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Originally posted by: forkushVQuote
Originally posted by: alanleroyII
Don't blame me. I voted Libertarian.
Oh yeah, I forgot that you're into science fiction.
Ahh, . . . science fiction. One of the loves of DonDiego's youth, . . . and back when it was science fiction, . . . written by folks like Asimov and Clarke, and Campbell, . . . with rockets and spacemen and robots and aliens and advanced technologies, . . . but based upon a reasonable projection of the Laws of Physics and Mathematics.
Not like nowadays when it involves all sorts of relationships (sexual and otherwise - what DonDiego and his pals would've called "mushy stuff") and magical powers ("fantasy") and imaginary crap {"imaginary crap").
But even as the modern-age of sic-fi appeared an appropriate scenario in the genre could be quite instructive.
F'rinstance the Star Fleet Academy training exercise named Kobayashi Maru.
The Quantitive Easing carried on over the last 5 years to keep interest rates low was supposed to return the economy to health. It hasnt. The present regime in Washington and the Federal Reserve face a Kobayashi Maru decision:
i. continue the artificially low-interest rate environment maintained by the Fed purchasing US debt and home mortgages, thereby increasing asset prices (to the benefit of the top 1/10-of-1-per-cent and to a lesser extent the full top-10-per-cent), thereby decreasing participation by those who would normally purchase US Debt and driving those folks into more risky investments as they chase yield. Oh, and also increasing sub-prime low-interest loans to the bottom 90-per-cent - [How are those kids with $200,000 education loans and no job gonna pay them off?} - leading to an inflationary economic collapse
ii. cease the qualitative easing by the Federal Reserve and watch investment markets and home prices drop along with bonds as interest rates jump up - leading to a deflationary (maybe, maybe not) economic collapse.
Maybe the policy persists beyond 2016, . . . but it seems pretty far out on-the-edge already to poor old DonDiego, . . . and if there is a collapse, DonDiego supposes folks won't be quite so civil to one another as they were in the Great Depression of the 20th Century. Maybe that's why national and even local civil authorities have been loading up on ammunition and equipment that used to be reserved for the military, like Armored Personnel Carriers. Or maybe not.
DonDiego just hopes he's out of these crazy stock markets before the collapse and that his garden and canned goods will sustain teechur and DonDiego through the toughest times. If'n not, . . . there's always squirrels and rabbits and turkeys hereabouts.
