He who has ears to hear, let him hear . . .

The title is Biblical, but the wisdom to which this blog post refers is worldly. Specifically, I'm talking about an article Karl Denninger wrote this morning. Here's an excerpt.

A deliberate and full-throated refusal to both consent to and promote deficit spending is the only peaceful means remaining, I am convinced, by which we the people can force the government to break the medical monopolies and balance the budget, which they must do right now, not five, ten or 15 years out.

Remember folks, Social Security Disability is due to go bankrupt in two years, and that's just the first of many of the "big sucks" to come.  That's not five, ten or 15 years in the future -- it's effectively right now and unless we cut the crap the start of the big suck is, at the outside, that close.

In reality it's even closer because of Obamacare and what is happening there ... The only way to delay what is now an impending crackup would be to suspend the individual mandate (and I expect them do exactly that, kicking and screaming all the way, despite all of those delays being flatly unlawful including the ones already granted.)

. . .

But even if the mandate is suspended for a year it won't matter, because SSDI is staring us straight in the face and getting the legislation passed and break the medical monopolies, which is the only act that can stop the implosion, will take the better part of a year if we start now.

That's the math folks.

There's much more at the link.

This is a must-read article, as far as I'm concerned. If you're at all concerned about the state of the US economy and where it's headed, you need to click over and read the whole thing.  I also recommend reading the comments beneath the article.  Some of them are also thought-provoking.

In short, I believe Mr. Denninger is right when he says that if we contribute to our highly-leveraged economy and society by joining in the current lemming-like credit-fueled 'race to the bottom', we're effectively dooming ourselves and our nation. His solution is to withdraw from the credit merry-go-round;  to live on one's earnings, not taking out loans, not keeping a balance on one's credit cards, but learning to live within one's means.  Pay cash.  (Obviously, there will be some situations such as medical emergencies where this isn't possible;  but for normal consumer items, the rule is, buy for cash or don't buy at all.)

Miss D. and I are working towards this as quickly as we can, and we hope to be there within the foreseeable future.  It'll be a big weight off our minds when we do.

Peter