Simple and Scary

Many of us here in Phoenix are muddling through bewilderment at the Cardinals status as Super Bowl contenders, even those like me who don't play football. More importantly, all of us are gearing up for the inauguration on Tuesday, coming on the heels of MLK, Jr., day . . . and all of us are asking if King's dream is a little closer to reality. It will certainly be a momentous occasion.

It will certainly be a good thing for us to focus a little on this happy news - even if only for a short time. We need a bit of distraction and breathing space.

But on this evening, while I have the time to gather my thoughts, I want to share with you all a couple of very straightforward predictions:

• The economy is going to get much, much worse because we continue to use the same solutions of manipulating interest rates, printing more and more money, re-regulating (aka "deregulation", which bears no resemblance to actual free market principles), and going even further into debt.
  
• The price of oil is going to get so expensive again that people will have terribly difficult times affording gas. This will lead to the economic devastation of suburbia.
• We're not going to be able to take hits of the cocaine of consumption and inflation forever, or continue to prop up the Ponzi scheme of Social Security.
• Massive bailouts of financial institutions who've made horrible choices only serve to show that you can make horrible choices and not suffer consequences for it. This will make things worse, not better.

All bets are off, folks, because this is a depression.

The only way we come out of depressions is if our whole economic system changes - like it did in the 1940s when we moved to a wartime economy.

The only meaningful response to this grim outlook is for us to be ahead of the curve in contracting and adapting our lifestyles and business practices to this new world we're entering, because the era of consumption will soon be over. We're not going to go back to the way things were before, and many of us will not be able to adapt fast enough.

That means there will be a lot of suffering, and most assuredly a lot of desperation. This, of course, can lead to the type of totalitarianism we saw arise in 1930s Germany. Yes, it could happen here, either when we are killed for our own good or caught in the crossfire of a bloody rebellion.

Things will eventually get that bad. Even though I think this will happen sooner rather than later. This means if it does happen later, it will still happen. Yes, you personally may run out the clock, but the chances become increasingly likely with each subsequent generation that they will not.

Okay, enough bad news - how 'bout them Cardinals?