U.S. EMPIRE IN DECLINE: Lost Control, Broken Models
By Craig R. Smith
December 5, 2005 From World Net Daily: http://ewatch.prnewswire.com/rs/display.jsp?a=26063-176156085-487946395 "The U.S. has lost control of the budget deficit"
-Alan Greenspan, Chairman, Federal Reserve "The U.S. has a broken business model…"
-David Walker, U.S. Comptroller General We the people are facing a "fiscal hurricane" any moment according to the men entrusted with protecting and auditing our nation's financial future. One does not need a PhD in economics to understand when the top dogs begin to howl loudly that our nation is systematically going broke, we must go to the root issues to discover what's wrong now…or pay the consequences later. Most Americans seem content whistling past the graveyard, unconcerned about the consequences of the gargantuan growth of debt on all levels; personal, corporate and national. The numbers have become so astronomical that fathoming ONE trillion dollars of debt, which took the U.S. government 205 years to accomplish (1776-1981), is beyond us. Let alone the SEVEN trillion dollars of additional national debt we've racked up in the past 25 years. The root meaning of the word DEBT is 'death'. That's right, 'morgue' and 'mortgage' are closely related to each other in the English language - and in life. Debt abuse is enslaving and consuming modern American culture - in addition to robbing and strangling the generations to come. Debt has now become the legalized drug of this generation - after having been shunned by the previous 10 generations in America. "The result has been unfettered deficit spending, gluttonous consumption, and fearless military adventurism. All the while, the nation slouches ever more precipitously towards bankruptcy", says EMPIRE OF DEBT: The Rise of an Epic Financial Crisis, an important new book by Daily Reckoning editors Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin. The book offers readers a peek into the economic future of our aging American empire by carefully reflecting upon clues from the past. EMPIRE OF DEBT now tops my "recommended reading" list for anyone who suspects the American Empire is in decline based on widespread ignorance of the economic corruption of our modern money "system." Precious few politicians or even Nobel Prize-winning economists have enough wisdom or guts to impart a "big picture" perspective - especially in terms readers can understand, let alone enough humor to help the medicine go down. But the Bonner/Wiggin team has written yet another blockbuster, as they did back in 2003 (see FINANCIAL RECKONING DAY. It's a Dangerous Read!). At this moment in history when our leadership has tossed the world view of our founding fathers into history's trash can, EMPIRE OF DEBT plucks it back out by explaining how the U.S. has been transformed from a "modest republic" into a conceited empire - like it or not. Old virtues have been replaced by new vices. Old money has been replaced by new debt. As subjects of a "slouching" empire, Americans are no longer endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights like; "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," but instead, we value the pursuit of higher credit card limits, mortgages, debt, deficits, and even a moronic economic world view which promises we can miraculously "spend our way to wealth" rather than saving. As for practical investment advice, EMPIRE OF DEBT is full of contrarian common sense. "Betting against the end is what most Americans are doing, borrowing and spending as if there were no tomorrow, and investing as though there were no yesterday." Other sage financial advice; "Stocks today are expensive - so in the future they will get cheaper." "Houses are expensive too - so prices will fall or stop rising." "The dollar is almost certain to revert to its real value - zero." "Gold is what people buy when they start to wonder about the empire and it's money. We guess that they will begin to wonder more and more." In an effort to help turn the ailing empire around, I have three humble suggestions: 1) Ask your Senator and Congressman to read EMPIRE OF DEBT before approving another penny of spending. The publisher has already delivered a copy to all 537 of them in Washington D.C. 2) If they won't read it, I say we should start a petition to change the Declaration of Independence from…"Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" to…"Life, liberty and the pursuit of higher credit limits. 3) Be prepared for a debt implosion in the near future unless we reverse direction. No nation, company or person can prosper over the long term who has "lost control" of their debt or operates on a "broken business model. I say let's fix America from the bottom up. EMPIRE OF DEBT will help give you the tools to do just that.
Editor's Note: Craig R. Smith is an author, commentator and popular media guest because he instantly engages audiences with his common-sense analyses of local, national and global trends. Serving as CEO of Swiss America for nearly 25 years, Craig understands that Americans want solid answers to the tough questions and that real leadership begins with servanthood. Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin's new book, Empire of Debt, is available now. Visit Amazon.com for your copy: Empire of Debt | 
