I am sad to say it, but it seems that the United States of America, the country that produced the scientist who cured Polio, the army that defeated Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany, and the first country to put mankind on the moon is in an economic free-fall.

In a New York Sun article entitled “Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World” (4/21/2008), the article states that “Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.” According to the article, the food shortage is not solely blighting the east coast of the United States, for Californians are facing a shortage of rice.

In another New York Sun article entitled “Gasoline May Soon Cost a Sawbuck” (4/28/2008), the article mentions that “a couple of analytical energy industry trackers” are predicting that gasoline will likely cost nearly $10 per gallon not long from now. This will affect everyone in this country, for the cost of gasoline is factored into nearly all products. Everything from the Big Mac you get at the local McDonalds (they do not grow the beef out back after all; it is transported by truck) to the heating of your home will cost you more.

The Michigan government shut down in the fall of 2007, because, like most governments, it had a problem with spending beyond its means. During the shut down, according to the Associated Press, a partial list of the governmental departments and duties normally done by the state that ceased functioning as usual include: All Department of Agriculture and Department of Education operations, food safety inspections, animal disease monitoring, migrant labor camp inspections, and agriculture export and cattle movement permits stopped being issued (exports to foreign countries from Michigan ceased). The Michigan State Police had only a limited number of police officers on standby to provide critical law enforcement services, and all administrative and specialized operations were curtailed, which means that crime lab services, criminal investigations, and detective services were put on hold.

The federal government should take note of what happened in Michigan when spending exceeds revenue, for excessive spending is unsustainable.

Excessive taxation with extreme spending by government, plus idiotic trade policies that put foreign and corporate interests first (i.e., NAFTA) is killing our economy. According to an article published by United Press International entitled “Forecast: U.S. Dollar Could Plunge 90 Percent” (11/19/2007), the article states that Gerald Celente, the director of the Trends Research Institute, predicts that “A financial crisis will likely send the U.S. dollar into a free-fall of as much as 90 percent and gold soaring to $2,000 an ounce.” This will put an end to the standard of living that Americans have enjoyed for many decades now. This prediction of the future of America’s economy is one of the more extreme ones, however, it is important to point out that economists are no longer predicting whether the economy will get better or not, but rather, are debating on how bad it is going to get.

The official unemployment rate for the United States in April of 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics website, was five percent. Five percent is considered healthy, but that number does not tell how many Americans are underemployed because their jobs were outsourced to China or India, or how much of their wages have been depressed through mass and illegal immigration.

All hell will break loose when the government announces that they are no longer sending out social security checks and declare that they are not paying for Medicare. Is it not a travesty that Americans are denied services that they paid for through taxes? It would not be the first time the federal government betrayed the American people economically. On April 5, 1933, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102, which required all American citizens to turn their gold in to the government at $20.67 per ounce. Anyone who refused to comply with Roosevelt’s decree faced a fine of up to $10,000 and a prison sentence of ten years. After seizing gold from the American people and giving them dollar bills for it, he devalued the currency. This amounts to nothing more than theft.

The United States is quickly becoming a Weimar Republic. I hope that the American economy will become strong again, but hope is unrealistic so long as the same trade policies are pursued and spending exceeds revenue.

No politician, economist, or citizen should be optimistic so long as nothing is done about the situation. As Oswald Spengler once said, “Optimism is cowardice.”

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