I hate to make this comparison because it involves terrible suffering and the loss of human life, but World War II — despite its daily terror, destruction, and widespread annihilation — gave the world a chance to hit the reset button.
This time around, war cannot “save” us (I told you this was a horrible comparison) because it would mean the utter destruction of the world through nuclear confrontation.
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With that option off the table, how do America and Western democracies survive looming bankruptcy?
If you’re an individual, you can sock away money in gold and Bitcoin. If you’re a nation, hope you’re the People’s Republic of China, where national debt represents only 88 percent of the nation’s economy.
Compare that to the U.S., where the percentage is 122. For France, it’s 113, and for the U.K. it’s only 99.5.
Germany’s debt percentage to GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is a splendid 63 percent.
Even so, the Chancellor of Germany, Friedrich Merz, cautioned his nation (and anyone listening) that “the welfare state that we have today can no longer be financed with what we produce in the economy.”
France is currently undergoing a budgetary crisis. The Prime Minister is even calling for a vote of confidence over the economy. His party stands to lose that vote.
Here in the U.S., President Trump is trying to pack the Federal Reserve (remember packing the Supreme Court?) so that he can engineer zero or near-zero interest rates to make the U.S. debt more manageable.
As a journalist and observer, I have no solutions to offer countries facing looming bankruptcy while they continue to rely on unaffordable government health and welfare programs to buy votes.
My advice for individuals (take it or leave it): If you’re 65 or younger, you can expect the U.S. economy to implode sometime in your lifetime. So, like a good Boy Scout (or whatever they call them now), “Be prepared.”
Sock away as much as you can into gold and perhaps Bitcoin, which was created as an alternative to the Almighty Dollar.
Almighty for how long? That is the question.
Be Prepared.