great peril – and they ALWAYS fail. Insanity is doing the same things over and over while expecting a different result.

What saddens me most is that Newt either squandered or let slip HIS chance to get a grip on it. And, no, I’m NOT picking on Newt. WE’RE ALL GUILTY!!

In this 2 minute clip, he seems to be trying to tell us that he took a shot at it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIo8FJJMps8

[yazoo]

Excellent article. If we create socialized medicine it will make the problems with Social Security and Medicare pale by comparison.

[VRWC For Truth]

Sorry, I blame Congress. They have the POWER to STOP spending. Seveal statespeople is all it takes. What we have in there now are LOSERS.

[Scythian]

There is no timebomb, a bunch of greedy crooks were stealing money left and right, this story is as old as man, nothing to see here folks, move along .... I’m tired of this BS story already ...

[zeugma]

This article is on target in every way that matters. I hope the current generation in charge gets to reap the rewards of what they've done in the name of "democracy".

A "democracy" is best described as two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner.

I've come to believe that a better alternative would be to hold a national lottery for all congresscritters and the pres/vicepres. All legal residents who qualify for the position would get one "ticket". Could it really be any worse than what we currently have?